Top 5 Methods to Reset an Unknown or Forgotten Bios Password

BIOS is a kind of software situated as a chip in the motherboard of your computer. It is necessary to create a Bios password because it is able to stop someone booting up your computer system or making changes in your computer. But you may come cross the similar problem to “I made a password to get into my BIOS. How do I get into my BIOS if I can't remember my password?” There is no need to worry. There are many known ways to reset an unknown Bios password. Here I will share 5 effective methods with you:

Method 1: Reset Lost Bios Password by Removing CMOS Battery

Removing the CMOS battery is the simplest way to remove a BIOS password. A computer will remember its settings and keep the time even when it is turned off and unplugged because these parts are powered by small battery inside the computer called a CMOS battery. If we pull out this battery, the computer will forget a lot of its hardware settings, including its BIOS password. Please follow the instructions below:

Take out the CMOS battery and wait 10 – 25 minutes before putting it back in. The reason for this wait is because the computer can still store power in its capacitors even though everything is unplugged. The waiting period allows enough time for them to discharge. Plug everything back in, power up the computer and enter the BIOS again. If everything went well there should be no more password. In some cases, if you get weird error messages during boot up now, you will need to go to “Load BIOS Defaults” in BIOS and save the changes to fix them.

If this method didn’t work, try one of the methods below.

Note: This should not be performed on Laptops if you are not experienced working with laptop hardware. Make sure to power down the computer, unplug the power cables and unplug any USB devices if they are powered. The computer must not be able to get power from anywhere for this to work.

Method 2: Use Motherboard Jumper to Remove Forgotten Bios Password

Almost all motherboards contain a jumper that can clear all CMOS settings including the BIOS password. The location of this jumper varies depending upon the motherboard brand. You should read your motherboard manual to check its location. If you don't have the manual then look for the jumpers near the CMOS battery. Most of the manufacturers label the jumper as CLR, CLEAR, CLEAR CMOS, etc.

When you find the jumper, look carefully. There will be 3 pins and the jumper will be joining the center pin to either left or right pin. What you need to do, is remove the jumper and join the center pin to the opposite pin. e.g. if the jumper joins center pin to left pin, then remove it and join center pin to right pin. Now wait for a few seconds and then again remove the jumper and join the center pin to left pin.

Note: Make sure to turn the PC off before opening the cabinet and resetting the jumper.

Method 3: Performing the Process of Resetting Bios Password with MS DOS Command

The precondition of this method is that you can get into the system when it’s turned on, because this method requires MS DOS.

Open Command Prompt from Programs menu and type in following commands according to the sequence below:

Debug

o 70 2E

o 71 FF

quit

After type in the commands above and restart your system. You will reset the CMOS Settings along with the BIOS password successfully.

NOTE: The first character in the above commands is English alphabet "o" and not the number “0”.

Method 4: Take Use of CMOSPwd to Reset Unknown Bios Password

CmosPwd can help us to remove the password directly from the command prompt. It works under Dos, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 2008, Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD. Detailed steps are as follows:

Step 1: Down CmosPwd and unpack the contents of the file in C disk.

Step 2: Get into Windows Start menu, input cmd in the search box and then press enter.

Step 3: When the Dos prompt appears, type in “c:\cmospwd-5.0\windows\”, and then press enter.

Step 4: Type “ioperm–i” and press enter.

Step 5: Now write the command “cmospwd_win /k” and press enter.

Step 6: Choose the second option by pressing 2, and then enter again.

Note: This program only works with the following BIOS:

ACER/IBM BIOS, AMI BIOS, AMI WinBIOS 2.5, Award 4.5x/4.6x/6.0, Compaq (1992), Compaq (New version), IBM (PS/2, Activa, Thinkpad), Packard Bell, Phoenix 1.00.09.AC0 (1994), a486 1.03, 1.04, 1.10 A03, 4.05 rev 1.02.943, 4.06 rev 1.13.1107, Phoenix 4 release 6 (User), Gateway Solo - Phoenix 4.0 release 6, Toshiba, Zenith AMI.

Method 5: With Backdoor BIOS Password

It is said that many computer manufacturers create backdoor passwords for their own technicians to use so they can access the BIOS when the hardware is being serviced. Here are some backdoor bios passwords that have been reported:

AMI BIOS Passwords:

A.M.I.

AAAMMMIII

AMI?SW

AMI_SW

AMI

BIOS

CONDO

HEWITT RAND

LKWPETER

MI

Oder

PASSWORD

AWARD BIOS Passwords:

01322222

589589

589721

595595

598598

ALFAROME

ALLy

aLLy

aLLY

ALLY

aPAf

_award

award

AWARD_SW

AWARD?SW

AWARD SW

AWARD PW

AWKWARD

awkward

BIOSTAR

CONCAT

CONDO

Condo

d8on

djonet

HLT

J64

J256

J262

j332

j322

KDD

Lkwpeter

LKWPETER

PINT

pint

SER

SKY_FOX

SYXZ

syxz

shift + syxz

TTPTHA

ZAAADA

ZBAAACA

ZJAAADC

PHOENIX BIOS Passwords:

BIOS

CMOS

phoenix

PHOENIX

Misc Common Passwords:

ALFAROME

BIOSTAR

biostar

biosstar

CMOS

cmos

LKWPETER

lkwpeter

setup

SETUP

Syxz

Wodj

Other Manufacturer BIOS Passwords:

Biostar - Biostar

Compaq - Compaq

Dell - Dell

Enox - xo11nE

Epox - central

Freetech - Posterie

IWill - iwill

Jetway - spooml

Packard Bell - bell9

QDI - QDI

Siemens - SKY_FOX

TMC - BIGO

Toshiba - Toshiba

VOBIS & IBM - merlin

Note: All these passwords are case-sensitive and are changed from time to time by manufacturers.

You can choose one from the five methods above to reset or remove your lost bios password. Please read the notes with care before performing the instructions. If you forgot your Windows 7 login password, then you can get Windows Password Key to remove lost or forgotten Windows 7 login password.