BIOS Master- and Setup-Passwords

BIOS-Setup-Password via Software
BIOS Masterpasswords
Killing the BIOS-Boot Password
Killing the BIOS-Setup Password
Keystrokes to Enter the BIOS-Setup

You can download the free, small program ctbios15.zip from the german Computermagazine c't. Ctbios shows the password and some other interesting things about your BIOS. (great tip!)

Lost your BIOS-Password ? Try one of the following Masterpasswords:

If you have forgotten your BIOS Boot-Password, have a look into your mainboard manual, or after opening your PC, onto your mainboard. Many mainboards have a JUMPER or SWITCH to clear the CMOS. This Jumper is often named like: "RTC_CLEAR" , "CLEAR CMOS" , "CLRCMOS" , "CLRCMS". His position is often near by the mainboard battery.

Attention: All hardware settings (harddisk-, bootsequence,-...settings) will be deleted! At least, you have to re-insert them again.

If no Jumper exists, you can try to remove the Battery and wait some time before you insert it back into the Mainboard. (some time means: ~ 1-5 minutes, 24 hours or up to 1 year!). Another way is to "short circuit" the contacts of the replaced Battery, but if there are some Diodes behind the contacts, they could make trouble.

If you can't enter the Setup of your BIOS, you need a DOS-Bootdisk and one of the following MS-DOS Files:

Start the file an insert the sourcecode line by line.

Different keystrokes to enter the BIOS-Setup: