back to article Exchange some currency you want to? Guess the BIOS setup keyboard combination first you must, young Padawan

Welcome to another in The Register's occasional series on computers flashing their undercrackers to all and sundry. We've all been there. Popped to the shops for some pasta and come back laden with bork. Take exhibit one, snapped in a Sainsbury's by intrepid Register reader Russell Sherr on one of his government-permitted …

  1. 9Rune5

    Battery

    Clock reset to 2017... CMOS battery?

    Either way, nothing that can't be solved with ample application of the cattle prod.

    1. Saruman the White Silver badge

      Re: Battery

      The question is: who is the cattle prod being applied to?

    2. Cynic_999

      Re: Battery

      Yup - almost certainly this was the result of power-cycling a PC with a dead CMOS battery rather than hitting a key at boot-up. I have a PC at home that does the same if it had been switched off at the mains. The battery is soldered in and I CBA to change it.

  2. Laura Kerr
    Devil

    "This is not a dare, readers!"

    Oh yeah?

  3. chivo243 Silver badge
    Coat

    Assumptions

    about the ass... the assess face could have been squarely planted on the keyboard too, nose pointing to the delete key perhaps, or F10? or F11 or F1?

  4. Ken Moorhouse Silver badge

    Travel Money?

    Someone was trying to mess with the cache.

    1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge

      Re: Travel Money?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXDo4dL7SU

  5. Lifecarver

    Think Vantage

    Such a pressable button...

    So much damage to be done....

    1. John Doe 6

      Back in IBM days it could be disabled in the BIOS setup.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wait a second, how can you remotely access the bios? Shirley you need a local keyboard for local people?

    1. Paratrooping Parrot
      Coat

      Via a really looooooong lead!

    2. John Doe 6

      As far as I remember You could access the keyboard controller chip on systems with PS/2 (6 pin mini din) and AT (5 pin DIN) keyboards, only two key combinations couldn't be sent that way: Ctrl-Alt-Del and SysReq.

      On USB only systems this should actually be far easier...

  7. Johnny Canuck

    Battery

    That is the BIOS build date. The current date is set to 03/25/2020.

  8. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Password?

    Surely the box controlling that display should be locked down with at least a BIOS access password so even with a keyboard plugged the used would get a password prompt on pressing F1/Del/Whatever. Even if this is a remote access (not sure if the local screen would display during this process, I've not personally done it), then the remote admin bod should have been in and out of that screen pretty quickly. Few systems can or should boot into the BIOS config screen, especially a plain vanilla BIOS like that. Some of the more "clever" Asus and similar aimed at home users might do so if there's a failed boot or corrupt/mis-configured overclocking settings.

  9. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    As you say, who in Britain is buying travel currency this week anyway...

    1. katrinab Silver badge
      Meh

      People converting their holiday money back into £ perhaps given that holidays this year are very unlikely?

      1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

        I see your point. But it could be worth shopping around - if you can. Would the facility even be open? i suppose they could switch this screen off, if not. Unless it's supposed to be saying "The money desk is not open."

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