Boot Up Password

[SIRCOOKS]

I borrowed a pc, and i first boot it up to enter the bios only to change the 1st boot device, when i restarted it asked me for a password....i didnt enter any boot up or bios password? so how the hell did it get their, can anyone suggest any ways around this issue.

[redwudz]

Did you try just hitting the 'Enter' key? It may just be a blank password. How it got there? No idea. If no one set it, hopefully it's blank and you can get rid of it by changing your 'User Account' settings. I've had this happen when installing .net.

If all that fails, try booting into 'Safe Mode' and maybe you can get rid of it there.

And if you changed the first boot device, maybe that drive has a password installed?

[SIRCOOKS]

i cant even make it far enough into the boot up to go into safe mode, its a boot up password that i cant even get into the bios settings, and the hd im using i always used, but if it doe have a p/w on it, how would i get it off?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Remove the BIOS battery on the motherboard and replace.

[redwudz]

Well, the simplest way is to pull the BIOS battery while the computer is unplugged. Wait a few minutes, replace it and plug back in and boot. The downside is you lose your BIOS settings. But if there were no custom settings, just default, not a big deal. And it's quick and should work every time.

You can try this website if the password window comes up. They have some common bypass passwords there for some BIOS's. http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml

Or you can search around a bit more on the net for ' lost bios password '

I should add that it would be highly unusual for the BIOS to set a password on it's own. You may have some other problems. In this case, pulling the battery may be the better idea.

[Noahtuck]

Actually instead of messing around with the battery, most motherboards, if not all, i've never seen one without but you never know, there should be a bios reset jumper you can jump to clear it.

[redwudz]

Noahtuck, I agree about the BIOS jumper. But if you don't know which one it is, you might jumper or unjumper the wrong one. Usually safer for newbies without the MB manual is to pull the BIOS battery. As long as they don't break the battery clips, it's often safer.