Question Supervisor password in UEFI has become boot password

[Terrils]

I was setting up a Getac laptop (I've done this before with no issues, same brand and version, Windows 10). I set up the supervisor password to prevent the maintenance guys from getting into the UEFI. For the FIRST time in half a dozen setups, it asked for the password before restarting, then again AFTER restarting, and now the thing won't go away. I've reset the password, I've wiped it out - the machine insists on the supervisor password on EVERY BOOT. It's turned it into a boot password even though, in UEFI, the boot password functionality is disabled. I'm at a loss. The point of the password is to keep the maintainers out of the UEFI. But if you can't even turn the machine on and use it without knowing the password - it's the same as not having a password at all, because everyone knows it. I restored the machine to its out-of-the-box state and it STILL insists on that password before it will boot. I'm hopeful someone's seen this; otherwise the machine goes into the trash.

 

[Saga Lout]

We can't assist anyone who has a password problem so the following is as far as we can go.

Take it back to the shop from which you bought it.

 

[COLGeek]

I am struggling to come up with a scenario where the UEFI password could become the BOOT password without some sort of human error. Is there any possibility that a mistake was made when entering the information?

On this particular laptop, do you have TPM and secure boot enabled?

 

[Terrils]

There's always a possibility of error, but note that I have done the precise same process on several other new machines of this same make and model and software release, and this did not happen - HOWEVER, those machines' UEFI said "Set administrator password" and this one said "Set supervisor password" - it was at that point that the machine demanded a password on start up and on reboot. That's not my intention. Even when I try to change the password it doesn't permit it. Because this process worked on several identical machines, it's unclear to me what went wrong. I did a restore which ought to have put it back at square one, but it still demands that damned password.

It now won't let me in to the boot manager - it just restarts.

Password on Boot is disabled, just as it always was. All the password functions in UEFI are now cleared or disabled (since restore) but it still demands the supervisor password on every bootup.

TPM is enabled. I don't even know what that stands for. Boot priority is UEFI first, greyed out. Many UEFI functions are greyed out.

 

[COLGeek]

Assuming the other devices are the same make/model, are they all using the same BIOS version?

 

[Terrils]

We can't assist anyone who has a password problem so the following is as far as we can go.

Take it back to the shop from which you bought it.

It's not a password problem, it's a UEFI problem.

 

[Terrils]

Assuming the other devices are the same make/model, are they all using the same BIOS version?

I don't know. They should be identical - 30 were purchased at once for the same use - but given that (in retrospect) this one said "supervisor" instead of "password" and has reacted differently to the same process of setup, I'm guessing they aren't. As I work from home, I'll need to go into the office and retrieve another one of these to compare. That said, once compared, it still doesn't fix the problem of this machine being unusable because it will not let me delete or disable this boot password. That's really the problem.

My goal was to set an admin password for the UEFI so the users couldn't mess with it. I find it hard to believe they'd want to, since they're busy working, but this isn't up to me, so ... however, if certain versions don't permit an admin password without turning it into a boot password, we can probably bypass this altogether and hope the users won't go into the UEFI at all. But I can't move forward without knowing how to fix this one that's already set. My issue seems to be that many UEFI functions are greyed out or nonfunctioning, and there's no way to simply remove this boot password.

 

[COLGeek]

Verify the BIOS version and update if necessary. Once you have a consistent baseline, it might be possible to run this down.

 

[Terrils]

I will check that. Thanks. Unfortunately, I can't update the BIOS. There are reasons, too complicated to go into. We're stuck with these machines exactly as they are, with no internet access, except for what I can do with my own non-techie hands to fix them. Really all I want to do is make this boot password go away.

 

[COLGeek]

I will check that. Thanks. Unfortunately, I can't update the BIOS. There are reasons, too complicated to go into. We're stuck with these machines exactly as they are, with no internet access, except for what I can do with my own non-techie hands to fix them. Really all I want to do is make this boot password go away.

Understood. A possibility is a difference in BIOS features/settings between versions, thus the question.