C550i CE password

[copyman]

I knew this would happen since I've been bashing the "i" series on this forum with all the issues they have .

Have a customer with a C450i and they want another one. A wholesaler I buy from in another state has a C550i with only 34K on the meter. After I ordered the wholesaler called and said when they went to check it out before shipping they could not get into the CE mode. They could get into the admin mode. After they tried all usual passwords it still didn't work. They ended up calling Kon/Min tech support and went through the password reset procedure. Now they can't get into CE or admin mode. Kon/Min was stumped and suggested new NVRAM. Not sure what they meant but said they held down a button while turning on to check boards? All showed good.

Machine copies fine and all functions are normal. Just can't get into Admin or CE mode

I would like to get this machine since it's a super low meter, plus the wholesaler said they would sell for half price!

Appreciate any help with this. Just don't want to end up with a brick used for parts!

Thanks in advance for the help.

[femaster]

Re: C550i CE password

I knew this would happen since I've been bashing the "i" series on this forum with all the issues they have .

Have a customer with a C450i and they want another one. A wholesaler I buy from in another state has a C550i with only 34K on the meter. After I ordered the wholesaler called and said when they went to check it out before shipping they could not get into the CE mode. They could get into the admin mode. After they tried all usual passwords it still didn't work. They ended up calling Kon/Min tech support and went through the password reset procedure. Now they can't get into CE or admin mode. Kon/Min was stumped and suggested new NVRAM. Not sure what they meant but said they held down a button while turning on to check boards? All showed good.

Machine copies fine and all functions are normal. Just can't get into Admin or CE mode

I would like to get this machine since it's a super low meter, plus the wholesaler said they would sell for half price!

Appreciate any help with this. Just don't want to end up with a brick used for parts!

Thanks in advance for the help.

Most likely the button they are talking about is holding down the power button on the control panel while flipping the main power switch, which forces the machine to boot into diagnostic mode.

Perhaps they spoke with one of the lesser trained phone techs? It doesn't sound like they bricked it since it still works fine. The CE (Service) password, I believe, can be reset the same way on the i-models as is done with many of the previous generation models. I'd probably confirm with Jotunn in THIS THREAD just to be sure though. If it's the same method, he can get you the code you need to reset the CE password. Once the CE password is reset, the admin password can then be changed from within CE mode.

Not sure what you are spending on it, but at half price for a machine that still seems to function normally, sans a few passwords, sounds like a pretty decent deal to me. Don't buy it based on my opinion alone though, see what others have to say as well.

[rrrohan]

Re: C550i CE password

I would try to get to CE mode via trouble reset then try to get to reset screen.

[copyman]

Re: C550i CE password

Most likely the button they are talking about is holding down the power button on the control panel while flipping the main power switch, which forces the machine to boot into diagnostic mode.

Perhaps they spoke with one of the lesser trained phone techs? It doesn't sound like they bricked it since it still works fine. The CE (Service) password, I believe, can be reset the same way on the i-models as is done with many of the previous generation models. I'd probably confirm with Jotunn in THIS THREAD just to be sure though. If it's the same method, he can get you the code you need to reset the CE password. Once the CE password is reset, the admin password can then be changed from within CE mode.

Not sure what you are spending on it, but at half price for a machine that still seems to function normally, sans a few passwords, sounds like a pretty decent deal to me. Don't buy it based on my opinion alone though, see what others have to say as well.

Thanks for that info. After I went to the "thread" you suggested and read the posts something else came to mind that wholesaler was told by Kon/Min tech support and why I think they were stumped, they said the Mac address didn't match that machine. Think this is why password reset didn't work. Hope this helps figure it out. Oh yea they did say Kon/Min support also had manager involved and he could figure it out.

[femaster]

Re: C550i CE password

Thanks for that info. After I went to the "thread" you suggested and read the posts something else came to mind that wholesaler was told by Kon/Min tech support and why I think they were stumped, they said the Mac address didn't match that machine. Think this is why password reset didn't work. Hope this helps figure it out. Oh yea they did say Kon/Min support also had manager involved and he could figure it out.

That is curious. I've seen a similar error (MAC mismatch) on a machine that we had to change the CPU board out on. The error only showed up when marketplace was enabled, but didn't seem to affect anything else. We always disable Marketplace anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to us. The machine has been out in the field working fine ever since.

Now that you mention it, that is a very good possibility the MAC was the issue since the MAC is part of the information needed to do the reset. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good deal after all.

I have to imagine that there is some way to get the MAC address in the CPU board and the BASE board to match after a board replacement, otherwise anybody that used marketplace would never be able to replace a bad board since marketplace would cease to function after the board replacement. Unfortunately anything to do with marketplace or the likes is beyond my scope, and I searched through the service manual and came up empty as far as the MAC address goes.

[copyman]

Re: C550i CE password

That is curious. I've seen a similar error (MAC mismatch) on a machine that we had to change the CPU board out on. The error only showed up when marketplace was enabled, but didn't seem to affect anything else. We always disable Marketplace anyway, so it wasn't a big deal to us. The machine has been out in the field working fine ever since.

Now that you mention it, that is a very good possibility the MAC was the issue since the MAC is part of the information needed to do the reset. Maybe it wouldn't be such a good deal after all.

I have to imagine that there is some way to get the MAC address in the CPU board and the BASE board to match after a board replacement, otherwise anybody that used marketplace would never be able to replace a bad board since marketplace would cease to function after the board replacement. Unfortunately anything to do with marketplace or the likes is beyond my scope, and I searched through the service manual and came up empty as far as the MAC address goes.

Thanks for checking manual. I also looked and didn't see anything. Does it make sense that Kon/Min suggested replacing the NVRAM?

[Elmo]

Re: C550i CE password

Could it be someone has replaced the ssd with a used 1 from a doner machine and not followed the procedure properly
thus bringing the mac address from the doner machine with it ?