BIOS is a kind of software situated as a chip in the motherboard of your computer. BIOS been present in the computer from the pre-initial stage of it's use even before you turn on your computer. The password you configure for your BIOS is required by you whenever you turn your computer on in order to boot your installed operating system.
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Simply eject the white plug remove it with your hands or gently pull the plug with a non-conductive tool to detach. Now turn on ThinkPad with power cable. Step 4: Reconnect CMOS battery and assemble the Lenovo ThinkPad as it was. The BIOS password will be reset to default and you have full access to BIOS.
If you can't remember a BIOS or CMOS password, you're pretty screwed because you won't be able to even boot up Windows. Earlier, I had written about a way to remove BIOS password using the jumper settings.
I recently ran across another program that you can use to recover a CMOS or BIOS password. CMOSPwd works under Dos, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD.
The program basically decrypts the password that is stored in CMOS, which is used to access the BIOS setup. Now this program won't work with all BIOS out there, but here are the ones it will work with:
If you are lucky enough to have one of these, you may be able to recover the password easily. Using the program requires a little bit of the command prompt, so make sure you are familiar with that before using it.
Basically, to run it, go to the command prompt and use CD command to navigate to the directory where you stored the file. At the command prompt, type in CMOSPWD and press Enter key.
You'll get a list of possibilities which you can compare against your BIOS manufacturer.
To recover the password, you need to note the value to the right of the BIOS you have installed and then you have to type in cmospwd /m[xxx] to execute the module. If that doesn't work, you can kill the BIOS using the /k switch.
However, DO NOT kill the CMOS if you are recovering the password for a laptop. On laptops the CMOS password is usually stored in a EEPROM on the motherboard, so you need a EEPROM programmer to retrieve it.
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Since using the program is a bit complicated, make sure to read the instructions provided beforehand. But if you need to recover Windows login password, then you can get Password Recovery Bundle to recover your lost or forgotten Windows admin/user passwords.
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ORIGINAL: BeachBumDoes anyone know if there is a way to remove or reset the bios password on an IBM ThinkPad A31, P4, 1.9Ghz.The Bios is Password Protected and I would like to remove the unknown password.The Supervisor password is stored in an ATMEL EEPROM chip on the motherboard - there is no supported way to reset it (an IBM dealer will stiff you for the cost of a new motherboard).However, there is a method doing the rounds on Google which shows how to read and decrypt the information in the EPROM. This involves soldering wires to a couple of pins on the ATMEL chip and connecting them to the serial port of a second computer - not for the faint-hearted or for use with any Thinkpad under warranty!Details are if you are interested/brave enough.Google will also reveal several folk who will undertake this work for you, for a price. I finally found this on the web.Does anyone know if it will work?Phoenix Technologies - BIOS FAQWhat do I do if I forgot my password?There are two types of password protection in many computers:The following suggestion will work only for passwords used before the operating system boots. If you set up a password only for booting the PC, in most instances you can enter the BIOS Setup to disable the password.If you also placed a password on Setup itself, there is no 'back door' password unless the computer manufacturer modified the BIOS to have one. The password is stored in CMOS and cannot be accessed by any other means. Contact your manufacturer for assistance.
If you cannot contact your manufacturer, take the PC to a computer repair shop.If you wish to attempt disabling the password yourself, you will need to erase CMOS. You should not do this unless you already have written down or printed out of all the BIOS Setup parameters, or if you are certain that restoring the Setup default values is sufficient for operating your system. Take these steps:clear the CMOS (remove the CMOS battery until POST displays a 'CMOS checksum bad' or a similar message);re-install the CMOS battery;run the BIOS Setup;restore the correct BIOS Setup settings.NOTE: it can take up to several days for the CMOS to go bad without a battery. This is caused by capacitance in the circuit. This charge can be safely discharged by using a 10k-ohm resistor, touched to the battery connectors for a few moments (while the battery is removed).
ORIGINAL: BeachBumI finally found this on the web.Does anyone know if it will work?Phoenix Technologies - BIOS FAQHi Beachbum - this won't work. DON'T TRY IT. All Thinkpads store the supervisor password in the ATMEL 24RF08 EEPROM, which is unaffected by removing the CMOS battery.
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March 2023
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