How Do I Reset a BIOS Password?

Resetting a BIOS passwords entirely depends on what type of BIOS you computer includes. There are a wide range of BIOS available in the market, but the most common one includes Award, Phoenix, IBM and AMI. Some BIOS require you to enter a password before rebooting your system. Some BIOS require you to enter a password before accessing to BIOS setup. However, the general lists of solutions for resetting BIOS password includes:

• Resetting with the use of a Backdoor BIOS Password
• Using Software to reset the BIOS password
• Using Hardware to reset the BIOS password
• Vendor Specific Solutions to reset the BIOS Password

Resetting with the use a Backdoor BIOS password
A backdoor password is usually implemented by some of the BIOS manufacturers. A backdoor BIOS password actually is such a password that performs even though user has set some other password at his/her system. These backdoor passwords are normally used for maintenance and testing. Manufacturers usually prefer changing their backdoor BIOS passwords after certain interval of time.
Backdoor BIOS Passwords for AMI BIOS
Resources state that backdoor BIOS passwords of AMI BIOS include A.M.I., AMI?SW AAAMMMIII, AMI_SW, CONDO, BIOS, HEWITT RAND, MI, LKWPETER, and PASSWORD.
Backdoor BIOS passwords for Award BIOS
According to resources, backdoor BIOS passwords for Award BIOS are 8 spaces, 598598, 01322222, 589721, 589589, 595595, ALLy, ALLY, aLLy, aLLY, AWARD PW, award, AWARD?SW, AWARD SW, AWKWARD, AWARD_SW, AWARD_PW, awkward, CONCAT, BIOSTAR, Condo, CONDO, condo, djonet, d8on, J256, j262, HLT, J262, j332, j322, KDD, J64, pint, PINT, Lkwpeter, LKWPETER, SER, SYXZ, syxz, SKY_FOX, ZAAADA, ZAAAADA, TTPTHA, ZJAAADC and ZBAAACA.
Backdoor BIOS passwords for Phoenix BIOS
BIOS, PHOENIX, phoenix, and CMOS are the reported BIOS backdoor passwords of Phoenix BIOS.
Backdoor BIOS Passwords for some Other Popular BIOS Manufacturers
Below is a list of the reported BIOS backdoor passwords for some other popular BIOS manufacturers:

Keep in mind that all these may not actually be the backdoor BIOS password, these BIOS passwords may merely have the identical checksum like the original backdoor BIOS passwords. This checksum for Award BIOS is actually stored at F000:EC60.
Using Software to Reset BIOS Password
It’s necessary for every system to store the information of BIOS password somewhere. If you have access to your system after booting successfully, you then may gain knowledge about the actual BIOS password. For this purpose, you’ll need to know the place where BIOS password has been stored, plus in which format it has been stored. Or, you should be accompanied with any software application that knows all these things.

You can write your own program to read the BIOS password from the CMOS memory on a PC by writing the address of the byte of CMOS memory that you wish to read in port 0×370, and then reading the contents of port 0×371.

!BIOS will reset the BIOS password of most popular and widely used BIOS versions, including Award, Phoenix , IBM, and American Megatrends Inc.

CmosPwd will reset the BIOS password of the BIOS version listed below:

• ACER/IBM BIOS
• AMI WinBIOS 2.5
• AMI BIOS
• Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0
• Packard Bell
• Compaq (1992 Version)
• Compaq (Latest version)
• IBM (Activa, PS/2, Thinkpad)
• Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0, a486 1.03, 1.10 A03, 1.04, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107
• Phoenix 4 version 6 (User)
• Zenith AMI
• Toshiba

Using Hardware to Reset the BIOS Password
If you’re finding it hard to have access to your system even after it is powered on, you can still know the BIOS password. Much to your surprise, it is CMOS memory where the BIOS password is actually stored. It is maintained when a battery attached to the system motherboard power off the system. The entire CMOS information will be lost if you get this battery out of its actual place. You’ll require re-entering the actual CMOS setup details in order to use the system. The systems user or owner will almost certainly be alarmed after knowing that the BIOS password is deleted.

In some cases, the battery is strongly soldered to its motherboard, thus, user may find it difficult to remove it. If this is your case as well, don’t worry as there is another alternative for you. You’ll surely find a jumper somewhere in such motherboard. You can simply locate the jumper exactly if you have still kept the instruction book arriving with motherboard. However, if you don’t, you then can try your luck and gesture to locate the jumper. For your kind information, the jumper is located nearby the battery.

If everything else fails, you can reset the RTC IC (Real Time Clock Integrated Circuit) on your motherboard.

There are many RTCs that need an external battery and some of them include:

• TI benchmarq bq3258S
• Dallas Semiconductor DS12885S
• Hitachi HD146818AP
• Motorola MC146818AP
• Samsung KS82C6818A

Vendor Specific Solutions to Reset the BIOS Password
Resetting a BIOS Password for DELL
It’d be better if you refer to How do I reset a Dell BIOS password? in order to access more information about this concern.
Resetting a BIOS Password for Toshiba
KeyDisk will recover the BIOS password of Toshiba laptops.
Resetting a BIOS Password for IBM Thinkpad
To gain more knowledge about BIOS password recovery for IBM Thinkpad, you better refer to How do I reset an IBM ThinkPad BIOS password?
Resetting a BIOS Password for IBM Activa
You can reset a BIOS password on some IBM Aptiva if you continuously press both the buttons of mouse when system boots.
Resetting a BIOS Password for Acer
If you want to know the way to reset an Acer BIOS password in detail, you can refer to How do I reset an Acer BIOS password?
Summary
It’s possible to reset the BIOS password on each and every system all across the world. What it actually makes the difference is that it’s easy to deal with it in some cases, and it’s tough to do the same in others. However, all it requires is a bit effort and time from your side and you can easily reset a BIOS password on every system when necessary.

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