On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Pigeon wrote: > On Tue, 19 Nov 2002 13:54:10 +1000, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >Mark L. Kahnt wrote: > > > >>Anyone remember how to clear a password on a BIOS? I've got a box from a > >>client that has stopped booting from CD, and this client is ready to > >>move to dual-booting but this is his main desktop box and it needs some > >>cuffing around the BIOS. The password was put on by the vendor of the > >>box, who then went broke three months later. I need to get Windows > >>working (certain key files were clobbered by yet another virus - > >>including explorer.exe - likely others, but I'm finding them > >>one-at-a-time) to at least extract some key data before re-partitioning, > >>and currently, for some strange reason, Windows can't see the cd-rom at > >>all (while 2DiskXWin does, so I know that the hardware is okay - only M$ > >>is $crewed ;) > >> > >>Yeah, it's all complicated - simply put, I need to clear the BIOS > >>password, and I've forgotten the normal trick (other than removing the > >>battery and disconnecting the power supply, and hoping the CMOS is > >>static RAM rather than EEPROM - which one guy I know used a number of > >>years back for his garage-built line of boxes.) > >> > >> > >You can also get at the BIOS contents via port 70 (you need to write the > >address you want to access there) and port 71 (which you read and write > >data from/to). > > > >You'll need to track down exactly what addresses you'll need to touch > >via the web somehow, then boot a DOS disk and use DEBUG to toggle the > >address which says a password is set. As I seem to recall it's a binary > >flag inside a byte somewhere. It's a long time since I did any of this > >stuff, so I cant tell you anymore details. A clever Linux hackor could > >probably do it as root via /proc, but I have no idea how to get there. > > > > This lot may help you - it's all the stuff I could find in CMOS.LST > from Ralf Brown's Interrupt List about AMI BIOSes. It's a bit old but > probably not unusably so. Sorry for the length.
Check the system docs. The Acerpoer 6100 I have here has a jumper to disregard the password. Some systems have jumpers you short to clear the password. -- Cheers John Summerfield Please, no off-list mail at all at all. This address accepts mail only from Debian lists. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
