The second tip for getting around the lost BIOS password setting is simply to unplug the computer and pull out the battery that powers the RAM that holds the BIOS settings.

Finding a magnifying glass to read the printing on the motherboard.

Having a backup of your BIOS settings will come in handy at this point. Reset the jumper to NORMAL and then reconfigure the BIOS settings to what they were before you started. The only other option most boards will have to NORMAL will be to clear the CMOS.Īfter changing the jumper from NORMAL, you usually reboot the machine with the jumper in the alternate position to clear the password or all of the BIOS settings. CONFIGURE is the setting where you can clear the password. You should find the jumpers in the NORMAL position, and there may be one or two other options.Ĭraig Shepherd of Australia wrote in the Technical Q&A that recent Intel-based motherboards offer NORMAL, CONFIGURE, and RECOVERY jumper settings. This is one of the reasons you kept the manual in the first place, so take a look in there and see if it tells you what options you have regarding the CMOS. Okay, those of you who can put their hands on the manual that came with the motherboard of your computer, go to the head of the class. In this article, we will take a closer look at each of these suggestions.

Unplug the machine and pull out the battery that maintains the BIOS settings in RAM.

Locate and change the position of a jumper that will clear the BIOS settings.

The question of how to handle a lost BIOS password came up recently in the Technical Q&A, and two suggestions were prominent in the replies.ĭepending on the motherboard of the computer in question you can: If a BIOS password has been set, many computers won’t get past the booting process or allow you to change the BIOS settings without that password-turning the machine into an expensive doorstop. Unfortunately, users forgetting that password can cause real headaches. Setting a BIOS password provides a basic yet highly effective level of PC security.

How to recover bios settings