Boot password not working

[Gator71]

I am trying to set my compaq presario to ask for a pw at boot but after I set the supervisor and user pw's in the bios, the supervisor pw works to enter the bios but when I reboot there is no password prompt @ boot, so my questions are, why isn't it working and are there any other ways to lock your pc in such a way that the most savvy of techs can't break in it it?

[anon]

are there any other ways to lock your pc in such a way that the most savvy of techs can't break in it it?

Disk encryption, I guess. BIOS passwords and startup programs offering similar functionality (I don't know if there are any that work on XP since it's NT-based, but there were some in the 9x/Me days) are easily evaded.

[Expeto]

Well, how skilled techs we are talking about?

Bios is a very weak protection, its very easy to crack. It only protect the computer, not the data. Anybody can remove your hdd and plug it to the another device and read your data. Any PC geek can do that.

You can set a windows passwd or something else , still a skilled tech geek can crack that.

If you want to really secure it, get truecrypt (http://www.truecrypt.org/). And set a full hdd encryption. It will make sure nobody can open your PC and see your data, if you have chosen a strong password. But truecrypt only prevent them from opening your pc, its not an anti-virus or a firewall.

[anon]

Bios is a very weak protection, its very easy to crack. It only protect the computer, not the data. Anybody can remove your hdd and plug it to the another device and read your data. Any PC geek can do that.

You can even attempt to "read" the password or remove it entirely from the computer, using a tool called cmospwd. Of course that requires the computer to have booted into the operating system first.

[sandman_1]

Bios is a very weak protection, its very easy to crack. It only protect the computer, not the data. Anybody can remove your hdd and plug it to the another device and read your data. Any PC geek can do that.

You can even attempt to "read" the password or remove it entirely from the computer, using a tool called cmospwd. Of course that requires the computer to have booted into the operating system first.

I would imagine that all you have to do is "short" the jumper on the motherboard to reset everything back to its factory default settings which negates any password dealing with CMOS, at least that is the case for my motherboard.

[anon]

I would imagine that all you have to do is "short" the jumper on the motherboard to reset everything back to its factory default settings which negates any password dealing with CMOS

That's usually the case. Shorting the reset jumper or removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes will wipe the password (as well as the rest of the BIOS settings). Using cmospwd is easier and faster, though. I wouldn't want to get caught opening someone else's CPU case. :D

[sandman_1]

I would imagine that all you have to do is "short" the jumper on the motherboard to reset everything back to its factory default settings which negates any password dealing with CMOS

That's usually the case. Shorting the reset jumper or removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes will wipe the password (as well as the rest of the BIOS settings). Using cmospwd is easier and faster, though. I wouldn't want to get caught opening someone else's CPU case. :D

That and it is a pain in the rear. :D

Got an AW9D-Max motherboard and it has a extra setting in the memory timings, tRAS, that Corsair doesn't have specs for. So if you set the that wrong, the computer won't boot up and you have to reset the CMOS every freaking time. I finally just gave up and left if at JEDEC settings, which is what the motherboard detects as default, instead of trying to set it for the factory rated settings.

[Gator71]

That's usually the case. Shorting the reset jumper or removing the CMOS battery for a few minutes will wipe the password (as well as the rest of the BIOS settings). Using cmospwd is easier and faster, though. I wouldn't want to get caught opening someone else's CPU case. :D

That and it is a pain in the rear. :D

Got an AW9D-Max motherboard and it has a extra setting in the memory timings, tRAS, that Corsair doesn't have specs for. So if you set the that wrong, the computer won't boot up and you have to reset the CMOS every freaking time. I finally just gave up and left if at JEDEC settings, which is what the motherboard detects as default, instead of trying to set it for the factory rated settings.


Thanks all I'll try the encryption