Interesting.

Well, finding some more options in people's lists isn't the hard part:
ami (case sensitive), AMI SW, AMI!SW, HEWITT RAND (check spelling), lkwpeter, CONDO, 589589, AAAMMMIII, aammii, AMI.KEY, ami.kez, AMI~, ami°, amiami, amidecod, AMIPSWD, amipswd, AMISETUP, bios310, BIOSPASS, CMOSPWD, helgaßs, KILLCMOS, biostar, cmos, setup, CMOS, SETUP, Syxz, Wodj

I'm probably saying something stupid here, but since it has a normal battery why don't you just clear it? It can't be that the BIOS defaults have the password setting enabled, I've never seen that.

Try the aforementioned tips and if they aren't working you could dump the BIOS chip with a programmer and inspect the binary file dumped for clear strings which could hint to the password.

konc wrote:

I'm probably saying something stupid here, but since it has a normal battery why don't you just clear it? It can't be that the BIOS defaults have the password setting enabled, I've never seen that.

Sadly that's the cause of my problem. The bios has some default password when you reset it. Since that coin battery was flat i'm being asked for this mystery password.

Jonas-fr wrote:

Try the aforementioned tips and if they aren't working you could dump the BIOS chip with a programmer and inspect the binary file dumped for clear strings which could hint to the password.

I'm considering that as a last resort.

firage wrote:

ami (case sensitive), AMI SW, AMI!SW, HEWITT RAND (check spelling), lkwpeter, CONDO, 589589, AAAMMMIII, aammii, AMI.KEY, ami.kez, AMI~, ami°, amiami, amidecod, AMIPSWD, amipswd, AMISETUP, bios310, BIOSPASS, CMOSPWD, helgaßs, KILLCMOS, biostar, cmos, setup, CMOS, SETUP, Syxz, Wodj

I've tried a few of those already but i'll try more later on.

I'm going to rewatch that Phill's video about dumping the bios content and consider doing it myself.

Can you reach the boot stage? Or does it request password before booting? BTW, I haven't experienced so far any BIOSes that had default password after a CMOS reset.

The old site seems to be accessible but the BIOS files are password protected on their FTP: https://web.archive.org/web/19970626045321/ht … s.com/bios.html

Another set of passwords to try, they're space separated (source: internet)

1ALFAROME ALLy aLLy aLLY ALLY aPAf _award AWARD_SW AWARD?SW AWARD SW AWARD PW AWKWARD awkward BIOSTAR CONCAT CONDO Condo d8on djonet HLT J64 J256 J262 j332 j322 KDD Lkwpeter LKWPETER PINT pint SER SKY_FOX SYXZ syxz shift + syxz TTPTHA ZAAADA ZBAAACA ZJAAADC 01322222
2589589 589721 595595 598598
3AMI AAAMMMIII BIOS PASSWORD HEWITT RAND AMI?SW AMI_SW A.M.I. CONDO

Also can you boot on DOS with it? If yes a BIOS cracking/recovering software can be used.

I also stumbled uppon a post where someone advise to hold down the END key while the PC-CHIPS mobo is booting to ovveride the BIOS password.

Finally, I have some old BIOS related books at home, I'll consult them this weekend and post new info here if I find some.

Hey I've got the same board !

Except that mine doesn't seem to POST at all ... I should make further tests, but for now even with a POST card, I wasn't able to see any form of life in that board. Too bad since it's actually the "best" socket 3 board I own ... I've got 2 other that are dead due to leaky battery and the third works but is also made by PCChips and in that case have fake cache (while this one doesn't)

Edit : I looked at my board and mine has an award bios chip. Might be useful for you that I dump it

(Or maybe it's dead and that's why the board doesn't work anymore ?)

Except that mine is rev 1.4 and not 1.7

Well, i would like to have a better socket 3 motherboard but i unfourtanely don't. To make matters worse i believe that this board has fake cache chips!

Still and if this helps anyone else with the same problem, i found a way around the password issue. If i removed the bios battery and waited long enough to have a " CMOS ERROR / Press F1 to continue", and actually pressed F1 i could enter the bios and disable the password protection. If i failed to do so it would ask for a bios password again the next time i needed to set any bios settings.

Doesn't make sense, but i worked!

That looks like a stock photo you have posted, not Your actual motherboard?
My point is that it looks like You could actually put real cache chips in there no problems, as long as the pcb traces actually go
to the chipset.

FWIW I've got an Award BIOS socket 3 board which has no CMOS battery (just a connector for an external one) and it too requires a password to get into the BIOS if you don't connect up a battery. Luckily being Award, AWARD_SW works. I can't recall now though whether you need to put in the password to boot or not! If you didn't, one of those DOS programs to adjust BIOS settings should work - I think the layout of the CMOS settings is pretty standard.

Malvineous wrote:

FWIW I've got an Award BIOS socket 3 board which has no CMOS battery (just a connector for an external one) and it too requires a password to get into the BIOS if you don't connect up a battery. Luckily being Award, AWARD_SW works. I can't recall now though whether you need to put in the password to boot or not! If you didn't, one of those DOS programs to adjust BIOS settings should work - I think the layout of the CMOS settings is pretty standard.

It might have a sealed battery inside a RTC chip such as the DS1287.

Jonas-fr wrote:

It might have a sealed battery inside a RTC chip such as the DS1287.

Nope - it has the solder pads for a Dallas chip but in that spot it has some discrete components and a DS12885Q, which appears to be a battery-less version of the 1287.

It's got room for a 2032 battery holder but it looks like it was never installed.

Why not install the CR2032?

I probably will do. The board is only a new arrival so haven't had time to properly play with it yet.

I used it a bit more today and I can confirm that it does prompt for a password before booting, so if you didn't know AWARD_SW you wouldn't be able to boot anything.

I am encountering this problem now with a PCCHIPS M918.
I have absolutely no chance.
CMOS resets, leaving it without a battery, etc. does not help.
Entering the BIOS is not possible.
All the passwords, that I tried, don't work.
Even if I use a BIOS from another Board with the same chipset, it asks for a power on password.

Does anybody have another idea?

Can you post a dump of your BIOS? Do you have a POST card? At which number does it stop when asking for the Password?

At the moment I am using this:
https://www.elhvb.com/mobokive/Archive/PcChip … 9961230_AMI.zip
But as I said, the behavior is the same with any other working BIOS.
So the password seems not to be stored in the Flash/ROM?

And sadly my POST card is broken, so I can't tell you any number. How would the number help regarding the password?

If I'm not mistaken BIOS settings are stored in the M1487 that also houses the RTC.
Have you tried setting the clear CMOS jumper and powering up the system? Or just setting the jumper for a moment while the system was turned off?

Doornkaat wrote on 2021-05-15, 14:35:

If I'm not mistaken BIOS settings are stored in the M1487 that also houses the RTC.
Have you tried setting the clear CMOS jumper and powering up the system? Or just setting the jumper for a moment while the system was turned off?

Yes, I tried both methods.
Also setting the jumper for multiple days by now. 😉)