[Felix The Assassin]

Originally posted by Bozos of Bones: @ Felix The Assassin - The motherboards are set to discharge all capacitors when a certain time passes without a battery, and that time is almost never longer than 3 minutes, so turning it completely off for 12 hours yields no added results. You don't need to unplug anything but the battery.

Sometimes, maybe, possibly, then again a number 6 waffle iron may only produce 5. You are correct 12 hours may not yield any added results. [img]graemlins/cheers.gif[/img]
Remember, this is a store bought, major brand, proprietary system, for the home user.

Originally posted by http://labmice.techtarget.com/articles/BIOS_hack.htm: Removing the CMOS Battery The CMOS settings on most systems are buffered by a small battery that is attached to the motherboard. (It looks like a small watch battery). If you unplug the PC and remove the battery for 10-15 minutes, the CMOS may reset itself and the password should be blank. (Along with any other machine specific settings, so be sure you are familiar with manually reconfiguring the BIOS settings before you do this.) Some manufacturers backup the power to the CMOS chipset by using a capacitor, so if your first attempt fails, leave the battery out (with the system unplugged) for at least 24 hours. Some batteries are actually soldered onto the motherboard making this task more difficult. Unsoldering the battery incorrectly may damage your motherboard and other components, so please don't attempt this if you are inexperienced. Another option may be to remove the CMOS chip from the motherboard for a period of time. Note: Removing the battery to reset the CMOS will not work for all PC's, and almost all of the newer laptops store their BIOS passwords in a manner which does not require continuous power, so removing the CMOS battery may not work at all. IBM Thinkpad laptops lock the hard drive as well as the BIOS when the supervisor password is set. If you reset the BIOS password, but cannot reset the hard drive password, you may not be able to access the drive and it will remain locked, even if you place it in a new laptop. IBM Thinkpads have special jumper switches on the motherboard, and these should be used to reset the system.