Removing bios password - Win95

[frums]

I have received an IBM puter from a friend who wants to update it from Win95 to Win98, so his missus can use it for e-mail etc. It has 486sx66, blazing 16 mb ram and 5?? hd. The problem I am having is the the machine is password protected - and that has lo0ng been forgotten. Puter starts up, shows Award bios 4.50G, an 80486dx2-s cpu at 66mhz and 16384k of ok ram. It also brings up prompt in middle of screen for Enter Password. Therein lies the problem. From the darker, foggy recessses of my mind, I remembered the part about removing the battery to erase the cmos settings. Did that for an hour - no luck; left it out overnite - still no luck. Can't go anywhere from this screen - just shut it off. I know there has to be some way to either remove the bios password, or circumvent it, but the mind is blank. Have also tried to boot from a floppy, but even thouogh A; is recognized in boot sequence, there is no response from the puter to boot from A: So, how do I get rid of the pasword, or get into the bios to change this? The hd will be formatted to install win98.
Any help would be greatly and fratefully appreciated.

frums

PS. I, for one, am glad there still is a win95 forum available. Still have old puter running dos 6.22, that I like to play with also.

[TropicalBound]

This issue is not related to any operating system (you're not even getting that far). Motherboards will have a jumper on them that resets CMOS. Not only will this remove the password, but it will also configure all the settings back to their defaults. Either check the manufacturer's website or visually scan the motherboard for a jumper that is labeled reset. Most times, after the jumper is set to reset, you turn the PC on but nothing happens (this is normal). Put the jumper back to it's original setting and boot up.

[frums]

Thanks TropicalBound for the reply. I did a Google search on the mb and came up with the following site which is spec sheet.
www.embeddedlogic.com/th99/m/a-b/33722.htm

This does give the specs for the sv2gx4 mb, but the only reset listed is where the reset wire for front panel reset switch goes J3. I have visually looked over the mb for any other jumpers, but don't see any that apply - to my knowledge. Any other suggestions? I have also found a bios file that supports this mb as well has exact same chipset. Can I flash the bios with this and accomplish the same thing?
Would like to clear password without the bios flash. Further comments and info appreciated.

frums

[bchzd1]

you could also remove the cmos battery for a minute and the reinsert it....that should do it. good luck

[Zedy]

Change the jumper JP1 to connect 2 and 3 and turn on machine.
Turn off machine and put jumper back to 1 and 2, that should have cleared the cmos then.

[frums]

Zedy - I tried the JP1 jumper switch as you suggested - no change - still locked out of bios. And I had done the battery removal before also bchzd1. If this was w2kpro, I have software to remove these paswords, but none for win95.

Any other suggestions are welcome.

Still pondering the idea of just flashing the bios. Pros and cons??

frums

[Zedy]

Highly unlikely that you found an upgrade for bios for a 486 board, in any case you cannot flash any bios without being able to access the floppy, and the password needs to be entered prior to the post even getting as far as being able to boot to floppy.

[frums]

Thanks Zedy. The bios file was not an update, but as you stated, got to be able to access A: before I can do anything. Have discovered a couple of other problems with this puter also. Will suggest to owner, it may be time to just upgrade a step or two.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

frums

[Eeyore]

I messed with a Packard Bell 120mhz recently where a BIOS passwork somehow got installed. Couldn't find a jumper so I removed the battery for about 5 minutes. Still the password persisted. So I disconnected the hard drive, CDROM, even the floppy. Then the password lockout disappeared. Hooked everything back up and no restriction. I don't know where the lockout was being stored.

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Dennis
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[frums]

Well guess what. Eeyore - you da man!!

I figured at last resort I would give your solution a try...who knows...make just work twice....took out HD's, all cards, battery, unplugged case, and left it sit for a day while doing other things.

This morning I put the cards, battery, and one HD back in, along with newer CPU fan and the thing booted up like there never was a problem. Could get into the bios, even booted into Win95 like it was supposed to do. No passwords anywhere to mess with. Now if one of the techs here can explain WHY? .... that would be nice.

Suffice it to say, am grateful for your suggestion Eeyore - it worked great!

Thanks for the info.

frums

[Eeyore]

Glad it worked.

Now we can both wait for someone to explain why!

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My
Two Cents
Dennis
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[Spooky Man G]

Maybe it was just because you left it unplugged and disconnected for over a day and the capacitors had completely discharged

[A31Chris]

Putting Windows 98 would probably bog down a 486 too much to be practical. But, I have never actually done it, so I don't know.