We have already seen this before .. I have a stack of Panasonic Toughbooks that have a locked BIOS configuration, and absolutely nothing can be done with these machines (they were thrown away, stupidly) because nobody knows the password to re-configure them to boot properly. The BIOS is completely locked down.
So, we will start to see this happen on a broader industry scale, and in my opinion the benefits of "secure boot" definitely do not outweigh the liability of making hardware that won't be useful in the future, simply because 'the OS it originally had on it was such utter shit to require such measures in the first place'..
Is it possible to reset the bios? Back in my pc repair days it was possibly by shorting two pins on the motherboard, usually they were near the bios battery
Alternatively, removing the BIOS battery and then reflashing the BIOS chip was an option. A scary, unreliable option because reflashing wasn't always possible and you didn't really know for sure until you tried.
Nope, this cannot be done with these Toughbooks - there are fuses in a surface-mount package that are programmed with the secret key and the BIOS cannot be reset with 'traditional' remove-the-battery hacks - these fuses either have to be read out, or the package needs to be replaced.
Its a huge hassle and a dire waste of hardware to have this occur and I personally do not look forward to a future where the whims of a despotic software company dictate what we can do with our possessions. Oh, wait ..
So, we will start to see this happen on a broader industry scale, and in my opinion the benefits of "secure boot" definitely do not outweigh the liability of making hardware that won't be useful in the future, simply because 'the OS it originally had on it was such utter shit to require such measures in the first place'..