mysterious BIOS password

[vickianng]

I haven't accessed my BIOS for over a year and when I recently tried to, it is asking for a password, all of a sudden. I know that I never set a password for this function. I tried to pull the battery, however that didn't work. I have a Pentium III, Intel 550 mgz, AMIBIOS, manufactured by TINY Computers.

Will I have to install a new BIOS? What the heck caused this to happen anyway? Unfortunately, I cannot pinpoint the time (nor what I was doing) when this happened. I'm getting nervous that something will happen which will require me to enter in this area, and I'll be out of luck. Can you help?


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[Alfons]

Most motherboards have a "Clear CMOS" jumper to accomplish clearing all settings in the BIOS Setup Utility - check your manual for the location of this jumper. If you need to use the battery-removal technique, you may need to leave the battery out for a while - the process isn't instantaneous on all motherboards.

[Abremylin]

The CMOS jumper is a touchy thing and if you don't know about it then you probably don't know how to use it. If you do have a jumper on the main board - it is usually near the silver battery - then remove it from say pin 2-3 and move it to pin 1-2. Just put it on and then put it back to where it originally was. If you leave it on the reset side your system won't boot and it may damage the Mainboard or BIOS chip. Also never open your computer case without first disconnecting the power.

The battery method is another way. You will have to wait about 5 - 10 mins to be sure the CMOS capacitor has discharged all the way. What the jumper does is ground the capacitor so it discharges instantly.