TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz) (06/13/91)
Our university has been buying exclusively Everex PCs for about the last three years. Our lastest shipment for student PC labs came with quite a surprise. The new Setup routine lets you set a password on the hardware. The only way to remove this password is to take the battery out of the machine and wait until the setup information is lost. As you can imagine, putting these machines in an unsupervised student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password on it. Argh! I immediately contacted a sales rep at Everex (a Mr. Joe Herndon (sp?)) who reported that their industrial customers demanded this feature and that they weren't about to change it for their educational customers. Well, as a first response we have cancelled all future orders for Everex machines until/unless the problem is fixed. The State of Ohio will also be removing them from our state pricing contract unless the problem is fixed (this will likely happen on June 19, 1991). In the interim, I and our purchasing department felt that other folks may wish to be made aware of Everex' new BIOS routine and the complication it may cause others where more than one person needs to have access to the machine. While I am sure this may even be a desireable feature in some industrial settings, it is certainly problematic in other settings. As the situation changes we will post additional information. You may contact via email for further info, or is there is sufficient interest, I will post more extensive information here. Lou Anschuetz Associate Director for Academic Consulting (soon to be an expert at battery pulling :-) temngt23@ysu.edu
evan@neiman.east.sun.COM (Evan Marcus (Sun NJ Sys Cons)) (06/13/91)
In article <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu>, TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz) writes: |> Our university has been buying exclusively Everex PCs for about the |> last three years. Our lastest shipment for student PC labs came with |> quite a surprise. The new Setup routine lets you set a password on |> the hardware. The only way to remove this password is to take the |> battery out of the machine and wait until the setup information is |> lost. As you can imagine, putting these machines in an unsupervised |> student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password |> on it. Argh! Seems to me, all you have to do is put your own password in first. Am I missing something? -- WHO: Evan L. Marcus "It works!!" WHAT: Sun Microsystems -- a friend of mine, after telling WHERE: Paramus, New Jersey, USA me his wife was pregnant with their HOW: marcus@neiman.East.Sun.COM first child.
pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) (06/14/91)
In article <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu> TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz) writes:
=Our university has been buying exclusively Everex PCs for about the
=last three years. Our lastest shipment for student PC labs came with
=quite a surprise. The new Setup routine lets you set a password on
=the hardware. The only way to remove this password is to take the
=battery out of the machine and wait until the setup information is
=lost. As you can imagine, putting these machines in an unsupervised
=student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password
=on it. Argh!
Zenith does a similar thing. However, they were able to identify to us
the chip that the password is stored in and we had our tech simply
remove that chip from each Zenith. Perhaps Everex has a similar scheme
that someone more technical than your contact knows about.
--
Prof. Peter J. Holsberg Mercer County Community College
Voice: 609-586-4800 Engineering Technology, Computers and Math
FAX: 609-586-6944 1200 Old Trenton Road, Trenton, NJ 08690
Internet: pjh@mccc.edu TCF 92 - April ??-??, 1992asylvain@felix.UUCP (Alvin "the Chipmunk" Sylvain) (06/14/91)
Written in article <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu>
by TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz):
> Our university has been buying exclusively Everex PCs for about the
> last three years. Our lastest shipment for student PC labs came with
> quite a surprise. The new Setup routine lets you set a password on
> the hardware. The only way to remove this password is to take the
> battery out of the machine and wait until the setup information is
> lost. As you can imagine, putting these machines in an unsupervised
> student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password
> on it. Argh!
I'd say at first glance, that unless you have some compelling reason to
stick with Everex (other than "we always have") that you go ahead and
shop around for a different company.
I'm assuming this is an IBM clone, yes? I'd daresay you'll find that
Everex has quite a bit of competition out there. Dell has a good
reputation, as does AST. I have no idea what their policy is re. sales
to educational institutions, however.
You might want to post and ask for opinions on what machine to buy
_instead_ of the Everex. Be warned, tho, your mailbox may overflow!
--
Alvin ===== asylvain@felix.UUCP ===== hplabs!felix!asylvain =====
"hplabs!felix!asylvain"@uunet.uu.net
(I always try to respond to mail, if possible. If you don't hear back
from me, try changing "hplabs" to "ccicpg," "spsd," or "lawnet.")
DISCLAIMER: It's all in fun, folks, no flames intended. Any similarity
between my opinion and that of my employer is purely coincidental and
sufficient reason to change my opinion, although I'll still be right.pal@brahms.amd.com (WHO?) (06/15/91)
In article <1991Jun13.174004.17784@mccc.edu> pjh@mccc.edu (Pete Holsberg) writes: >In article <91163.205448TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu> TEMNGT23@ysub.ysu.edu (Lou Anschuetz) writes: >Our university has been buying exclusively Everex PCs for about the >last three years. Our lastest shipment for student PC labs came with >quite a surprise. The new Setup routine lets you set a password on >the hardware. The only way to remove this password is to take the >battery out of the machine and wait until the setup information is >lost. As you can imagine, putting these machines in an unsupervised >student lab will soon lead to each and every one having a password >on it. Argh! > The password is stored in the EEPROM so is some of the configurations. even if the batery is removed the password and these conf. will not be erased or reset.
jnemeth@cue.bc.ca (John Nemeth) (06/18/91)
In article <1991Jun14.201315.15848@amd.com> pal@brahms.amd.com (WHO?) writes: >The password is stored in the EEPROM so is some of the configurations. >even if the batery is removed the password and these conf. will not be >erased or reset. IBM PC's and clones do NOT use EEPROM's. They use battery backed up CMOS RAM (which is often buried in one of the ASIC's). Removing the battery will cause the password (and all the setup information) to be lost. It usually takes anywhere from a couple of hours to a day for the the information to be lost. Most machines have a jumper or a switch you can use to zap the CMOS RAM. Most machines I've seen that have password protection have the option of just protecting the system setup, or protecting system setup and booting. -- John Nemeth jnemeth@cue.bc.ca System Administrator {uw-beaver,ubc-cs,ssc-vax}! Computer Using Educators of B.C. uvicctr!cue!jnemeth