Same thing happened to mine. Full factory reset from a recovery disk resolved the issue (how-to info on Microsofts website) so far.
Iâm returning and purchasing elsewhere, Iâd encourage you all to do the same. Purchasing something I intend to put sensitive data on from a discount store which is itself getting it from a murky vendor, probably wasnât my best idea ever
Hi there. An email is going out soon. Itâs likely already resolved or will be in 24-48 hours.
From our vendor:
We were notified last night that the district had a technical issue that locked some old devices that were previously deprovisioned and sold. Our vendor is a reputable R2v3 company and has a longstanding relationship with the Fulton school district and is working on correcting the issue; we were told the devices will be unlocked within the next 24-48 hours.
This didnât affect just us. It affected every retailer that sold refurbished items from Fulton County. Theyâve already published the fix.
Yeah, but those devices should have been wiped/reimaged to a point before the schoolâs DeviceFreeze software was installed/enabled.
Otherwise, itâs essentially a backdoor for the school to control your device.
If the âfixâ is to tell it not to enforce the freeze, itâs not really fixing the fact they have the power to freeze it.
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I worked in a school district. The locking device can be built into the hardware at the bios level so wiping it doesnât remove it. That keeps someone from just wiping a stolen laptop. We could still lock and send messages to stolen computers.
Probably should be disclosed that previous owner has BIOS control.
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Itâs built into many computers, even consumer ones. Itâs just not activated unless you purchase a subscription to a company that provides that protection. Again, it was a technical glitch.
More like human error in that they failed to deregister them. Probably sending the school IP address and location data⌠Scary stuff.
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Thereâs a ton more. goes back many years.
New Laptops Come With 'Anti-Theft' Technology Built-In
Intel Arms Lenovo ThinkPad Laptops with New Anti-theft Technology
So donât buy Used/Refurbished devices unless you want to be secretly tracked by the previous owner and they can flip a kill switch at any time wiping your data and locking you out.
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You make a good point. This should never have happened to devices that have been âdeprovisioned and soldâ. Who is to say that this will not happen again a year from now?
In actuality these devices were never âdeprovisionedâ in the strict technical sense.
A deprovisioned device means that the device will be unmanaged, extra steps need to be taken to provision the device again which many times involves an interaction of exchanging tokens and policies.
What is the point of deprovisioning if a âtechnical glitchâ can reprovision the device again.
bsmith1, you make a good point that I will consider in the future before getting a refurbished device⌠this little episode (glitch or not) gives credence to your statement.
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The dismissive responses here really discouraged me. No reason for anyone who read this thread to think that this wonât happen again based on wootâs response. The only thing to take from it is that theyâll be good about returns or refunds, which I do appreciate, but is not an answer to the problem here. A refund wouldnât matter if I had potentially lost sensitive financial information, my own or a client to another party because Woot or a vendor didnât remove monitoring software. Thatâs not an error you can undo with a refund
Again, itâs built into the hardware so it canât be removed. This technology has been around since 2005 at least. Iâve been with woot for over 12 years and this is the first time Iâve ever seen this.
I worked for a school district before this that used this technology. You donât remove devices from the database. You change them to a different status such as lost, stolen, removed from service, etc. Something went through and made a change to their entire database most likely.
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A quick update from me,
After trying 3 to 4 times a day and seeing nothing but the âDeviceFreezeâ screen⌠I am finally able to logon to the Surface 3 Tablet.
I have gained hope that the issue has been addressed on the Fulton County Schoolâs end and that they have lifted the lockdown of the device.
Thank you to @ThunderThighs and @pepper114 for your efforts taken to hopefully resolve this.
I will spend a few more days with this Surface device to convince myself that all is well. So far⌠at least for my case, things are much better.
thanks all and I wish everyone success with this!
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So things seem ok ⌠on the surface.
So this feature of being locked out of my surface is not a BIOS itâs inside Windows since it doesnât come on till windows loads.
I want this fixed so I can use MY laptop.
So who will I be calling for a refund if itâs not resolved?
Hi there. Looks like Intel builds it into the processor now. Give it a cold restart one more time.
If itâs not fixed by now, reach out to Woot! Customer Service. To speed things up, let them know if you prefer a return/refund or a replacement (if possible).
From a browser, use the Woot! Customer Service form.
In the Woot! App, choose Account from the bottom navigation and then Support.
Note: Woot! Customer Service replies go to the email address on your Woot! account, not your Amazon login email if used/different.
I reached out to CS as you pointed out. I got a response that stated:
Weâre sorry, but it has been more than 90 days since you purchased the product, which means that the window on our 30-day return policy has closed.
You can still contact the manufacturer to see if there is anything they can do.
Thank you for understanding and we appreciate your patience.
Now what?
Sorry about that. Let me get in touch with CS.
Also, you did try a cold restart - not a reboot. Turn it off and on again?