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aus+uk / uk.comp.sys.mac / Re: Lock screen and system/firmware password?

SubjectAuthor
* Lock screen and system/firmware password?jbrennand
+- Lock screen and system/firmware password?Chris
`- Lock screen and system/firmware password?nospam

1
Lock screen and system/firmware password?

<t1un40$b1g$1@dont-email.me>

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https://www.novabbs.com/aus+uk/article-flat.php?id=7374&group=uk.comp.sys.mac#7374

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From: brenn...@ntlworld.com (jbrennand)
Newsgroups: uk.comp.sys.mac
Subject: Lock screen and system/firmware password?
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 11:30:23 +0100
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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 by: jbrennand - Tue, 29 Mar 2022 10:30 UTC

I donated my 2012 MBPro to my daughter (thread below) and have been
looking on the Bay for a low cost replacement as a back-up (toy!).
Decent ones can be had for ~£100. There are some about £50 for parts or
not working and I have bought one before that had no RAM or HD and that
worked out great. However, there are a few on there saying that it wont
boot past the Lock screen icon without a password... I assume that is
the "Firmware password" - which I have never seen.

Googling gives contradictory advice - either just take the RAM chips
out, reset PRAM, replace RAM and it will boot past it. Or... its
bricked... only Apple can reverse this - proceed to the Genius with
proof of purchase from Apple or supplier.

Is the latter correct or will the former work?

But it got me thinking... what actually "triggers" the lock? Is it
some inadvertent keystroke combo that the use has put in? Or do Apple
do this to devices reported stolen (via system update?). Or if it were
ex-company, can their tech guys trigger that somehow? Or something else?

I obviously dont want to buy a stolen one for the sake of a few quid,
but just interested to know whether it could be a genuine user gotcha or
a dodgy knock off.

Needless to say - I have asked a couple of sellers (not in so many
words!) but they have said nope - was working fine for years and then
the lock screen/password appeared.

But they would say that wouldn't they :-)

Any thoughts/comments are appreciated.

JohnB

Re: Lock screen and system/firmware password?

<t1uq0n$1q3$2@dont-email.me>

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From: ithink...@gmail.com (Chris)
Newsgroups: uk.comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Lock screen and system/firmware password?
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 11:19:51 -0000 (UTC)
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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 by: Chris - Tue, 29 Mar 2022 11:19 UTC

jbrennand <brennand@ntlworld.com> wrote:
> I donated my 2012 MBPro to my daughter (thread below) and have been
> looking on the Bay for a low cost replacement as a back-up (toy!).
> Decent ones can be had for ~£100. There are some about £50 for parts or
> not working and I have bought one before that had no RAM or HD and that
> worked out great. However, there are a few on there saying that it wont
> boot past the Lock screen icon without a password... I assume that is
> the "Firmware password" - which I have never seen.
>
> Googling gives contradictory advice - either just take the RAM chips
> out, reset PRAM, replace RAM and it will boot past it. Or... its
> bricked... only Apple can reverse this - proceed to the Genius with
> proof of purchase from Apple or supplier.
>
> Is the latter correct or will the former work?
>
> But it got me thinking... what actually "triggers" the lock? Is it
> some inadvertent keystroke combo that the use has put in? Or do Apple
> do this to devices reported stolen (via system update?). Or if it were
> ex-company, can their tech guys trigger that somehow? Or something else?
>
> I obviously dont want to buy a stolen one for the sake of a few quid,
> but just interested to know whether it could be a genuine user gotcha or
> a dodgy knock off.

Not a gotcha. Has to be actively set by the user or corporate IT.

The only exception I guess is if the internal storage has failed.

> Needless to say - I have asked a couple of sellers (not in so many
> words!) but they have said nope - was working fine for years and then
> the lock screen/password appeared.
>
> But they would say that wouldn't they :-)

Yup. They would.

Re: Lock screen and system/firmware password?

<290320221354287253%nospam@nospam.invalid>

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From: nos...@nospam.invalid (nospam)
Newsgroups: uk.comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Lock screen and system/firmware password?
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2022 13:54:28 -0400
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 by: nospam - Tue, 29 Mar 2022 17:54 UTC

In article <t1un40$b1g$1@dont-email.me>, jbrennand
<brennand@ntlworld.com> wrote:

> I donated my 2012 MBPro to my daughter (thread below) and have been
> looking on the Bay for a low cost replacement as a back-up (toy!).
> Decent ones can be had for ~£100. There are some about £50 for parts or
> not working and I have bought one before that had no RAM or HD and that
> worked out great. However, there are a few on there saying that it wont
> boot past the Lock screen icon without a password... I assume that is
> the "Firmware password" - which I have never seen.
>
> Googling gives contradictory advice - either just take the RAM chips
> out, reset PRAM, replace RAM and it will boot past it. Or... its
> bricked... only Apple can reverse this - proceed to the Genius with
> proof of purchase from Apple or supplier.
>
> Is the latter correct or will the former work?

both are correct, depending on the age of the macbook.

for 2010 and earlier, you can remove memory to reset it. this loophole
was fixed in 2011, plus memory was often soldered prior to 2011 so that
wasn't always an option anyway.

to reset 2011 and later models, the original owner will need to contact
apple with proof of ownership. an ebay sale is *not* going to qualify.

for t2 macs, restoring bridge os (which runs on the t2 chip) will reset
it, but that also erases all data, which is not an issue for a used mac
and actually what should always be done for any used computer prior to
using it.

> But it got me thinking... what actually "triggers" the lock? Is it
> some inadvertent keystroke combo that the use has put in? Or do Apple
> do this to devices reported stolen (via system update?). Or if it were
> ex-company, can their tech guys trigger that somehow? Or something else?

someone has to deliberately set a firmware password, often done by
companies for macs given to employees so that they can disable it when
they leave the company. it's very unusual that someone sets it on their
own mac.

> I obviously dont want to buy a stolen one for the sake of a few quid,
> but just interested to know whether it could be a genuine user gotcha or
> a dodgy knock off.

there could be a legitimate explanation, but that doesn't matter.
unless you have the password, you won't get very far unless it's old
enough that you can remove memory, except that means it will be at
least 12 years old and not that useful anymore.

tl;dr - avoid.

> Needless to say - I have asked a couple of sellers (not in so many
> words!) but they have said nope - was working fine for years and then
> the lock screen/password appeared.

that suggests it was previously managed by a company, who decided to
lock it, maybe even a company the seller used to work for.

1
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