HP OmniBook 300 find!

[striegel]

(06-28-2017 01:06 PM)Portablepower Wrote:  ...
Currently working on an OB 300, 2MB ram with the 40 MB mechanical drive.
...
So I do not have the password, and judging from the Interwebs, only HP was able to provide you with an unlock code, but they don't know how to do that anymore.
(it's in eeprom, so no battery-tricks will save you here).

I am now stuck with the fact that the device lifespan is now directly linked to that of the hard drive. Bloody shame if you ask me.

If anyone has more info on the Bios password issue or knows other ways to make it use flash I am of course VERY interested.
...

Did you review what is written here? https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-O...-p/2431117

Alan

[Portablepower]

Hi Alan,
Thanks for the quick response.
That is in fact exactly where I got most of the info.
The difference is that he started off with a flash-drive version. As long you don't have to change the drive hardware (he eventually only wiped it) the OB does not go into the bios.
In my case:
1. removing hdd: BIOS password
2. placing flashdrive (tested in A: first): BIOS password
3. putting the hdd back: working as before.

So from what I gather, changing from hdd to flash is a hardware change that needs confirmation in the BIOS. Guess ram upgrade is out of the question too.

Pitty isn't it.

[striegel]

(06-28-2017 03:26 PM)Portablepower Wrote:  ...
So from what I gather, changing from hdd to flash is a hardware change that needs confirmation in the BIOS. Guess ram upgrade is out of the question too.

Pitty isn't it.

Well, dang! I don't guess there is still much of the original Omnibook (OB) activity these days, but maybe a search of the old e-mail list(s) could turn up something more. Is the list still active? I never joined, but instructions for one of them were as follows:

Mailing list for HP Omnibook [ 300/425/430/530/600 ] systems
To post to the list send mail to: omnilist@elektro.cmhnet.org
To join/drop membership email ====> omni-req@elektro.cmhnet.org

There is an archive from another list (I guess), but it doesn't look to be easily searchable, so it would definitely require some digging.

Several of the other web links to Omnibook resources are dead now.

There also used to be a lot of spillover from OB users onto the HPLX mailing list (which is still active), so you might inquire there.

hplx mailing list
hplx@mail.eberl.com <mailto:hplx@mail.eberl.com>
http://mail.eberl.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hplx

It's possible that if HP ever released the OB300 password decryptor program, you might find it with ftp on their public site at ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub (it does not seem to be readily browse-able with http). There is a ton of old programs and drivers there but it's not all indexed nicely.

Alan

[Portablepower]

Thanks,
I will look into it, but what are the odds, with almost 25 year old hardware....?
The hp ftp site is indeed a very 'creatively organized' load of stuff.

Catch you later,

Albert

[legooolas]

(06-28-2017 07:30 PM)Portablepower Wrote:  Thanks,
I will look into it, but what are the odds, with almost 25 year old hardware....?
The hp ftp site is indeed a very 'creatively organized' load of stuff.

Catch you later,

Albert

A very old thread, but did you ever find a way around the password? I'm in the same situation with my OB300 having the 40MB PCMCIA HDD (not flash) and a password if I try to use anything else instead of it.

The disk is going to fail at some point and then the machine will be useless, even if it's perfectly working, so I'm looking at options for what I can do to try and remove the password. Some threads suggest desoldering the chip which contains the password to wipe it (EEPROM?), but that's far beyond my hardware abilities!

[ratthing]

(04-01-2021 06:06 PM)legooolas Wrote:  

(06-28-2017 07:30 PM)Portablepower Wrote:  Thanks,
I will look into it, but what are the odds, with almost 25 year old hardware....?
The hp ftp site is indeed a very 'creatively organized' load of stuff.

Catch you later,

Albert

A very old thread, but did you ever find a way around the password? I'm in the same situation with my OB300 having the 40MB PCMCIA HDD (not flash) and a password if I try to use anything else instead of it.

The disk is going to fail at some point and then the machine will be useless, even if it's perfectly working, so I'm looking at options for what I can do to try and remove the password. Some threads suggest desoldering the chip which contains the password to wipe it (EEPROM?), but that's far beyond my hardware abilities!

Just got a wonderful little OB 300 that is LOCKED with a password, exact same situation as Legoolas. If anyone has any ideas on how to defeat the password I would be most obliged.