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I picked up a computer from my barber and it looks like it's got Computrace installed. Which I'm presuming is the culprit for it randomly bluescreening. Is there any way to remove this garbage from the BIOS without going through computrace? Flash the original bios? Alter the bios code? I just called them and they're of no help since it's a third party purchase.

Where there's a will there's a way, if it can be installed by a consumer, it should be able to be removed by a consumer.

Edit: Very odd thing too. I re-imaged (same way I've done on every computer), and this one doesn't detect the drive as bootable unless I run through PlOp boot manager. Secondary odd thought, I got it rolling with my wim image, and all of a sudden it started bluescreening right at the windows screen, making me think it's the computrace agent.

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3
  • I doubt Computrace is causing the blue screens; for an anti theft app its best interests are to stay hidden and unnoticeable... random blue screens aren't what I would call "hidden".
    – user256743
    Dec 19, 2014 at 12:21
  • It's the only thing I can think of given that the image I used works on all other lenovo laptops.
    – Joseph
    Dec 19, 2014 at 19:10
  • security.stackexchange.com/q/53698
    – user11574
    Sep 13, 2015 at 4:27

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
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Try this Instructions:

  1. Turn off your computer by holding in the "Power" button on the computer's tower or the top keyboard bezel if using a laptop.
  2. Turn the computer back on and wait for the computer manufacturer's logo to appear on the screen. When it appears, press the BIOS access key as seen on the screen immediately to enter into the BIOS menu. BIOS keys vary amongst computer makers, but pressing the "DEL" or "F2" key usually activates the BIOS menu (see Resources).
  3. Select the "Security" tab on the BIOS main menu using the arrow keys, as you cannot use the computer's mouse. Here you will see three options for Computrace. The "Deactivated" option will more than likely be selected already.
  4. Select the "Disable" option and press "Enter" on the keyboard to disable Computrace on the computer permanently. You will not be able to reactivate the Computrace module once it is disabled. Press the "Enter" key once more to verify the "Disable" selection.
  5. Press the "F10" key to save the new BIOS settings and the computer will reboot into the computer's operating system.

After that take a look at this article to remove the rest.

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  • 2
    It's greyed out in the BIOS.
    – Joseph
    Dec 19, 2014 at 10:30
  • In this case you need to re-flash the original BIOS.
    – Leo Chapiro
    Dec 19, 2014 at 10:33
  • How? I ran the bios utility and it won't flash. It says it's already up to date.
    – Joseph
    Dec 19, 2014 at 19:10
  • 2
    This does not guarantee that. There is an interesting slides about it blackhat.com/docs/us-14/materials/…
    – Nikita Koksharov
    Jun 22, 2016 at 16:04
  • Once activated, the computrace bios element is designed to be un-disableable with bios reflash or user interaction. That's the whole point.
    – fche
    Oct 23, 2019 at 2:13

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