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Dell Latitude CPi A series - not booting after resetting BIOS password (?)

I stripped one down but could not find the EEPROM chip. I should have taken some photos, but I did check all the small ICs I could see and non appeared to be an EEPROM, at least not one I recognized.

I'm debating what to do with them. I have one that works and I restored to Windows 98. I could give the other two away, or keep them for parts, or scrap them. Unless anyone knows which chip it is on that particular model I don't think I can unlock them though.
 
It's under the processor module, which is in the upper right corner near the fan. Written on it is 24C02, with maybe an extra letter or two at the beginning and end of the string. A magnifying glass is definitely helpful here, they're tiny! To remove the processor module start from the lower left corner and, with a plastic tool (screwdriver highly discouraged) push it upwards. It took me quite a bit of work to figure this out since Dell, in their infinite wisdom, gave no instructions at all in the official service manual. Now, putting it back into place is a bit of a hassle as well since you have to line the connector on the MB and module perfectly, otherwise it just won't go in. Once it does, push on the side where the connector is until you hear a firm *click*. Then slightly push in the side opposite to the connector as well and screw it back in. And push yet again at the connector, for posterity.

When it comes to "resetting" the EEPROM please make sure that you're working on the correct row of pins!

If you still can't figure it out I can make a YouTube video and post it here as a tutorial. Oh, and don't dump these machines! They're really not that interesting as "gaming" laptops, but are overall nice with no real flaws except for shit plastics and leaking CMOS batteries. Technically it's possible to upgrade them to a 600MHz PIII, I bet that would increase software rendering performance quite a bit. Too bad I haven't found one for sale anywhere.
 
Many years ago, back when I ran a laptop support website, a friend of mine, that had a computer shop in TN, and that worked on a lot of Dell laptops had a hatred of these machines because of the connectors between the two boards. It was a common problem with machines brought into his shop to repair. I had a limited number of brands that I supported and so had little experience with the Latitude. You might try some Deoxit on the connector pins.
 
JamieDoesStuff said:
It's under the processor module, which is in the upper right corner near the fan. Written on it is 24C02, with maybe an extra letter or two at the beginning and end of the string. A magnifying glass is definitely helpful here, they're tiny! To remove the processor module start from the lower left corner and, with a plastic tool (screwdriver highly discouraged) push it upwards. It took me quite a bit of work to figure this out since Dell, in their infinite wisdom, gave no instructions at all in the official service manual. Now, putting it back into place is a bit of a hassle as well since you have to line the connector on the MB and module perfectly, otherwise it just won't go in. Once it does, push on the side where the connector is until you hear a firm *click*. Then slightly push in the side opposite to the connector as well and screw it back in. And push yet again at the connector, for posterity.

When it comes to "resetting" the EEPROM please make sure that you're working on the correct row of pins!

If you still can't figure it out I can make a YouTube video and post it here as a tutorial. Oh, and don't dump these machines! They're really not that interesting as "gaming" laptops, but are overall nice with no real flaws except for shit plastics and leaking CMOS batteries. Technically it's possible to upgrade them to a 600MHz PIII, I bet that would increase software rendering performance quite a bit. Too bad I haven't found one for sale anywhere.
Click to expand...

I might have another look, but I'm pretty sure that the CPU module was on the right side. I removed the heatsink and looked under it, but couldn't see any chips with EEPROM markings. I should have taken photos...
 
DeltaDon said:
Many years ago, back when I ran a laptop support website, a friend of mine, that had a computer shop in TN, and that worked on a lot of Dell laptops had a hatred of these machines because of the connectors between the two boards. It was a common problem with machines brought into his shop to repair. I had a limited number of brands that I supported and so had little experience with the Latitude. You might try some Deoxit on the connector pins.
Click to expand...
I'm thinking it got dislodged while I was removing/replacing RAM. The slots are right about where the connector for the 2 boards is. I guess that with it being picked up single-handedly and from the corners put tons of stress on that one side, and one of the boards moved a bit too high up. Certainly doesn't help that the motherboard itself isn't secured all too properly to the chassis. BTW, everyone here recommends Deoxit for cleaning up connectors and such, and every time I hear it I get bummed that it's unobtanium where I live. And I'm not prepared to pay ~80$ for shipping only.
 
kuro68k said:
I might have another look, but I'm pretty sure that the CPU module was on the right side. I removed the heatsink and looked under it, but couldn't see any chips with EEPROM markings. I should have taken photos...
Click to expand...
The module is on the right side. Can you see another smaller heatsink under the large one you removed? If so, that's your entire CPU. It's on a card which you remove by grabbing it from its left side or corner.
 
Thanks, that's exactly like mine. I will open it up again and have another look. Maybe I was tired and missed it, but I could have sworn I checked that chip. If that's it then I know how to get to it now, it's a pain but it's actually less work than I ended up doing, I stripped it much further down last time. Mine had no thermal paste, just a pad, but I will add some if I can fix it.
 
I had a look again today. It's a little different to yours, the CPU module has two connectors instead of one big one. I found the EEPROM, it's in a slightly different location but it's a 24C02. It's under the CPU so I had to solder some wire to short the two pins out, but when I did that it wouldn't boot. Removed the wire and it booted okay, and the password was still set.

Maybe they improved it so you can't remove the password so easily. I'm considering what the next step is. Could potentially just desolder the EEPROM and put it in my reader. The password is probably plaintext, or it might just be possible to blank it, or even get the one out of the working one and copy it. But how much do I really want to fix these machines? I have one working one. Maybe I can give them away to someone more motivated.
 
So a D model. Still, it's a 24C02, and all of them *should* be resetable this way. Did you leave the CPU in while doing this? That could be the problem: I shorted the pins with it removed. Also IIRC I actually had them shorted even before pressing the power button, and when I powered the machine on left them shorted for a good 5 seconds.

Are you in Europe by any chance? I'd love to take one of those machines off your hands if so.
 
JamieDoesStuff said:
Hello, everyone.

I bought a Latitude CPi a couple of days ago. It's a fine machine; when it's working, that is.
After seeing that the BIOS was locked with an administrative password, and finding an archived website detailing on how to remove it on Dells, I did the deed.
It required removing the Pentium II 300 Mhz CPU from the board - MMC-2 socket - to get to the EEPROM chip which held the password. I jumped the 2 required pins and (seemingly) put the CPU back in. It lit up the power LED, caps, num and scroll lock, and stayed that way for a few seconds, powering back off. So I (foolishly) thought the RAM might be the issue, and removed just one stick, but the problem persisted. Next, I turned my attention to the CPU. Well, look at that, it wasn't properly seated! Turns out I didn't clip in the connector at all. So, fingers crossed, i powered it on, and voila! The service menu appeared, and the password was indeed gone!

Next, I proceeded to put that one RAM stick in its slot, and did an obligatory power test.
Whoops.
Now, there's only an orange battery LED lighting up for a second, and powering on the machine does nothing. There's also a rapid, clicking sound coming from the general direction of the NeoMagic GPU-thing, although it was making it while the CPU wasn't inserted as well.
What's weird to me is that the LEDs lit up just the same as in the first paragraph, without the CPU inserted, before i put in that stick of RAM.

I don't see any bent pins on the CPU connector, nor on the RAM. Unfortunately, I don't have spare sticks to test with them, but I'll get some if that's a possible issue. No idea where to get the CPU, though.

So, I dunno what the issue could be. I'm hoping someone here could help me get this sorted out, as this is my first retro machine, and I'd hate seeing it slowly accumulate dust under the bed.

Cheers.
Click to expand...
Hey do you have a link to the website? I need to bypass it on my A series latitude CPi
 
The CPU module is known as a MMC2 and is a standard Intel module and not limited to Dell's. Earlier there was a MMC1 P2 which had two smaller connectors vs. the one larger connector. Both types can be found for sale in the usual used parts places. Please note the MMC2 modules came in 66MHz and 100MHz front side bus speeds. They also had either a Pentium2 or a Pentium 3 CPU on the various modules produced. If your laptop BIOS and hardware only supports 66 MHz Pentium 2's then stay away from the P3's or the 100MHz FSB modules. Perhaps a newer BIOS might be necessary if going to the fastest modules which I think were 450MHz P2 and 650 or 700MHz P3 in the 66 FSB modules. The 100 MHZ bus MMC2 modules I believe were all P3's and had even faster P3's.
 
the highest clock i've seen on an mmc2 module is an 850 or 900mhz pentium 3. supossedly a 1000mhz one can be built as well but obv that requires bga work.
 
Could be, it's been a long time since I played with a MMC2. The old Kapok 8500P (I think only the P version) could be updated with a newer BIOS to allow replacing the "normal" P2 CPU with a P3/66 module. Last time I played with one of those beasts was 20+ years ago. As I stated earlier you have to be careful with buying a P3 MMC2 module since most of the faster ones ran at 100 MHz FSB and not 66MHz. So do a search for the Intel CPU code spec's before buying
 
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