Date: 01/17/06 (Computer Geeks)    Keywords: no keywords

So I have a laptop that I am fixing for a friend. They had the BIOS password turned on (knew the user pw, but not the administrator). After reinstalling WinXP, I decided to clear out the user pw. After several successful reboots, BIOS decided that it wasn't going to let me in; it seemed to want this admin pw that it had never needed before.

Tried every password I could find for Phoenix (and Award) BIOS & every word that shows up on the computer as a pw. Still getting error 00000, system locked. I opened up the case, on the off chance that the board had desktop-style jumpers or a battery, but no luck. I've found schematics showing which pins could be shorted on the clock chip, but would rather do anything *other* than crossing wires on someone elses hardware.

Is he stuck taking it to a data recovery / laptop tech, or does anyone have a tip? Thanks in advance

Oh, I dont have the board right in front of me, but here's what I remember:
Brand: Averatec
Intel Centrino set
Phoenix BIOS
about 1 year old

Source: http://community.livejournal.com/computergeeks/862645.html