Curiosity is not enough to unlock your BIOS, you will also need dexterity, the appropriate
equipment and perfect knowledge of your system architecture. Whether you are a technician with dozens of
enterprise laptops to unlock, or just an advanced user wanting greater access to hardware, unlocking BIOS restrictions can be accomplished in a number of ways with a great degree of reliability. In this section, you will find the descriptions of the most popular techniques and tools so that you could orient yourself in the process of unlocking the BIOS.
With Hidden Vendor Key Combos
Most manufacturers also incorporate undocumented key combinations which open advanced BIOS menus or developer options. They are usually unofficial and dependent on the vendor and model, though tech communities such as LinusTechTips have detailed most of them. The typical ones are:
- Shift+F1 on Lenovo ThinkPads to display advanced chipset settings
- WP
- Dell and Sony Some devices: Ctrl + F10, Ctrl + Alt + F3, or Fn + Tab
These combinations have to be pressed at the right moment – usually during POST (Power-On Self-Test) or when the BIOS setup screen is being entered. Although these shortcuts do not reveal all of the settings, they can reveal hidden tabs, like Advanced, Power, or Chipset, which OEMs do not want a regular user to access.
Battery or Jumper CMOS reset
In cases of systems BIOS password-locked, a CMOS reset may provide a way around protection. This is done by physically removing the CMOS battery or by a special jumper on the motherboard.
E.g. Dell Desktops/Laptops
- Switch off the system and remove power supply
- Find the CMOS battery (a coin-cell battery), or the “CLR_CMOS” jumper
- Leave the battery out 510 minutes or move the jumper to the clear position
- Reconnect and restart to restore BIOS defaults, such as passwords on most models
This technique is well documented in Dell support articles (dell.com) and particularly useful on legacy hardware which does not provide BIOS passwords protection in a secure enclave.
Master Password Generators
When physical access is not sufficient, a workaround is provided by Master Password Generators which is software based. They are software that create one time passwords which are generated using system specific error codes that are displayed when one enters an incorrect password during log in.
Well-known tools are:
- BIOS-PW.org
- BIOSBug
Some of the brands that we support are Dell, HP, Acer, Sony and older Toshiba systems. The tool will then create a master password to unlock the BIOS, all one needs to do is to enter the code that appears after several unsuccessful attempts to enter the password.
