A317M Bios Bug... or what?

[djidji.govedina]

Here's the situation:
I had a password enabled in bios, which I have had to enter when I turn my notebook on, and the password was xyz...
Some time ago I went to bios and disabled it, so I don't have to enter anything when I turn the machine on. And everything worked fine. Today, I wanted to install fresh copy of windows xp pro sp2 and I had to enable boot from cd, and what a surprise!!! I was asked to enter a password... a bit confused I was, but I entered the old one... and guess what... nothing... I tried the one I used before the old one, and still nothing.... And these two are the only passwords I ever had [in bios], I try leaving fields blank, pressing esc. even try to override it with old trick to keep pressed F12 and turn the machine on, and still nothing... Is there any solution other than opening notebook and reseting bios by taking the battery out?

[rich912]

Ok, I have had my pal, with the A series, turn his notebook over and inside out but he cannot find a reset switch either. The only place be hasn¿t looked is under the keyboard. He sent me a rake of photos and I really can¿t see anything that resembles what we are looking for.
I guess that Sony have hidden it away as I am sure that there will be one somewhere:smileysad:

[Eugenepang]

Ok, I have had my pal, with the A series, turn his notebook over and inside out but he cannot find a reset switch either. The only place be hasn¿t looked is under the keyboard. He sent me a rake of photos and I really can¿t see anything that resembles what we are looking for.
I guess that Sony have hidden it away as I am sure that there will be one somewhere:smileysad:

I couldnt find any so-call resert button on my A317S too.. and here is the photo under the keyboard.

[rich912]

Thanks for that Eugene. I have had a good look at the photos but cannot see anything obvious. There are a few jumpers but I doubt that they are relevant. If it is on the motherboard we are looking for a dipswitch labelled - CLEAR - CLEAR CMOS - CLR - CLRPWD - PASSWD - PASSWORD ¿ PWD or something similar.
Most manufactures make the location obvious, but there again we are talking Sony here¿¿.
Btw is that a Lithium battery that I see, labelled 3R7 04499? If so it could be the CMOS battery.

[Twisted-Rizla]

Btw is that a Lithium battery that I see, labelled 3R7 04499? If so it could be the CMOS battery.

Looks like it. Doesn't the system reset if you remove it?

[rich912]

Looks like it. Doesn't the system reset if you remove it?

It certainly does T-R!

[Twisted-Rizla]

 It certainly does T-R!

Woo Hoo!!:smileygrin: :smileygrin:

[rich912]

[Eugenepang]

So removing the battery should help then? :smileygrin:

[kee-lo_]

Removing that battery should reset the CMOS

[djidji.govedina]

hey. thanks for indepth bios-reseting research... I was in really big rush beacause of a job I had to do so find a way to install windows without booting... little bit of formatting, drive letter changing, and everything is ok now... with windows.

other thing I must mention is that I contacted vaio-support.. I was a bit sceptic, but I decidet to give it a try... and what a surprise... I got the answer right away. I am suposed to send them proof of purchase and bios lock code [number that appears when wrong password is entered 5 times, you can try, just for fun {I think}] and they will send me unlock code as fast as poss. For free, cause it is a bios bug, not my fault.

so, in the end I will do that, and leave the battery to rest in peace... for some time:smileywink:

thanks one more time for help...