General Issues on Y510

[Oberkanone]

How much risk is there of a PC being stolen and sold on Ebay because it has a NOVO button?

One in one billion?

[Solfire]

It's probably not a common problem for you, but I never underestimate having anything expensive these days and thinking nobody will want what I have bad enough to steal it. The probability of my laptop getting lifted here is significantly larger as my school especially has a history of laptops, iPods, etc, etc, being stolen.

Had mine get lifted, that Novo button would just make it easier for them to enjoy what they have reaped.

[Mark_Lenovo Administrator]

Just to add the answer to security around the NOVO button to this thread...

So, I checked on this since you had a really good point.   Here was the advice I got back from our product team on enabling the security features in BIOS to close this exposure.

It is possible to set up a password requirement for the Novo key.

This can be done by setting up a User Password in the system BIOS. This will require the user to enter a password each time the system is booted, either through the normal process, or via the Novo key.  The password will also need to be entered when the system is resumes from Hibernate status.

There is also the option in BIOS to set up hard disk password to protect the disk from being read on a second computer. On the 510 and 710 you can set separate Master and User HDD passwords.

With the System password set and enabled each time the system performs a cold boot, or resumes from hibernate, or the user presses the Novo key, the user will need to enter the System User password.

With the HDD password set, when the hard drive is first accessed from a cold boot or a resume from hibernate, or the user presses the Novo key, the user will have to enter the HDD password. This is in addition to any system password that has been set.

If the user does not set up the System or HDD passwords then yes, it is possible to force the system to shutdown, press the Novo key, restore the system, and set up a new user/administrator ID. Any data that was on the C: partition will be lost. Any information on the D: partition will still be there and accessible unless it was encrypted by the original owner.

So, hopefully this will help you secure your system.

Mark