Hello, Am trying to setup a laptop for a friend that his daughter put a system password on and now she doesn't remember it, it's a Toshiba M3. I've taken it apart and disconnected the cmos battery from the board and left it disconnected for ages but it still asked for a password. I tried disconnecting a few more cables such as the main power etc, it still asked for a password. Then I looked for jumpers or plates to short in an attempt to clear the cmos that way and I found the following ones (in pic) near to the bios chip, I was sure this would do the trick since the word "Reset" is next to them: So I connected them with a metal tweezers I was using to help me disassemble the laptop, turned it back on, still asked for a password. I tried this with the main power both out and in and with the cmos battery both connected and disconnected and always the battery was out, still asked for a password. I also tried shorting them with a little screwdriver. Then I read somewhere that Toshiba laptop cmos reset jumpers (or copper plates in the case of laptops) are often near the ram slots, so I found a couple there and proceeded to short them. Still asked for a password (see the following photo for the plates I am talking about). I then tried shorting them while the main power was plugged in (this may have been my folly but I tried this anyway since they had no effect while the main power was disconnected) and the green led turned to orange! I want to be clear, I did not do this when the power was on, the green led that I am referring to is just on when mains power is attached. So then I tried to turn it on and it wouldn't turn on, just the now orange led flashed. I disconnected the power and re-connected and tried to turn it on and the lights were now back to green and looking normal but the laptop no longer turns on at all, the processor fan doesn't spin and the screen does not turn on and hence does not present the Toshiba splash or password prompt anymore. All the lights that normally come on when the laptop is fully working do still come on. Have I hurt it bad? Any tips on anything I can do to get this machine up and running again or is it just for parts? Replies much appreciated, thanks.
disconnect all power sources which includes batteries. try shorting those contacts again 1 at a time & then power up each time with main battery.
Shorting the circuits one at a time did the job! (I think it was one of the ones on the plates next to the ram that did the trick, not the ones next to "reset") Thanks once again ddp! You have any ideas on how I reset this bios?
No, doing that enabled the pc to properly turn on again (cpu fan spinning, display on screen) but it is still asking for the system password... EDIT: To be absolutely clear, what happened was I tried to reset the bios password by various means, disconnecting the cmos battery, shorting the metal contacts in the images above, in doing so I messed up the power somehow on the laptop (it died) and that's what I initially posted for help with. After touching the contacts one by one it came back to life. So now I am back to square one where at least I have a working laptop but it's still asking for a bios password and that's what I need help with now.
i presume both batteries & external power was disconnected when you were doing the shorting routine that brought the bios back to life?
Anymore ideas here? I've read elsewhere that certain Toshibas need sending back to Toshiba to clear the cmos, but essentially all they do is short a few pins in various locations so it should be possible without sending back?? Surely the pins marked "reset" must have something to do with it?
Sold it off in parts in the end cuz I couldn't get that damn bios reset, very tricky for me with some Toshibas
sorry i could've helped but i just joined. but for anyone with a toshiba laptop the 2 pins are located under the wireless card
How will I recognise it, there are many there. And I have to get this laptop up and running within 24hrs
