Clear Bios Password?

[LeeV]

Hello again everyone,

Okay, we are dealing with an Intergraph TD-10. It is a dual pentium motherboard, with a dallas real time clock chip, and an AMI bios. I have not yet been able to locate a motherboard manual yet. I need to get into the bios and there is a password of course! I have experimented with a couple of programs "supposed" to reveal the password to you and what it displays is a C with a funny line under it, a spade, and a diamond symbol. I'm totaly lost there sounds like it might be the password in an encrypted form.... beats me. Anyone have experience with these programs?

Okay on to clearing the password. The battery is in the real time clock chip, which is soldered to the board. The only jumpers on the board are next to the processers, and I have no clue as to their function, and there are no shunts on them. So I'm at a loss on how to clear the cmos. I have been told about a debug script to clear the cmos and I'm a little leary of using it. Anyone have any thoughts? Or any ideas for tracking down a manual?

Thanks, Lee V

[mjc]

A couple of other things to try are "AMI" (an AMI universal password) or forcing a configuration change (such as removing a RAM stick) it may cause an error and let you enter setup, when ther disable "use password setting" and then reboot, you may get another error until youeither reset the configuration setting or replace the RAM. The debug routine is the option of last resort.......

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mjc
I'm making my own links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

[LeeV]

Update!

I tried pulling ram from the board, but no matter what slot I pulled, the machine booted up just fine! The only thing different was the memory count reflected the missing stick(s). This seems odd to me, because I thoght you had to fill each bank completely starting with bank zero.... The only time I got a error was with no memory, and that was beep codes. ODD http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

I went ahead and used the debug script. It worked just fine, and now I can tweak the bios settings! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif


LeeV


P.S. I would recomend only using a debug script, as a last resort. Always use the board manufacturers recommended way to clear the cmos.

[bassvax]

Right-O 'bout following mobo specs for clearing BIOS passwords. Either by using on board jumpers or holding certain keys during boot will accomplish the task on some mobos. I found an ASCII guide that could possibly help in translating that encoded password for future reference. http://www.jimprice.com/jim-asc.htm
Glad to hear you are on your way now http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Jerry

[mjc]

The memory trick doesn't always work because some boards always autodetect the RAM, but it is worth trying because it could get you in with the present settings intact.

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mjc
I'm making my own links list:Computer Links (http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/highrise/11/index.htm)

[LeeV]

Thanks guys,

Bassvax: Thanks for the ASCII link,the last time I messed with ASCII was in the Commodore days. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif Hey, we all started somewhere!

Lee V