I have got a mess: a really flakey individual built my system and put a password on the BIOS setup and then didn't give it to me and left town. (thanks!) I'm trying to switch to the sound on the motherboard but cannot a)access the BIOS to check settings and b)don't know the make of the motherboard and c)I'm winging it cuz I'm only semi hardware literate. Is there a way to bypass the password? How can I tell the make of the motherboard? I know the chipset is ALI1543C and the bios is AMIBIOS. Do I have to change jumper settings to get sound? Would it be easier to buy a lottery ticket and get the $ to buy a new sound card? Thanks!

Hi Cindy. What a predicament. Let's think about a solution. No one else has dared try anything, so let's go. You say you are semi hardware literate, so this is only a maybe if you think you can do it. I have never, ever, put a password on the BIOS setup, so I don't know exactly when it asks you for it. (I hate passwords, anyway) What you can do is take out the battery for CMOS and wait a few seconds to put it back in. This will clear everything out of the memory for BIOS setup and put it back to the original factory setting; hopefully sans password. Then, you should be able to go into setup and do what ever you need to. You will have to reenable your drives and what ever else you are running. That's why I said you need to decide if you can do it. If not, there is plenty of help available here in computing.net, but you should have your motherboard manual handy. Don't have one? Get it online from the manufacturer. Actually it won't be that difficult to set it up. Good luck :)

some boards will require that you use a jumper that is meant for clearing the CMOS/BIOS. Check on this as doing this incorrectly can physically damage the BIOS. borelli34

Other boards (for example the Asus A7V133 Raid) have just two contacts you need to shortcut while the computer i shut down. It depends on the board and should be described in the manual. That brings us to your problem Cindy that you don't know what mainboard you have: Take a very close look onto the mainboard. Somewhere between all those things on it should be a build in area that shows the name of the board manufacturer. Normally it has the same color as all the wires build into it. The nasty thing is that every one uses another place to set this information. If you found the name of the manufacturer take a closer look below or around the name and hopefully there you also find the name of the board and the revision number (Rev. x.xx). If they aren't there you have to search again. Start under and around the name. If you have the manufacturer, name and revision of the board you can go to the internet site of the manufacturer and download the manual. You should find it under downloads or support. In every case we may need to know what board you have to help you.

I downloaded Aida and it read the board - Amptron PII-3726(M)T - so I downloaded the manual from the manufacturer. The diagram they show for component placement on the board and several of the component shapes are different than the board. Hmmmm Also, I can see the chipset has ALI1543C on it very plainly and Aida showed it as ALI1621 - it's also listed on the BIOS splash on boot as ALI1621. I'm getting so confused!!! A few comments on the guy who built the system: very paranoid! Where is the battery for the CMOS? I found the jumpers for the sound - the manual shows one row, there were two, I mirrored the settings on both rows and crossed my fingers... nothing happened. Is the setting to switch the sound on in the Setup? I can't find the jumper or battery info in the manual. (here I am pounding my head on the desk and wanting my MP3s)

Okay, I found the CMOS clear jumpers... of course the manual doesn't tell you exactly what to do! Do I turn off and unplug, move the jumper, reboot, turn off and move jumper back? Help? Thanks!

Turn off and unplug Move the jumper Wait 15 to 30 seconds or get a cup of coffee Move the jumper back Plug in and turn on It should boot with bios defaults Good luck