bios password

Hey all you computer geeks, I know your here, how do you reset a bios password, meaning turn it off, if you don’t know what the password is.

Thanks
Curt

Hey all you computer geeks, I know your here, how do you reset a bios password, meaning turn it off, if you don’t know what the password is.

Thanks Curt

5 thoughts on “bios password”

  1. Battery

    Three ways:

    1. There’s a battery on the motherboard. It may be a flat watch-type battery, or soldered-on in a tiny black box. It’s normally near the CMOS chip. Remove the battery, wait 10-15 minutes for the CMOS static to fully discharge, and boot the machine. 2. Remove the system’s motherboard. Take a large piece of aluminum foil. Spread it over the back-side of the motherboard, touching all the contacts, while the board is not powered on. 3. Look up the motherboard specifications online. It will usually include instructions on setting the CMOS/BIOS back to factory default, usually by use of a jumper on the motherboard.

    In order of preference, I’d try 3, then 1, then 2. 2 can sometimes blow up the motherboard, too, so one must be cautious 🙂

    —
    Matthew P. Barnson

    1. Before you do this

      Before you reset the BIOS, you should go through and write down all the settings, so that once you reset the BIOS, you can go through and re-enter them. Otherwise you’ll have to go through ans figure them out yourself, which is a great learning experiece 😉

      My $.02 Wee

      1. admin password?

        But if he doesn’t have the admin password, can he even get into the bios to check?

        Regardless, I haven’t had to muck about in the BIOS of a system much since about 2003. If it’s a relatively recent machine, it’s much smarter than the older ones.

        The memories are coming flooding back. Head/Cylinder calculations with interleave trying to eek decent performance out of early drives. Figuring out the right FSB and multiplier on those boards that didn’t use jumpers to set clock speeds. Dealing with low-level drivers to make hard drives go bigger than 504MB.

        The world is better now.

        —
        Matthew P. Barnson

        1. Look But No Touch

          Newer BIOSes will allow you to view the config but not change it. Actually, they have an admin password and a general password. The general one is to view, the admin is to change.

          Almost all motherboards in recent history have reset jumpers, which are the way to go. If that doesn’t work, the battery is next. I’ve never heard of the short-circuit method, probably due to its inherent danger.

          And always remember to wear your grounding strip! 🙂

          My $.02 Weed

          1. Grounding strap

            Every time I hear the phrase “grounding strap”, it sounds like a punishment…

            Oh, and the reason you probably don’t hear about the aluminum foil method? It’s because it’s irritating to do (removing the whole motherboard), and while it’s certain to short the jumper which resets your bios, it also shorts just about everything else. And if it’s bad for something else in the ground path to have 3.3v pumped through it, it’s bad news.

            I also haven’t had to use the aluminum foil technique since… 1997. There’s always been a BIOS reset jumper on every mainboard I’ve worked on since then. Many times, though, it’s unlabelled and obscure, and you have to look up the user’s manual online.

            —
            Matthew P. Barnson

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