BIOS HD password broke Windows 7 activation

Is this a problem just with my K93SV?

Do someone tried this?

Enable HD password in the bios, boot Asus OEM Windows 7 OS and check the Activation Status under System.

Do Windows is still acrive?

On my K93SV activating BIOS HD password broke OEM OS activation.

Removing HD password from the bios restore OS acrivation.

Can someone try this with his Asus notebook and check if only is a problem of my K93SV or also other Asus notebook/netbook are afflicted by this problem?

Here the step to check your Asus portable system.

1) Check your Windows 7 Activation status under System.

2) Shutdown the system, enter the BIOS, enable HD password.

3) Turn off the system

4) Turn it on, enter OS and look under System for activation status. On my K93SV, the system is now NOT active.

5) Turn off system.

6) Enter the BIOS and revert the HD password settings.

7) Turn off the system.

8) Turn it on again and enter OS.

9) Check system status and you should see Windows acrivated again.

 

The only thing i can think of that would cause this is if enabling the password made Windows think there was a hardware change. Windows will ask you to reactivate Windows when there are certain or many hardware changes. I could imagine this since it was the hard drive. It's something built into Windows to help against piracy. I just had this happen to me yesterday while changing out motherboards on my desktop. It's a pretty simple fix all I had to do was right click computer and activate now. Gave it about 5 seconds and it was activated. I didnt even ask for the key again. Try that and see if it does activate again, if it asks for the key code again it should be located on the bottom of your comptuer on a Windows sticker.

 

Hello and thankx for your reply. No, it doesn't. It print a strange error message code and it refuse activation. I always know about the component changing and the piracy protection, even if u have to change a lot of components to have Windows asking for the activation again and IMHO it NEVER happen on OEM licenses.

Strange no one with an Asus laptop seems interested to try this so we can confirm if it is a general Asus problem or a K93SV specific problem only.

Also becouse IMHO it is really important to put a bios password in HD: laptops can be stolen easy and with a BIOS password u can be sure no one could use your data and your hard drive anymore.

It is also an easy step to do and see if the problem is reproduceable: example, I tried it on my Dell notebook and it don't happen. I do also have another older ASUS laptop but it do have OS XP so it won't apply.

Hope someone, in his own interest, would try. The problem is reversible simply disabling HD password, so no risk for your valuable data and your license.

 

The only way for an OEM activation to be broken is if the SLP string in the bios somehow got modified or removed, or the certificate on the hard drive cannot be accessed, which I think is the case here.

 

No. This is not the case. Infact the cert file is perfectly accessible on the disk. For me the problem could be related with the password memory relocation segment where the SLIC is loaded iin the memory, so CERT can't be validated in the BIOS.

I'm just asking if someone with a recent Asus laptop can install bios password on his/her system and see if, after that, Winddows 7 OS is not validated anymore. As I said in other posts, just disabling the bios password should reactivate Windows.

 

Is your K93SV stock, or do you have an SSD?

 

SSD as boot drive. This happoen with SSD, I didn't try with a mechanical HD.

 

What brand and model of SSD do you have and what firmware revision?

 

It is Crucial M4 firmware 09 (the last).