[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.

[js1138]

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.

Not a dumb question, but probably not relevant here. The motherboards I'm familiar with have separate passwords for boot and bios update.99.9 percent of everyone has never seen password protection on the motherboard. I first encountered it when building a machine for my son at college. He had seen kids screw with each other's machines and didn't want anyone messing with his.

Of course kids know the jumper pin trick, so you also have to have a strong case with a good lock. Some motherboards also detect when the case has been opened and display a warning.

[general_re]

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.

Not a dumb question, but it's not a situation most people encounter. A lot of systems have an option for a BIOS-based boot password that requires you to enter the password before the computer will boot, as this one is. You see it most often on corporate-type desktops - e.g., IBM - although it's generally not enabled by default. Next time you're poking around in your CMOS settings, see if your machine has such an option - you might be surprised. Just try not to forget the password if you enable it ;)

[John123]

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.

This is not a dumb question but you are talking about Gateway here. I have two of them and you can set up the BIOS to ask for the password as soon as you turn on the computer. Gateway sometimes doesn't make it easy to customize a computer... (sigh).

[Xenalyte]

It's a BIOS password, all right. A BIOS password prevents you from even getting to Windows.

I had to put a BIOS password block on an employee's PC the day we were firing her. She couldn't get the PC past the DOS bootup screen. (This was the same woman who, confronted with the results of the keystroke monitor we installed on her PC, denied that was her sitting there. In an office of 18 people.)