BIOS password

[JimboJangles]

I want to change the boot order on my laptop (Dell Latitude D610) but I can't because it's kinda locked with a password (which I do not know).
I heard that you can reset the password by removing the cmos battery, but I don't know where that is...
help?

 

[Holiday]

most desktop motherboards have a reset jumper that will clear all BIOS passwards

 

[JimboJangles]

Yeah, well the latitude is a laptop... I did take it mostly apart, but once i got past the case I didn't move much but the heat sinks. I'm a little scared to try to take off any silicon when I don't know exactly where to look...

 

[Holiday]

OK, after looking around I have figured out that laptops don't normally have reset jumpers, you have to (as you said) remove the clock battery. I tried to find info on how to do it by looking at the www.dell.com, but came to the conclusion that not only does dell make the worst computers, but they too have the worst website! You have to remove the real-time clock (RTC) battery, which is located on the motherboard of your laptop and will require opening up and disassembling your laptop.

 

[JimboJangles]

Fantastic... well, I don't feel comfortable taking it apart any further than I already have, so I'll see if i can get some help from someone I know first...
I'm guessing it's on the underside of the motherboard because it wasn't on the top. I couldn't really figure out where all the screws were that were holding the plastic to the bottom though.
Thanks for the help

 

[JimboJangles]

Is there anyone that has actually done this before?
...for some reason I don't feel like it's going to work.
I just don't want to go to all the trouble of actually getting to the cmos battery and taking it out for a while only to find out that there's some other trick I had to use too, like soldering some random pins together to clear the password or something...

 

[elitehacker]

I think taking out the battery would be much better and safer than soldering something on.

 

[JimboJangles]

Yeah... um, I took it completely apart and had the motherboard in my hands... and I didn't see any small coin-cell batteries on it. There were some small black round things, but there were like 5 or so of those on there... Any clues as to how big the cmos battery will be? And is it inside of any kind of case that I need some magic trick to get into?

 

[elitehacker]

No, the battery should be there in plain sight. At least that is true for a desktop motherboard.

 

[JimboJangles]

Well, I'm working with a laptop... and what makes things worse is that it's a Dell. Come to find out, removing the cmos battery in a Dell (if I could even find it) wouldn't even solve the problem. Apparently I'd have to find the actual 8-pin chip that stores the info and short pins 3 and 6 on startup to clear the password... and I couldn't find the chip that was supposedly going to do the trick either. I checked the little serial number of every 8-pin chip on the MB with no luck... so I'm giving up.

 

[dan907397]

hi
I have a similar problem cant get past phoenix bios cause i forgot the password. I am trying to dissasemble my packard bell easynote but its really hard does any one know where i can get a manual online? thanks

 

[JimboJangles]

Packard Bell huh? I've never seen one-o-thems before... Are they any good?

Well, you can download a guide here http://support.packardbell.org/uk/item/index.php?i=6907170201&pi=platform_rhea_bt2 but I don't know if it contains what you're looking for or if this is even close to the model you have...
If it doesn't, try digging around support.packardbell.org/uk and see what you can find, and Googlng a bit wouldn't hurt...

 

[Cromewell]

Latitude CMOS batteries should look something like this:

Most laptop cmos batteries look similar to that, they aren't always long chains of them but they are usually wrapped and have the 2 wires sticking out to connect them to the motherboard.

 

[elitehacker]

The hard part is finding the battery, once you have found it, its smooth sailing.

 

[Hairy_Lee]

try looking under the ram or wireless cards, you're looking for two metal contacts on the pcb to short out for about 10 seconds... i would remove the unit's battery as a precaustion though

 

[JimboJangles]

Uh, I think I might have already said it, but I found out that the Latitude D610 doesn't have a cmos battery... and trust me, it's not there. I had the motherboard in my hands - with nothing else connected to it anymore - and could clearly see that there were no batteries connected to it.
I apparently would have to short some pins on the chip that holds the PW, but I screwed that up and ruined my motherboard. I got a new one for free tho XD
Anyway, I've given up on that method. I've read that you can also get an extra laptop HDD and set it up to replace the BIOS software in a way that it kills the boot order password protection business...

dan907397 apparently still needs help disassembling his packard bell tho!

 

[evo3]

seems like dell had a lousy design for their notebook motherboard.

 

[JimboJangles]

Eh, I think it's an anti-theft sort of thing... I think it sucks though.

Progress at last! I found a nice little website with lots of help (ihatedell.info) and an actual picture of the location of the chip i was looking for! http://homepage.ntlworld.com/t.grimley/mywebsite/LatD610.jpg

 

[JimboJangles]

Huzzah! Success at last!

It turns out that with a D610, it's even easier to get to the right chip than with any of the older models. I only had to take off the bottom case to do the job, and it worked perfectly! I've been taking my computer completely apart for like a month messing with this too...

I guess the way this technique works is that it removes the computer's service tag, and it somehow automatically disables/removes the BIOS password. You can't set a new one until you fix the missing service tag, which you can do with the software easily downloaded from ihatedell.info

Thanks to anyone who gave me any advice that attempted to be useful... you guys rock!