BIOS Password set itself????

Kingthlayer

I left my Toshiba laptop on overnight last night so that an automatic update could be applied. When I woke up this morning and went to power up my PC I couldn't get on...somehow a BIOS password had been set while I was asleep. I've tried all the backdoor passwords and stuff like that I could find. What can I do here, other than send it to a professional? I really don't have that kind of money.

I use a Phoenix BIOS, if that helps.

yurnamehere

Can you easily pull the battery to reset the BIOS? Would that even work for a BIOS password?

Viscountalpha

There may be a CLEAR BIOS jumper but may only be on desktops. Its worth a check though.

Kingthlayer

I've never opened up a laptop before. I really don't want to not be able to put it back together. Believe me, I'd have tried the battery thing first if it had been the easy option.

kitch

Someone didn't bother reading my carefully prepared memo on commonly-used passwords. Now, then, as I so meticulously pointed out, the four most-used passwords are: love, sex, secret, and... god.



But seriously,

Supposedly there are "backdoor" passwords that will work regardless of what the user password is.
http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml

However, it may lock you out after a certain number of failed attempts. So don't go typing random shit.

Kingthlayer

I've tried all of those "back door" passwords. None worked.

Hopefully I'm not locked out. The password screen still comes up.

Eat it You Nasty Pig.

Are you sure this isn't a roommate or something pranking you? I didn't think there was any way for a BIOS level password to just set itself.

edit: and yeah, my understanding is that the only way to clear a bios password is to open the case up and move a pin on the motherboard itself. It's actually pretty easy to do on a desktop and you can find guides online, but I don't know how easy it is to get to the mobo on your laptop.

Kingthlayer

Well, the laptop was kept about a foot away from my head while I slept (mattress on the floor.) I'm also staying with my grandparents at the moment; they don't know how to set a windows password, let alone a BIOS one.

The only explanation I can think of other than the BIOS setting itself is that I brushed against all the right keys in my sleep at the exact moment needed and in the exact order needed to set the password.

kitch

I found a thread about a similar issue on another forum, and it said you can hold down the left shift key while booting to bypass the BIOS password on some Toshiba laptops. It also said to try removing the battery for at least 30 minutes. Neither of these sound very promising, though.

matt has a problem

Have you tried just leaving it blank and hitting enter? Where in the boot sequence does it come up?

rfalias

Grammy is fucking with you!

You may have to take the keyboard off, which on a laptop is no big deal.
Also check the compartment where you upgrade RAM, usually on the bottom.

It is unlikely it will be a jumper, but more likely to be a DIP Switch.



Looks like that, it won't necessarily be that many, it could just be a single switch, but its a place to start.

Kingthlayer

I finally got in contact with Toshiba technical support. They said it's some sort of defect in the manufacturing or coding...the guy didn't speak very good English so I'm unclear as to what he meant. Anyway, they'll fix it for free.

Thanks.