Hi everyone,
Just wondering if anyone could help with this.
I have recently got an old computer from my dads work to muck around with and perhaps give linux a go i dont know.
But i have encountered a problem. As i went to view/change the bios settings it asks me for a password. I do not have the password nor does dads work as it is an old redundant computer that doesnt get used. We have no real way of getting this password off anyone as no one knows what it is.
My question is, is there a way around this? Anything that will reset the bios or allow me to enter the once password protected area. Could i take the little battery out or something?

Awaiting any ideas you guys might have.
Thanks

You will have to find the BIOS reset jumper somewhere on the MoBo and complete the circuit for a few secs. You'll have to go to Google to find which jumper to move. You could also try taking out the BIOS battery for a while, but you'll end up having to reconfigure all of the settings.

Some manufacturers, from the older computers, left some back-door passwords on the BIOS to get into it. Without the manufacturer of the BOIS, I can't tell you some that may work. So would you please state who makes the BIOS (if you don’t know just say or look up the computers model number and what BIOS it uses should be on the internet)

The only reason I'm providing this information is to help one person out, this information that I may provide is not to be used for reasons that are illegal or abuse someone else's computer.

http://corky.net/2600/computers/reset-bios-password.shtml

that site has lots of diferent solutions to reseting the password....hope they work

quote:

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Originally posted by Anubis
The only reason I'm providing this information is to help one person out, this information that I may provide is not to be used for reasons that are illegal or abuse someone else's computer.

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Open up the cover, and read what it says. Look for a small black chip that says BIOS on it.

Cant really find it. Would the manufacturer be SiS or VIA?
because these are the only things i can find in terms of brand names written on chips. the others mostly just have serial numbers

Maybe. SiS and VIA usually handle sound, video and NIC, but one could be BIOS. Older BIOS chips are occasionally removable. Any of them look like they could be pulled?

Do you have a camera? post a link to a pic of the MoBo if you can

EDIT: Google says there are SiS BIOS chips

I took 3 pics.
If they are not any good let me know

http://img82.echo.cx/img82/6139/dsc035062rl.jpg

http://img82.echo.cx/img82/1320/dsc035073py.jpg

http://img82.echo.cx/img82/5924/dsc035086pq.jpg


EDIT: Ahh didnt notice your edit oh well what now?

I'm guessing that the BIOS is the chip right above the cables in the bottom right corner, the one with the shiny sticker that says "Award" There's a crystal right beside it for the clock, so I'm guessing thats the one. I can't see any jumpers in the area around it. Try some of the passwords listed i the site posted above, and do a search for whatever the text on the chip says. Otherwise, you might have to pull the plug on the battery.

The BIOS battery is in the bottom left or the second picture and there is a jumper next to it. So im guessing that the jumper is the BIOS reset jumper.

Also juding by the fact both chipsets (North and Southbridge) have Via wrtten on them i would guess that it is a VIA based board not SIS. Although this will have nithing to do with the BIOS.

Edit: Try and find a serial number printed on the motherboard, then search on google for a labeled diagram, and you should be able to find the correct jumper. Although as its an old board there may be no diagrams on the web

Why not just pull out the battery?

You just have to put the clock settings back, the rest it will find itself

i had this problem before, bios battery never worked for me, i had to find a tiny jumper to reset the pass, i found it in the end

Thanks for the help guys and sorry for the delayed response. It was 2:30am when i took those photos so i went to bed.
I will plug in the machine now and boot it up then ill let you know how it goes.
One of the photos i just realised reveals a chip labelled 'Award' and after looking at that site posted the Award brand is actually mentioned so it looks like im on to something.
All the backdoor passwords it lists will they all work or only one out of the whole list. If thats the case this could be a long testing process.

There are 2 ways to reset a bios password.
1) BIOS jumper
Find the bios jumper. There are 3 pins and this jumper is over 2 of them. Just remove it from there and attatch it between the other 2
Ur done. But u need to know where the jumper is
Fortunately there is a second method
2) Pc Battery
U know there is a small battery on ur motherboard rite ? SOmeone told me that if u short it out ur done but dont do that.
Just remove the battery and hold it in ur hand. Connect the pc and try to start it. It will not boot. Then shut the pc down again (direct power switch .... turn it off ) then put in the battery (obviously after the pc is off unless u r resistant to electric shocks ) and then start ur pc up.
Now everthing in ur bios has resetted. All the settings and everything Start over
And config away
Btw ..... turn off ur pc be4 windows starts to load else ull have to scandisc Ur system clock n all will be screwed without the battery ... it'll start counting from a long time back ... mine counts from 2001.
U need to re config that too

i know a few people have already said it but eh its easier when theres a picture , also removing the battery is hard and not as good as moving the jumper.
this is the jumper you need to move across to the next pin

start the computer up (it should do nothing)
then put the pin back to its normal spot and power the computer up and it should have no bios password because that resets the cmos.

quote:

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Originally posted by -dt-
this is the jumper you need to move across to the next pin

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quote:

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Originally posted by -dt-
removing the battery is hard

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quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
    quoteriginally posted by -dt-
    removing the battery is hard


U need to press and slide it out only .... i have done it :/

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quote:

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Originally posted by -dt-

quote:

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Originally posted by John Anderton
    quoteriginally posted by -dt-
    removing the battery is hard


U need to press and slide it out only .... i have done it :/

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=/ mine was hell hard lol I ended up prying it out with a toothpick thing when I tried it

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Thanks for all your help with this guys. I ended up using the jumper idea and it worked fine. No more password
Whoever configured and locked the settings last time set it up so that there could be only 1 hard drive. I have 2 small hd's plugged in now but i can only get it to detect the master one. I have the jumpers on both drives set to 'Cable Select'. I found an area in the bios settings that had all the drives set to none or disabled or something except for one. I figured this was the problem. I then set them all to 'Auto'
This however has not fixed or changed the problem at all..
Any help on this would be very much appreciated.
Thanks guys

I would start by only putting in one HD and booting it up on a floppy or whatever. AFTER the one is recognised, put the second one in. Also, it might help if you put them on master/slave

Ok thanks.
I am trying to boot from the Linux Knoppix Live Cd.
I thought i would be able to choose cable select for both then arrange them in the master/slave order i want by the cable. According to whats written on it it says the end plug is for master and the middle plug is for slave. however this still is not working so ill give what you said a go.

Another problem has popped up and I have googled it but not really found an answer despite alot of similiar issues other people have had.
When booting it gets to a certain stage and a message pops up on my compaq monitor saying "Out of Range" and something about resolution then does not let me view any further. As far as i know it is still running fine from the cd i just cannot see what is going on.
I tried using a different older monitor and it works fine however the monitor is so old, small and fuzzy that it is beyond use with damaging your eyes
Any idea why this problem is happening with my compaq monitor and how can i fix it?
Thanks

P.S Wooot 100 posts and to my knowledge not one spam post

Is the monitor an LCD/TFT?

Na its a CRT monitor. would it be something to do with drivers or is something just not configured or working properly?

Boot from your CD, using your old monitor, then change your display settings and set the refresh rate lower. The resolution shouldn't matter unless it's insanely high.

There's no such thing as an actual monitor driver. All Windows monitor drivers do is tell the computer the brand and model of monitor, and usually give it a colour profile. Generic drivers usually don't make that much diference.

I don't know where to set your display settings in Knoppix.

Yea the problem is i cant get into the actual operating system with that monitor. The out of range/ resolution message comes up during boot.
So is there a way to adjust the settings before getting into the operating system? bios or something

You can't adjust your screen resolution or refresh rate before getting into the operating system. Get into the operating system using the fuzzy monitor (the one that works), change your settings, then switch back to the clear monitor, that didn't work before, hopefully it will work now.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dan0208

I am trying to boot from the Linux Knoppix Live Cd.
I thought i would be able to choose cable select for both then arrange them in the master/slave order i want by the cable. According to whats written on it it says the end plug is for master and the middle plug is for slave. however this still is not working so ill give what you said a go.

Another problem has popped up and I have googled it but not really found an answer despite alot of similiar issues other people have had.
When booting it gets to a certain stage and a message pops up on my compaq monitor saying "Out of Range" and something about resolution then does not let me view any further. As far as i know it is still running fine from the cd i just cannot see what is going on.
I tried using a different older monitor and it works fine however the monitor is so old, small and fuzzy that it is beyond use with damaging your eyes
Any idea why this problem is happening with my compaq monitor and how can i fix it?
Thanks

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