Do motherboards still have a jumper link to reset the BIOS to factory settings like in the good old days?djoptix wrote:New HD wouldn't make any difference (BIOS isn't held on the HD) but it will be fiddlable, it might need opening up though.
Anyone selling a laptop?
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Jaba
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- My Cars: BX GTi, C3 Auto
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That wont work Marty. Remove the battery and it will lose its date and time. You will then need the BIOS password to set that up you already need it to tell it to boot from your CD or hard disk. You wont change the boot device by removing the battery.
There are ways of hacking into the bios and finding out the password but they are beyond the likes of you and me.
Cant you bribe someone with a free BX to reveal the password.
There are ways of hacking into the bios and finding out the password but they are beyond the likes of you and me.
Cant you bribe someone with a free BX to reveal the password.
The Joy of BX with just one Citroën BX to my name now. Will I sing Bye Bye to my GTI or will it be Till death us do part.
Actually I've found that it does work. We took in a bunch of recycled PCs at work and all of them had been on a network beforehand and wouldn't boot. We wiped the BIOS as follows; remove battery, place screwdriver across the terminals where the battery was for a few seconds, replace battery and Robert is your mother's brother.
Alternatively desktop motherboards do indeed have a BIOS reset jumper, but I'm not sure about laptop ones.
Alternatively desktop motherboards do indeed have a BIOS reset jumper, but I'm not sure about laptop ones.
Most laptop motherboard use a small solid state flash memory chip to store the startup password to stop exactly what you are wanting to do. It takes power to burn the password into memory, not to hold it there.
Not all laptops are like this, just most of them, sod's law says yours will be if you go to all the effort of taking it apart. And believe me it will NOT be easy to get to the motherboard battery, and even harder to get the bloody thing back together again (correctly built and working anyway).
If you can be patient marty I will be able to source something by the start of the next academic year for you when we do our yearly replacements. Most likely mid to late Septmeber, but something may turn up in the meantime. Will keep my ear to the ground for you.
Cost will be modest but depend on specification - anything from £50 to £200 depending on what you want and what condition it is in.
Not all laptops are like this, just most of them, sod's law says yours will be if you go to all the effort of taking it apart. And believe me it will NOT be easy to get to the motherboard battery, and even harder to get the bloody thing back together again (correctly built and working anyway).
If you can be patient marty I will be able to source something by the start of the next academic year for you when we do our yearly replacements. Most likely mid to late Septmeber, but something may turn up in the meantime. Will keep my ear to the ground for you.
Cost will be modest but depend on specification - anything from £50 to £200 depending on what you want and what condition it is in.
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No rush, no rush at all - something that will run XP (so I can use my existing software) and something that will enable me to go onto the interweb wirelessly either using my crap Belkin wifi at home or possibly using one of those "3" PAYG dongles so I can surf wherever etc etc. Its for the wife really so she can surf in the lounge during the day. She is researching her family tree at the moment and had siscovered that she is related to a Portugese slave woman. Amazing isnt it!PiLsY. wrote: If you can be patient marty I will be able to source something by the start of the next academic year Cost will be modest but depend on specification - anything from £50 to £200 depending on what you want and what condition it is in.
As soon as something pops up i'll pm you then mate.
£50 will get you a working but tatty laptop, £100 sounds more like ballpark. Not really worth spending more than that for a bit of casual t'internetage. Will have wireless built in already, so no probs connecting to your home wifi.
Everything here is XP, Vista is officially for losers
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£50 will get you a working but tatty laptop, £100 sounds more like ballpark. Not really worth spending more than that for a bit of casual t'internetage. Will have wireless built in already, so no probs connecting to your home wifi.
Everything here is XP, Vista is officially for losers
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stuart_hedges
- 1K Away
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- Location: Surrey
PiLsY, have you got any half-decent desktop boxen knocking about at the moment? I'm looking for something around 2ghz, 1Gig RAM, 80+GB hard drive - there's a lot of stuff like that floating about on ebay around the £50 mark at the moment, but I'd rather send the money your way if you've got something suitable. Oh, and it's got to have USB ports on the front - the Mac doesn't and it's really annoying!