Hello!
TL/DR: is there a way to reset “USB Security” settings in HP Pro 3500 BIOS (motherboard: Foxconn 2ABF)?
System:
HP Pro 3500 Series
QuadCore Intel Core i5-2400, 3200 MHz (33 x 97)
4 GB DDR3-1600 DDR3 SDRAM
Motherboard Name: Foxconn 2ABF DMI Motherboard Version 3.10
Intel Cougar Point H61, Intel Sandy Bridge
AMI (06/07/2012) 7.06 8192 KB
Well, it’s embarrassing to admit, but I kinda brainfarted today :) We have a number of HP Pro 3500 in our firm. Today I needed boot one of them from flash-drive to tweak Windows, but, unfortunately, keyboard didn’t seem to be working before windows loaded! Well, it began to work if you, for example, unplug\plug mouse from another USB-port (strange, I know). With this technic I managed to enter into BIOS and there mouse was working ok. I setup boot from flash in BIOS and rebooted, but boot from flash didn’t occur, system booted to Windows. Then I rebooted and entered into “Boot Order”(F9) menu (keyboard wasn’t working normally there either), but I finally managed to boot from flash-drive. Well, after tweaking completed I decided to take a look at BIOS, thinking that some options were preventing normal operating of USB during boot. The BIOS on this system quite scarce with options, but I stumbled upon “USB Security” option. It was like: front, rear, hub USB ports security enabled. Well, it’s kinda like Cisco "port security" thing, right? I don’t need it here, so disable these three options (yes, I know – RTFM, but…), ALL OF THEM! :) Oh boy, how wrong was I! It disabled all USB ports on the motherboard! (designer of BIOS menu obviously was a troll :) Ok, no big deal I thought, and tried to reset BIOS: jumpers, battery removal… nothing works! I managed to reset clock, but not security option. Experimented on the other 3500 we have here: same result, clock reset, security – stay.
So, here I am, not knowing what to do :(
I had rdp’ed to that pc, run USBView and saw that all USB Controllers were seen by Windows, but it didn’t see any devices plugged into them.
On motherboard there is jumper which reads “BIOS_restore”, but there’s nothing in manuals about it (I’ve played with it: system doesn’t start without it, and pacing it on other adjacent pins didn’t do a thing).
Should I give up and buy another motherboard (or pci-e usb controller, which, I believe, won’t work on startup either) or is there some jumper-magic to reset this unfortunate system?
Thanks!