Asus X83V Laptop Bios Password...


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Hello all, I recently acquired this laptop from a friend, it is not stolen, he paid for it and moved on up to a Macbook Pro.

 

The reason he gave it to me also is because it had a dead CMOS battery and he knows I can repair PC's, so obviously I got to work and replaced the CMOS battery which was the standard type that comes with most desktop motherboards.

 

The problem now is that it's asking me for a password, which is strange because usually when you take out the battery, it removes any passwords. So what I'm asking now is if there's anyway to bypass the password, because there was never a password set in the first place... Also, where would a laptop store it's bios password? I thought it's usually contained within the shared connection between the battery installed and the motherboard?

 

I really do not want to open it again, as it took a good hour and a half to do. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. I mean, I'm using the PC now, but with a small problem... Since I can't get to the bios, the clock resets on my Windows 7 installation, therefore having me to reset the time every time I start it.

 

Any help would be very appreciated, peace.

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This is how I thought it worked, maybe some BIOS' are different.

 

1. The date/time is stored in the BIOS.
2. Windows starts and gets the date/time from the BIOS.
3. If the time is incorrect, then change it from within Windows.
4. Windows modifies the BIOS time (so if you had Linux installed as well it would then be the correct time if it booted).

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Taking out the battery generally does not work on modern PCs because the password is stored in non-volatile memory.

 

Some laptops have a sorta jumper where you can short it using a wire or similar and it'll remove the password that way.  You'll have to look it up for your laptop, or find the service manual.

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Taking out the battery generally does not work on modern PCs because the password is stored in non-volatile memory.

 

Some laptops have a sorta jumper where you can short it using a wire or similar and it'll remove the password that way.  You'll have to look it up for your laptop, or find the service manual.

 

I was just going to ask this. I had a Toshiba laptop with the same problem on the exact procedure. I think whoever gives me these laptops to repair messes around with the bios and makes a password, thinking it's part of the OS.

 

Anyway, on the Toshiba laptop I had, I opened one of the bottom panels and used a paperclip to short two flat jumpers, but this was years ago. Anyone know if ASUS/AMI bios has this sort of trick?

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I was just going to ask this. I had a Toshiba laptop with the same problem on the exact procedure. I think whoever gives me these laptops to repair messes around with the bios and makes a password, thinking it's part of the OS.

 

Anyway, on the Toshiba laptop I had, I opened one of the bottom panels and used a paperclip to short two flat jumpers, but this was years ago. Anyone know if ASUS/AMI bios has this sort of trick?

it really does depend on how the bios and motherboard is setup.  i used to have an acer aspire 6920 wich had an ami bios IIRC and the orignial owner had set a boot password along with a hdd password.  acer said it would need sending in for service to remove the paswords at the cost of the owner. anyway it was easy to clear by removing the RTC battery and I did not have to short any pins as you would normally do with a PC.

 

Have a look for the service manual for that model of laptop, it might offer some help or you could try and replace the bios chip with a freshly flashed one.  other wise you are stuck with out asus support looking at it.

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But how could it have a password if I changed the battery?

The password, as much as I know, is stored in a EEPROM and it doesn't get reset when you remove the battery. Try my link with the master password, maybe you'll be lucky. :)

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I've tried all of the passwords, didn't work. Maybe if someone had set it previously, then there's most likely no way to do it.

 

Right now I'm trying software methods such as bootable apps like PC CMOS Cleaner with Parted ISO and such. I'll let you all know if I get any results, but if anyone has other suggestions, I'd appreciate it.

 

I mean, I'm just anal about this because I would like to change some settings in the BIOS, but I really DON'T need to, but I'd like to get into it. Mostly because the time keeps changing to BIOS time and it's annoying to keep changing.

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I've tried all of the passwords, didn't work. Maybe if someone had set it previously, then there's most likely no way to do it.

I'm talking about a master password, not the regular bios password. That master password was set in the factory, you can't change it. I've unlocked a few laptops myself using some generators I found online. That's why I thought it could help.

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I'm talking about a master password, not the regular bios password. That master password was set in the factory, you can't change it. I've unlocked a few laptops myself using some generators I found online. That's why I thought it could help.

While offering this as a solution is acceptable, I am wondering who set this password or why OP cannot get it from said "friend." Look, BIOS passwords do not magically appear or accidentally happen; it was either set by your "friend" or the laptop is stolen there isn't much more to it.

 

The other option is prove to Asus you are the legitimate owner of said laptop and your friend can provide some sort of proof he purchased the unit, and they can and will help you with this issue., I am talking from experience as they have helped clients of mine do this exact same thing.

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While offering this as a solution is acceptable, I am wondering who set this password or why OP cannot get it from said "friend." Look, BIOS passwords do not magically appear or accidentally happen; it was either set by your "friend" or the laptop is stolen there isn't much more to it.

 

The other option is prove to Asus you are the legitimate owner of said laptop and your friend can provide some sort of proof he purchased the unit, and they can and will help you with this issue., I am talking from experience as they have helped clients of mine do this exact same thing.

I agree, but I choose not to be so suspicious. I mean, if someone steals a laptop, a phone, or whatever, he doesn't go online to ask for advice on changing the damn clock, he sells it in the next 20 minutes. :laugh:

 

The Asus solution would work, but if that laptop was sold a few times, then what? Try to find the original buyer and hope he still has some proof of purchase?

And about the password, maybe changing the battery returned it to some stupid factory settings that had a default password set. :/

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While offering this as a solution is acceptable, I am wondering who set this password or why OP cannot get it from said "friend." Look, BIOS passwords do not magically appear or accidentally happen; it was either set by your "friend" or the laptop is stolen there isn't much more to it.

 

The other option is prove to Asus you are the legitimate owner of said laptop and your friend can provide some sort of proof he purchased the unit, and they can and will help you with this issue., I am talking from experience as they have helped clients of mine do this exact same thing.

 

This is a 4 year old computer and he said his mother didn't use it for the past 2 years, so I doubt anyone would remember a password if they barely used their computer. Also, he said there was never a password enabled on it in the first place.

 

And why do you keep quoting "friend?" I don't know if you're trying to be helpful, or accusing me of having a "stolen" laptop, but either way, it's "annoying" for you to answer if you don't have a solution and trying to label me as a "thief." I'm sure most people who use "stolen" products wouldn't mind this problem if they "stole it," but I'm just trying to use what was gifted to me. Also, it is a possibility that there is just a glitch in the system because I used a different battery, not sure, because we could access the BIOS before hand, which I should have mentioned. But now that we changed the battery, there's a password. There probably isn't even officially a password, it can be completely glitched, which happened to me once when I accidentally crossed a coaxial cable to my speaker cable on old computer back in 97. Please don't go off topic.

 

Nonetheless, I've tried various software based methods to try to reset the CMOS, no luck. If anyone has any experience or has had one with resetting by use of a bootable drive or software, please let me know.

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While offering this as a solution is acceptable, I am wondering who set this password or why OP cannot get it from said "friend." Look, BIOS passwords do not magically appear or accidentally happen; it was either set by your "friend" or the laptop is stolen there isn't much more to it.

 

The other option is prove to Asus you are the legitimate owner of said laptop and your friend can provide some sort of proof he purchased the unit, and they can and will help you with this issue., I am talking from experience as they have helped clients of mine do this exact same thing.

 

This. AFAIK, the BIOS password is stored in a EEPROM and the only way to reset it is using the password introduced in the first place or replace the BIOS chip, which in a laptop can be very difficult. Also BIOS just doesn't all of a sudden starts asking for a password, i've never seen or heard that.

 

So, unless you ask the previous owner for the password, the best thing you can do is:

1) ask for the invoice / reciep and ask ASUS how much it will cost for the replacement (you will need the invoice to prove you are the owner).

2) replace yourself a new BIOS chip for that laptop. This will be tricky, as i don't know how you can get a good, working without a password BIOS chip for that exact model (ebay?) and it can be useless if the password is stored in a separate EEPROM from the BIOS chip.

 

in the past i've used CMOS password resets, but times have changed and most of those are useless now.

Try to flash a new BIOS (or the same version, if it's already the latest) maybe?

 

that would do no good  :/ as the password isn't wiped out as ease as that; if it worked then what was the point of having it in the first place?  :laugh:

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that would do no good  :/ as the password isn't wiped out as ease as that; if it worked then what was the point of having it in the first place?  :laugh:

Then how come the password gets wiped out by simply shorting 2 pins? Yeah, I'm talking about a desktop, but it's the same thing. What you're talking about is maybe that master password, that indeed doesn't go away, but the BIOS password that you set can be reset, even with a new flash. Obviously, I can't be 100% sure on every brand, but what does he got to loose? :)

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This is a 4 year old computer and he said his mother didn't use it for the past 2 years, so I doubt anyone would remember a password if they barely used their computer. Also, he said there was never a password enabled on it in the first place.

And why do you keep quoting "friend?" I don't know if you're trying to be helpful, or accusing me of having a "stolen" laptop, but either way, it's "annoying" for you to answer if you don't have a solution and trying to label me as a "thief." I'm sure most people who use "stolen" products wouldn't mind this problem if they "stole it," but I'm just trying to use what was gifted to me. Also, it is a possibility that there is just a glitch in the system because I used a different battery, not sure, because we could access the BIOS before hand, which I should have mentioned. But now that we changed the battery, there's a password. There probably isn't even officially a password, it can be completely glitched, which happened to me once when I accidentally crossed a coaxial cable to my speaker cable on old computer back in 97. Please don't go off topic.

Nonetheless, I've tried various software based methods to try to reset the CMOS, no luck. If anyone has any experience or has had one with resetting by use of a bootable drive or software, please let me know.

Story seems suspect, first it was a friends who upgraded to a Mac, now it was his mothers who didn't use it. And now its the password showed up after the new battery was installed? Sounds like trouble, your best option is contacting Asus they can and will get around it if you can prove your "friend" was the owner. Again these passwords don't just show up, they are set. Best of luck
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Then how come the password gets wiped out by simply shorting 2 pins? Yeah, I'm talking about a desktop, but it's the same thing. What you're talking about is maybe that master password, that indeed doesn't go away, but the BIOS password that you set can be reset, even with a new flash. Obviously, I can't be 100% sure on every brand, but what does he got to loose? :)

 

some laptops do provide jumpers to clean the BIOS and it can reset the password, but those are like pre 2007 laptops. Most modern ones don't have that flaw.

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Forgot to include in the beginning that he bought the macbook for his mom as an upgrade from this because the battery I suppose died after not being used so long. It's not important, really. I've been a member of NeoWin for years, the last place I'd even remotely try to post about something "stolen" is a place where most of my information is stored.

 

Thanks a lot to TDT for all the recommendations, that's the type of responses I like to see, shows you really do care. I was thinking of flashing the BIOS last, and I will save it for last.

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On some machines it's possible to use an EEPROM reader to find or erase the password directly from the EEPROM... you'd have to find out the type of EEPROM chip and a programmer to read it.  It may not even be possible on your machine and even if it is, if you've never done anything of the sort it wouldn't be an easy task.

 

I'm still confused myself as to how the password appeared there personally but I suppose strange things happen sometimes.

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I'm still confused myself as to how the password appeared there personally but I suppose strange things happen sometimes.

 

unless the BIOS become corrupt, i don't think this is possible at all.

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Yeah I don't think that a cross-connection or some electrical short would cause the BIOS to set a password for you.  Only one possibility that would happen is if that laptop has Casper the friendly ghost in it.

 

Yes someone above is right about flashing.  The old model of laptop and/or PC, you might remove the password when you flash.  I don't think these modern PC will remove the password when you flash.

 

The old old BIOS one can reset by shorting the pin.  Again someone mention that this isn't possible any more and that, I believe whole-heartedly to be true.  Only one more alternative that you said does not work, might work but you may not enter zero as letter O instead.  So might want to give another try on the master password.  Cause if you call Asus and prove to them and then they gave the same password that was on that link, then you would go and kick your self in the butt for that.

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  Only one more alternative that you said does not work, might work but you may not enter zero as letter O instead.  So might want to give another try on the master password.  Cause if you call Asus and prove to them and then they gave the same password that was on that link, then you would go and kick your self in the butt for that.

Well I don't know if it's THAT password exactly. Like the thread says, Asus master passwords are based on the BIOS's date, but I don't know how it's converted. OP, what's the date on that laptop?

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