Clear An Unknown
BIOS Password:



If you have mistakenly lost your password to the computer BIOS password or you receive a password prompt at boot and you don't know what it is, you will need to clear the BIOS password by one of the following methods.

Caution!! When inside the computer please be sure of the potential of static discharge that can damage the components. Before working on the inside of the computer ground yourself by touching the power supply or wearing a static wrist band.

On the computer motherboard locate the BIOS clear / password jumper or dipswitch and change its position. Once this jumper has been changed turn on the computer and the password should by cleared. Once cleared turn the computer off and return the jumper or dipswitch to its original position. 

The location of the jumpers or dipswitches may vary, however here are general locations where these jumpers / dipswitch may be located.

     1. On the edge of the motherboard - Most jumpers are located on the side of the motherboard
          for easy accessibility, verify by looking at all visible edges of the motherboard.
     2. By the CMOS battery - Some manufactures will place the jumper to clear the CMOS / BIOS
         password by the actual CMOS battery.
     3. By the processor - Some manufactures will place the jumpers by the processor of the
         computer. 
     4. Under the keyboard or bottom of laptop - If you are working on a computer laptop the location
         of the dipswitch (almost never a jumper) can be under the keyboard or on the bottom of the
         laptop in a compartment such as the memory compartment.
     5. Other visible location - While it is possible that the jumpers / dipswitches may not be in a
          visible location, most manufactures try to make things easier by placing the jumpers /
          dipswitches in another visible location.

Additionally, when looking for the jumper / dipswitch the label of that switch can be anything however in most cases will be labeled CLEAR - CLEAR CMOS - CLR - CLRPWD - PASSWD - PASSWORD - PWD.

On the computer motherboard locate and remove the CMOS battery for at least 10 minutes allowing the computer to loose its information.

Note: this will not work on all computers.

If your manufacturer has a bypass password this can be entered and allow you access to the BIOS and or computer. Because of the security risk of a bypass password generally only older computers will have this option. In addition it is likely that this information will only be able to be obtained from the computer, motherboard or BIOS manufacturer.

Below is a listing of generic passwords for the different types each of the major types of BIOS.

Note: It is important to realize that these passwords do not work on all types of computers and/or BIOS chipsets.

AMI BIOS

A.M.I.
AMI
AMI_SW
AMI?SW
BIOS
HEWLITT RAND
LKWPETER
PASSWORD
Oder

AWARD BIOS

01322222
589589
589721
595595
598598
aLLy
aLLY
ALLY
ALFAROME
aPAf
_award
AWARD SW
AWARD PW
AWARD_SW
AWARD?SW
AWKWARD
BIOSTAR
CONCAT
Condo
d8on
djonet
HLT
J64
J256
J262
j332
j322
KDD
LKWPETER
lkwpeter
PINT
pint
SER
SKY_FOX
SYXZ
TTPTHA
ZAAADA
ZBAAACA
ZJAAADC

Russian Award Passwords:

%шесть пpобелов%
%девять пpобелов%

IBM APTIVA BIOS

Press both mouse buttons repeatedly during the boot

PHOENIX BIOS

phoenix
OTHER BIOS

ALFAROME
BIOSTAR
biostar
biosstar
CMOS
cmos
LKWPETER
lkwpeter
setup
SETUP
Syxz
Wodj

SOME COMPUTERS WITH TOSHIBA BIOS

Hold down the Shift key as the computer is booting


Back To General Information