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510
August 31st, 2022 17:00
Disgruntled employee left a laptop issue
My Daughter-in-law (DIL) joined a company of over 300 employees. They have no tech support!
She was given a laptop handed in by a previous employee. The previous employee may or may not have cleared his accounts. Either way, he did not give a means of logging on. The company has no record of the windows key.
Doing some reading,
1) It seems Dell Windows 10 OEM keys are written to BIOS and it is possible to cleanly install Windows 10 from an ISO using a bootable USB provided that is done within 180 days.
2) I was confused whether a user account already linked to the OEM key is needed.
Questions
Q1) Is a user account needed or can I just do a clean install for DIL using the latest Windows 10 ISO?
Q2) Presumably the company is not so bad they don't have a record of the purchase. Is there a way the purchase record may help us work around the issue?
Q3) Any other suggestions (preferably within the law but I do need to get it working)
SteveTree
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September 1st, 2022 04:00
Now I have the laptop, the problem is not that straightforward. Not only is it locked out, it boots to a bitlocker screen requesting a key. Obviously, without access to the user account, I can't get that.
Dell SupportAsssit OS Recovery is trying to start for about 3 hours now. So, that's unlikely. Other system recovery options also fail.
I have a Recovery disk with Windows 11 ISO set to go and can access BIOS. So the issue is whether Windows will install from the ISO and find the key in BIOS or is there another way around the issue.
By the way, this is the second Dell Inspiron I am aware of with similar issues after installing Windows 11.
My son's Dell Inspiron gave the bootlocker key required message on boot. His Microsoft account did not contain the key. It rebuilt with factory reset.
The current laptop I have no idea whether configured with user account or whether Pro or Home. I only know that it is now requesting a bitlocker key and there is no way to check whether the disgruntled user has it recorded in his Microsoft account.
NJDave
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404 Posts
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September 1st, 2022 20:00
Man, I feel for your daughter-in-law. That's no way to run a company. Not to mention that a company without IT support is an easy target for malware/ransomware/corporate espionage/etc. I think while she starts this job, she should quietly search for another. This site is a great resource, by the way.
Anyway... I haven't personally dealt with this, but check out this post and the links within. Basically you should be able to wipe the disk from Windows 10 installation media by invoking a command prompt and running the diskpart command. After that you should be able to install Windows as normal.
SteveTree
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33 Posts
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April 10th, 2023 15:00
UPDATE:
I cured this not long after using a bootable USB with Dell downloaded Dell recovery on a USB
https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-au/000125230/how-to-create-and-use-the-dell-recovery-restore-usb-drive