Regain control of laptop locked by scammer?

[Hugh_Mungus]

My friend's brother has fallen victim to a scam and the computer is now locked with a password that he doesn't know. The scammers have said they'll unlock it if he buys them $3000 worth of iTunes gift cards but he's not foolish enough to do that.

I was wondering if there is anything I can do to get into the computer again? It's a Gateway laptop and he still has the original Windows 8 disk for it. He says there's nothing of any value on the computer itself so if we were to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows, everything would be good.

It occurred to me that if I could get into the BIOS and change the settings so that the laptop booted from the DVD drive and the Windows 8 disk was in the drive, perhaps it would reinstall Windows. I googled and found that F1 is supposed to make it boot to the BIOS if you press it when the Gateway logo comes up but I can't get it to go into the BIOS; it just keeps going until it gets to the password dialog.

I'd really like to help these people. They're two long-retired seniors; the husband is disabled and can only walk a few steps without his powered chair and his wife is just out of the hospital after major surgery. They can't afford to replace the computer right now.

Does anyone know any techniques I could use to get control of this computer again so that I can reinstall Windows on this laptop?

 

[USAFRet]

It is highly unlikely that the 'scammers' have altered the BIOS.
What is on the drive, sure. The BIOS, probably not.

You need to verify exactly what keystroke is needed to either get into the BIOS, or override the boot process and boot from the Win 8 DVD.
If may be F1 as you say, or it may be something else. F8, for instance.

 

[USAFRet]

Otherwise, your only recourse is to contact Gateway. Forum rules preclude helping beyond that.

 

[Rookie_MIB]

If it's a normal SATA drive, and you have the windows Install disk, then it's trivially easy to wipe it and reinstall Windows, even with a locked BIOS.

 

[Hugh_Mungus]

It is highly unlikely that the 'scammers' have altered the BIOS.
What is on the drive, sure. The BIOS, probably not.

You need to verify exactly what keystroke is needed to either get into the BIOS, or override the boot process and boot from the Win 8 DVD.
If may be F1 as you say, or it may be something else. F8, for instance.

I'm not sure how to force the computer to boot from the DVD drive *without* getting into the BIOS. Is there some technique for that which I don't know about?

We actually have a Windows 8 disk that came with the computer: all I need to do now is get the computer to boot from the DVD drive.

I held down the Fn key for at least 30 seconds when I saw the Gateway logo and then pushed F1 umpteen times while the Fn key was still pressed but I still got the password screen, not the BIOS.

 

[Hugh_Mungus]

Otherwise, your only recourse is to contact Gateway. Forum rules preclude helping beyond that.

Fair enough; I won't ask anyone to break forum rules.

One thing though: does Gateway still have a support organization? I thought they got sold a few years back....

 

[Hugh_Mungus]

If it's a normal SATA drive, and you have the windows Install disk, then it's trivially easy to wipe it and reinstall Windows, even with a locked BIOS.

Please tell me how; I would love to know. Just point me to a set of instructions and I won't bother you any further ;-)

 

[USAFRet]

Otherwise, your only recourse is to contact Gateway. Forum rules preclude helping beyond that.

Fair enough; I won't ask anyone to break forum rules.

One thing though: does Gateway still have a support organization? I thought they got sold a few years back....

Gateway support:
http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/support-overview