Bios settings changed

Hi there.
I have been using Qubes for almost one year and i like it a lot.
It is in an Acer laptop and it is installed in a 256gb Usb pendrive. The acces to internet is through a Gl inet gl m2 development board i usually keep off the sys- net, sys-firewall and sys-vpn unless i want to use internet. For a few days i had to connect to internet and i connected the gl m2 before i switched on the laptop and i kept the gl m2 connected after i logged off and when i switched off the laptop. The other day I was on qubes checking my email. When i finished i logged off and when i switched off the laptop it took longer than usual. So i decided to switched on again without the router connected. And i got puzzled because there was a screen with the boot fail. I went to the bios and the secure boot had been enabled and the supervisor password was disable
I had not changed any of the bios settings. Any idea about the reason???
Regards

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Hi, is the time and date of the bios correct? This might be a CMOS battery issue, but I’d be surprised if it was removing the supervisor password.

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I do not remember, i can tell you that i enabled the supervisor password again but after what i saw,i removed the bios battery and the main battery for20 min. Because i think it deletes part of the bios memory. and the supervisor password was still enabled

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You should check to see if the BIOS is set up for remote administration, or has computer protection enabled with the URL and details for a remote company.

If that is set then it may update when the company updates their settings and sends that to their machines.

You would have to get them to remove the board from their systems.
The BIOS may have also updated itself if you have that enabled.

another thing that may have happenned, whatever BIOS you are running may have had itself crash, and it has gone back to a backup that it maintains and it may have been a while ago.

If you have Dual Bios, then one BIOS chip may have crashed, and it has started using the backup BIOS too. So you should also check that.

BIOS password is easy to bypass for a professional like myself, for many systems. So I never found it to be too much of a problem.

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How do you proceed exactly?

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Would have to take it to a repair shop.
Not knowing the PC or anything else about it, I can’t provide any details myself.
In the end, depending on the situation, it may need a new BIOS. That’s a simple replacement at least.
When you take it to a repair shop, don’t have your drives in it, unless you 100% trust them.
If it’s literally about getting the BIOS unlocked, they don’t need your drives, especially Qubes… They will probably break them unless they know what they are doing. And I only know 3 repair shops in Australia that I would trust with my data.

A new BIOS will probably cost a few $, but then the putting it on and having spare BIOS’s available in case the first one dies while getting it put on, as well as imaging it and verification. That is where the money will be. Shouldn’t cost too much.

Otherwise, try to get a BIOS recovery from the manufacturer and try to get it done yourself.
Or else they may have a BIOS verification to make sure that the BIOS’s haven’t corrupted or anything as well.

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