Jeremy writes in with a troubleshooting question:
Q. I have a old Compaq laptop series #2850A. I set a power on security code it worked for a few days now the computer won’t accept my code. How can I reset it were it will wipe the power on code so I can get into my files
A. There are a couple of ways to clear a startup/BIOS password. Most of the time you can remove the CMOS battery to clear all the settings. It looks like a watch battery about the size of a nickel.
Sometimes you will have to remove a jumper on the board to clear the settings. This jumper will vary depending on the system.
Some motherboard manufactures have backdoor passwords that will allow you to get in no matter what you set the password to. Check out these links for more details and a listing of the backdoor passwords.
http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml
http://www.elfqrin.com/docs/biospw.html
You may also be able to contact the manufacturer for other results.
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