[Doc Savage]

I am trying to boot-up an old Gateway ATX tower that my daughter used in college years ago. It starts the boot-up and then hits a Password prompt with 3 choices. I've asked her to try and remember but to no avail.

Gateway said to move a jumper on the motherboard over 1 pin and it would prompt to cancel all bios passwords,but I couldn't get it to work. Any suggestions?

[Nat Turner]

Remove the CMOS battery and or the Jumpers on the motherboard for about 1 hour. That should clear the BIOS password

[max_rpf]

The jumper trick is the only thing you are going to be able to do. Have GW fax you the mobo manual with a step by step walkthrough.

Try putting the jumper back after you boot with it on the "Reset" setting...

[RedBloodedAmerican]

If you got win9x, you can try this if you dont want to open your pc:

Restart your computer in MS-DOS mode.


When you get to the C:\> or C:\WINDOWS> prompt, type DEBUG and press Enter.


A hyphen (-) prompt will appear waiting for you to enter commands.


Enter the following commands, pressing Enter after each one. Note: the o is the letter o and stands for OUTPUT.


o 70 2e


o 71 ff


q


After the q command (which stands for QUIT), enter Exit.


Then try to enter your BIOS at bootup. The password prompt should now be gone. you should now have full access to it again. However, you will now be at the default BIOS setttings and may want to change them to your preference. You may also want to have your drives autodetected again.

[Snowy]

You may not need the manual. Open it up and look on the motherboard for a jumper labeled "password". Take out the jumper, start your computer. Turn off your computer, put the jumper back, and start the computer again. This should do it.

[Redcloak]

Often you have to leave the jumper in the reset position for at least a minute. Try giving it a little time, put it back in the correct spot and re-boot.

[SpellingTroll]

It starts the boot-up and then hits a Password prompt with 3 choices.

This may be a dumb question, but are you sure this is the BIOS requesting a password? On every system I've ever seen, the only time you have to enter a BIOS password is when you're actually trying to enter the BIOS to make changes, and someone has set a password to prevent unauthorized changes.

[Centurion2000]

Can anyone tell me how to delete or bypass a forgotten bios password which blocks my CPU from booting.

Rip out the battery and let it sit for a few minutes for the charge to fully drain from the system. then plug it back in and all of your settings will be restored to the default from the factory.

[devnull]

You may be able to flash the bios. This worked for me once in a similar situation. Or if you have access to a similar motherboard pop the bios chip and swap it onto the old board. Be careful with this.

[Range Rover]

Dealt with this plenty of times in an old job. The previous suggestions for removing the CMOS battery and removing the correct jumper are the only way to clear a CMOS password.

You won't harm the mobo by removing the battery but ONLY removing the battery may clear the password. It could be that the battery you find is a NiCad rechargeable and can't be removed easily. In that case, starting the machine with the correct jumper removed is the way.

If you are uncertain WHICH jumper, an alternative to contacting Gateway would be to locate any identifying ID numbers on the motherboard - usually silkscreened in larger print than all other symbols you will find there. Put that number into a search engine and see if a manual is available on the Motherboard manufacturer's website. Gateway didn't make it's own system boards and yours could be from any number of manufacturers including FIC, Biostar, Abit, Asus.......The manufacturer's name may even be in the board.

good luck

[Destructor]

Should've bought a Mac.

[LowOiL]

Old question Thread I was hunting for... Bookmarked... and as always, great advice... I wish JimRob would let us open a Teck vaninty section for just such questions as these.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

tech ping....

[goldstategop]

NEVER ever password the BIOS. If you forget it, you have a useless expensive paperweight. You can password Windows but don't lock down your machine's hardware!

(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)

[hocndoc]

After I closed my office of 7 years and moved the billing computer to my home, I learned that the factory ID and password “password” and “root” were still in place, thanks to the people I’d bought the hardware and software from.

Have you tried those?

[mrfuzzyfacewarewolf]

I’m asumming this will work as it did on Gateway Essential 500.
MESSED UP HITTING BUG BEFORE THROUGH and had to start over. TAKE jumper off then turn on let cycle 2 times throughbeeb code then while computer is still on put jumper back on in set up position ( pins 2 & 3 ) or the middlel pin and the one farthset away from pin marked by an arrow. Once pins are back on turn off then back on. Pop up comes on asking to clear all codes did so and then went into bios and reset. Pop up came on and said to turn off and put jumber on in normal position after turning off. did so and it worked no more pasword or system disabled messeages. This was on a Gate way Essentiual 500 model serial number 0017494275