I've just found dug out an old Zenith 386 Laptop that I used many years ago as I now have a use for it. However I obviously set a password for it and guess what ..... yes I don't have a clue what it is! :blush:

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I can recover the use of the machine? PM me if you don't want to say openly - I can assure you that it really is mine!

Originally posted by grandad
I've just found dug out an old Zenith 386 Laptop that I used many years ago as I now have a use for it. However I obviously set a password for it and guess what ..... yes I don't have a clue what it is! :blush:

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I can recover the use of the machine? PM me if you don't want to say openly - I can assure you that it really is mine!

Depends what password you mean, bios, windows 95 password, linux password?

If windows and if you can get into dos prompt...
del *.pwl
then reboot and passwords will be gone

Originally posted by infinite


Depends what password you mean, bios, windows 95 password, linux password?


Sorry should have been more specific - it's the BIOS password so that I cannot get pass the powerup password screen or do anything with the unit, use the FDD etc. It only has Win 3.1

Originally posted by grandad



Sorry should have been more specific - it's the BIOS password so that I cannot get pass the powerup password screen or do anything with the unit, use the FDD etc. It only has Win 3.1

Crack it open and see if there is a jumper near the battery if so move from the 1 and 2 prong to the 2 and 3 prong and let it there for awhile then set it back, or if it doesnt have jumpers then pull the battery out for awhile. This will clear the CMOS and you should be back to square one.

Old 386 i don't believe has jumpers near battery.. only way was to only pull out battery ( that was my way back in the day ;) )

what bios is it?
most have backdoors, example Award BIOS you can bypass with AWARD_SW most of the time.. I used to use it in school back in the days ;|

if all else fails, the list is worth a try if your bios is listed.

http://www.freelabs.com/~whitis/security/backdoor.html

Cracker' open and pull all the batteries you can find....

Wait a minute or two, then throw em back in....

Originally posted by Studio64
Cracker' open and pull all the batteries you can find....

Wait a minute or two, then throw em back in.... I tried that on a fairly new computer of mine, except I waited for two days, and the BIOS password was still there. I had to move the jumpers...