Porteus

To my chagrin my bios no longer sees usb within removable media upon pressing F9 key at boot up. It only sees floppies, but there is no physical floppy drive. On bootup the ready light goes off and does not come on again. Even the Plop Boot option errors out after going some distance. As boot via usb was the only way I was able to get this machine off the ground, this is very annoying. Now have to try following suggestion extracted from another thread. Hopefully be able to enter bios and fix the situation once armed with password. Thought it might be helpful to document the proceedings.

donald wrote:@ Bogomips
linux:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd

or boot something ( e.g.win98 startdisk) into real DOS (not the Dos-box),
run Debug.exe -> ami and award bios type:
- o 70 17
- o 71 17
Q
(press enter after each line)

phoenix bios
- o 70 FF
- o 71 17
Q
did always work in the good old days..
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ Jack
http://pogostick.net/~pnh/ntpasswd/(lost windoze)

Bios: Phoenix version: 6.00 PG date: 07/31/2009 (bios on m/c)

e.g.win98 startdisk

Without the physical drive, getting a bit tricky.

I found this.

Two options with a BIOS password. 1. Unplug the computer and wait for the CMOS battery to die. This can take months if the machine is new and days if it's as old as some of the ones I have around. 2. Unplug the computer and open the case. See if you can find the CMOS battery on the motherboard and unplug it. There have been occasions where the motherboard/mainboard will have a jumper near the battery that can be removed.

Try if you can "See if you can find the CMOS battery on the motherboard and unplug it". That might help with the Bios password.

^ If one has built a computer from scratch it's a pushover. However for someone who is not so well equipped experience-wise in hardware matters, and lacking the proper tools

Even on the firmware front I think I'd better try a non-invasive procedure first, and see if these clever clogs from the link can get my password for me.

Is this a laptop or a desktop? How old is it?

If it is a desktop, then finding and removing the battery on the motherboard is the easiest thing to do. The battery on older machines is generally a 'coin style' battery of model cr2035/2025 and you can remove it quite easily with a fingernail or paper clip. This should reset your bios. If the the password is stored on board a chip on the motherboard as in most laptops then there is little hope.

It is easy to do. I have done it so many times to help people out to replace there 2032 lithium batteries when it is dead. Like I said it is easy to do.

if it is not a laptop...
Identify your Mobo (bios message at start up or open the Box and have a look at it)
Google your Mobo for a Manual.If you can find one there is a good chance it has
a picture inside, showing the "clear cmos" jumper.

just my cents worth. Some mobos are difficult to get your fat fingers into to pull out jumper etc.

If you can't see the pins from the side there is a risk of bending the pins on re-install to normal bootup after bootup with clear position.

I like brutal methods. Normally pop the battery out for about 1 minute is enough...if it wasn't, then short across the centre connector to the side with a bit of metal foil or a screwdriver if no foil handy.

@Bogomips
You can not boot into anything?
Otherwise this could be of some interest
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

^ Can boot into everything except usb, so the otherwise is good. Normally work on 32 bit systems, so trying out 64 bit systems, like darkstar, would like to have a hermetically sealed 64 bits only usb.

Thanks for the link, donald. Looks like all good stuff

ahhh I think some bios do not allow usb booting as an option as they think they are hard drives.

make sure hard drives are an option please along with usb

in my old dell you can disable all stuff...not sure why anyone would do that. Give it a shot.
Also usb stick must be direct.....try another slot in case slot is faulty?

I then press (on my dell) F8 at bios screen multiple times and it does not always work.

OOPS forgot there is a delay cheatcode that might be useful here, which might explain a few things
as suggested in a recent post by brokenman

try adding
delay=5 to your cheatcode line

^ Offtopic. Nothing to do with finding the bios passwoard, but much appreciated!

aus9 wrote:Also usb stick must be direct.....try another slot in case slot is faulty?

Had been wondering if that might be the problem . as had been testing from a hub. So put it directly into a slot at the back, but no joy.

aus9 wrote:ahhh I think some bios do not allow usb booting as an option as they think they are hard drives.
make sure hard drives are an option please along with usb

Hard drives had always been shown as an option, but then a bit of lateral thinking to let's just see the hard drives, and there was the usb given as hdd0! Hit Enter and it booted the usb. And what's more, put it on the hub, and it still got booted.

Event the iffy usb, has been able to boot from hub, just as long as it has its light showing. So now the search for the bios password can proceed at a more leisurely pace. Many thanks for the various suggestions.

I am glad hub works for you, not for me but can you name brands as i tend to buy cheap

^ In midst of spring cleaning. When I come across box, will let you know. Was a supermarket buy-in.