Hi all i have offerd a cheap panasonic toughbook lap top, very cheap but has got a bios password on it,its not stolen or anything like that the chap buys and sells old pc stuff and hes got a few of these , i fancy one for mapping softwhare when i go off roading etc, anyway my question is can the bios password be removed if you dont know it .
Cheers.
Darren.

Desktops were easy usually as it was a jumper on the MB.

I would do a Google search on removing the BIOS pw before you commit

There is no way to change the password on modern bios systems, we use panasonic tough books at work and when they are sent back to panasonic for repair, panasonic themselves ask for the password to be removed by us first!

Presumably you can’t strip it and remove the CMOS battery? Does this work for Toughbooks?

Choijin – any BIOS password can be overcome, the manufacturer will have a utility that will allow them to reset it using an unlock code, but distribution of this tool is tightly controlled.

cheers lads, may just take a punt at 70 quid, i use them at work as well motor trade diagnostics.
cheers.

CMOS battery trick hasn’t worked in years, not at least since they’ve been storing bios on EEPROM chips.
I’m pretty sure toughbooks don’t have a “back door”, else panasonic wouldn’t request we unlock them before sending back – plus the fact that they need to be secure to a military standard for us to use them at work.

There’s a tool called ‘killcmos’ which corrupts the CMOS settings with the idea that it reverts back to defaults. Whether it’d work on the Toughbook I’ve no idea (and it’s a bit of a frig to use) but it might be worth a punt. Assuming that the password is just on the setup screen, anyway; if it’s preventing it from booting you’re knackered.

Any particular reason why the guy selling can’t contact the original owner?

Try flashing the bios with a new version?
http://www.ehow.com/how_7561222_update-bios-toughbook.html