need to know how to clear the cmos on the notebook.....it comes up
with a password and the lady forgot it or didn't mean to....thanks

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Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 11 Aug 2002 17:19 PDT

Hi rooter.

One of the first things I found on a
HP forum was this form for password
removal:
[ http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/components/FileAttachment/0,,0x8876107d277ad611abdb0090277a778c,00.bmp
]

It's for a Omnibook, but the other info is
probably the same.

There are a variety of black hat
methods, such as these BIOS crackers:
[ http://home.cyberarmy.com/hackshock/bios.htm ]

But you have to know the BIOS type. It should be
one of the first things flashed on the screen
when the laptop is booting.

Here is a good site that lists the "backdoor"
passwords to common BIOS setups:
[ http://www.pwcrack.com/BIOS/bios.html ]

For Award BIOS’ try these backdoor passwords:

AWARD_SW
j262
HLT
SER
SKY_FOX
BIOSTAR
ALFAROME
Lkwpeter
j256
AWARD?SW
LKWPETER
syxz
ALLy
589589
589721
awkward
CONCAT
d8on
CONDO 
j64
szyx

For AMI BIOS’ try these backdoor passwords:

AMI
BIOS
PASSWORD
HEWITT RAND
AMI?SW
AMI_SW
LKWPETER
A.M.I.
CONDO

For PHOENIX BIOS’ try this backdoor password:

phoenix



I did read that the BIOS password is nonvolatile,
so removing the CMOS battery won't do it. (In case
you had ideas of cracking open the case)

If any of this helped, let me know and
I will post as the official answer. If you 
have any follow up info, please post as
clarification.

thanks, good luck,
-AI

---

Request for Question Clarification by alienintelligence-ga on 22 Aug 2002 06:08 PDT

Hi rooter,

did you get your CMOS problem solved?

-AI

With my experience in refurbishing old state surplus pc's, I would
recommend romoving the cmos battery and then replacing it.  This might
fix your problem right away.  If it doesn't, you should remove it and
leave it out for a couple of days.  Try to boot up without the battery
installed.  THen try it with the battery installed.  If the bios is
written on the hard drive and your HP doesn't have a real CMOS chip,
then the removing the battery will not solve your problem.  But on the
otherhand if it has a CMOS chip, my suggestion above should work.

By the way, be more clear on your questions. DOn't just use
elipses(...) all over the place and expect people to know what you
mean.

Kamran, as I stated in my response above,
the cmos battery removal will not wipe out
the BIOS password. This is quoted on HP's site.
Maybe it's a "scare tactic" but I've read elsewhere
that there is a NVM password chip on most laptops
now to prevent theives with the ability to open the
laptops from gaining easy access. Removing the
CMOS battery will only wipe out the BIOS settings,
password is Non-Volatile.


-AI

And for the matter, yes you are correct, that will
work on most desktop/server/etc PCs, just not in this
case, on laptops.

This is Rooter again ....The guy who is working on the notebook can't
seem to find the battery to remove it. Second He informed me that as
soon as the system comes up even before the post it asks for the
password....three attempts later the system will reboot
itself.....kamran-ga we tried some of those bkdr passwords no luck
sorry and I went to those links but it won't work because it won't
look for the floppy until after the post....thanks all for your help
....I just got home so i will give him a call and get the
updates....Thanks