BIOS Password

[byanoseau]

G'day Everyone,

I've got a secondhand motherboard that's got the BIOS password protected. There's no way of finding out the password and I can't find out the manufacturer of the MB because it's too old. Is there anyway around this problem?

Thanks in advance.

BAN

 

[John Sparkman]

Take a look at the motherboard and see if you can find the system battery, It should be a small round one about the size of a coin.
If you can remove it and reinstall after about 5 minutes. This will reset the bios removing the password.

 

[byanoseau]

Thanks John.

I wasn't sure if that'd fix the problem. I'll have a look and if it's removeable I'll take it out. If not, I'll unsolder it.

Thanks for you help. Much appreciated.

Regards,

BAN

 

[John Sparkman]

Your welcome.
Let us know if it does the trick.

John

 

[BnjmnB]

Just found this via a link in Yahoo...what a great forum, had no idea it existed...

Same issue, only that solution didn't work for me. It's an old computer that we've had for years (bios chips says 1993 ) and I'm trying to set up a ::noobie:: FreeBSD machine (assuming this hunk will work) - soooo....

It's an AMIBIOS, and I followed your directions, took out the battery, waited, and...

still...

Screen says "Enter CURRENT Password:X " <- the smiley is an old ASCII type smiley, but it's definitely there after your third failure, and the X is what appears when you type in an incorrect password.

I surfed forever before finding this forum (did find a supposedly great bios cracking program, and since I'm legit, I assume it's cool that I use it) so muchas gracias in advance!

 

[John Sparkman]

Hi BnjmnB
Welcome to TSG.

Your question is a little over my head as the oldest PC I've had is a 1999 model.

What you need to do is to start a new thread in the Hardware Forums so some one else that's a little more on the ball can help you.

John

 

[~Candy~]

If taking the battery out doesn't work --- which it should.....you can try shorting the jumper pins for the cmos on the motherboard. Be sure to disconnect the power connectors first

 

[JohnWill]

One problem may be the time you removed the battery for. Leave it out overnight, some boards have a cap that charges and will run the memory for some time. Also, try shorting across the battery terminals, though I think there's a blocking diode that will prevent that from having the desired effect. Finally, as previously mentioned, look for the CMOS clear jumper.

 

[byanoseau]

Hi Everyone,

I had to unsolder the battery from the motherboard as it's a very old computer, 486/sx33.

I only left it out for about 15 minutes and when I replaced it the password protection was still there.

I have now unsoldered it again and, on advice received here, I will leave it out for 24 hours.

I'll keep you informed how I get on.

Thanks for your help.

John

 

[BnjmnB]

Great! Thanks for all the replies --

Left it out for many an hour, figuring that there's no such thing as overkill in the situation. Just got up, it's been out for hours, still that annoying smiley face.

I'll try pulling it out for even more hours, like you guys say. About those cmos jumper pins - do they have a typical name on the board or would i have to surf to find (would it even exist?) a schematic?

And I did pull off the power, actually straight from the motherboard. Very nearly forgot though.

Thanks for all the help --

 

[BnjmnB]

^ That thumbs up is for you guys.

Going on the assumption (am i naive?) that nobody would ever put a set of "ruin this motherboard" jumpers in plain sight, i pulled off every pair that was conspicuous between the battery and the bios chip. On a related assumption, i tried all possible configurations and it...

Hooray!

Worked. Ami motherboard & bios.

Thanks all!

 

[JohnWill]

That was way more work that it should be, but at least it was a happy result.

 

[byanoseau]

Hi Everyone,

Here's the state of the play. I've unsoldered the battery and left it disconnected overnight. I've taken off every jumper on the board I can see and replaced it.
None of the above methods have removed the BIOS Password protection.

Is there anything special I should look for with regard to the CMOS jumper?

I don't know what to do next. Any further ideas?

Thanks for all your help. Very much appreciated.

John

 

[kilowatt1]

On the motherboard look for jumper blocks that have three pins side by side with a jumper on two of the pins. Remove the jumper and connect it between the center pin and the pin that was previously NOT connected. For example, if jumper is between pins two and three change it so that it is between pins one and two. After about 30 seconds switch it back to its original configuration. Do this for all of the three pin blocks you find. BE SURE THE POWER IS OFF TO THE MOTHERBOARD BEFORE YOU DO THIS.

Also while you are at it look at the mother board carefully. There should be an FIC # stamped on it somewhere which will help to identify it.

Good luck.

Kilowatt

 

[byanoseau]

G'day Kilowatt,

No joy I'm afraid. I tried all your suggestions without luck.

As for the FIC#, I don't think the alphabet was invented when they made this board. )

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Just another quick one for you. I came across another 486/DX2/66 board, but the CMOS doesn't seem to have an allowance for a CD-ROM. It refers to Drive C: and Drive D: The boot sequence is either A, C or C, A. When I boot the computer with a boot disk it can't see the CD-ROM. What do you think the solution to this problem might be? Apart form throwing the whole shooting works in the river that is. )

Thanks for your help.

John