You need to connect some pins on the parallel port for a reset. Quick Google:

"Connect these pins: 1-5-10, 2-11, 3-17, 4-12, 6-16, 7-13, 8-14, 9-15, 18-25"

I know that there are complete guides out there, maybe this can get you started.

you know, i saw that on one of those scammy Q/A sites, but it just seemed a bit farfetched to me. I guess I'll hack up a spare printer cable and get to work.

Simple clear CMOS by disconnecting the internal battery doesn't work?

havli wrote:

Simple clear CMOS by disconnecting the internal battery doesn't work?

Nope tried that. Took it apart, found the CMOS battery (it has two for some reason) and disconnected.

DaveJustDave wrote on 2019-05-02, 17:55:

you know, i saw that on one of those scammy Q/A sites, but it just seemed a bit farfetched to me. I guess I'll hack up a spare printer cable and get to work.

DaveJustDave, did that parallel port method work? I have similar problem with Portege laptop.

It works, I've had to do that on a Toshiba Libretto 50CT and a Toshiba Tecra 8000. The toshiba maintenance manuals have the pinout listed, I think it's called a Parallel Port Wraparound Connector in there, with the pinout listed in the wiring diagrams section.

havli wrote on 2019-05-02, 19:14:

Simple clear CMOS by disconnecting the internal battery doesn't work?

Laptop generally save security data in a separated separated from nvram values in an eeprom chip. Sometimes you can hard tamper that eeprom short circuiting its pins to erase its contents or soldering a new blank eeprom, but sometimes... If the BIOS doesn't find certain expected data or checksums in them it will never let you boot. That's the case with Thinkpads. Dunno about Toshibas (with Toshiba BIOSes).

Use a KEY disk - very quick and simple to create and use.

See here: https://www.retrocomputing.co.uk/2019/10/rese … op-bios_18.html

Broke my Toshiba 3330V laptop while trying to reset boot/bios password with LPT/Parallel port device 🙁

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WebSYPUN3fo

MAZter wrote on 2020-02-12, 03:09:

Broke my Toshiba 3330V laptop while trying to reset boot/bios password with LPT/Parallel port device 🙁

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WebSYPUN3fo

Am I missing something as I've watched the video and it shows the laptop being fixed as the device has done what it is supposed to do and remove the BIOS/CMOS password as it no longer requests a password but instead reports that the BIOS/CMOS configuration settings are not set and you need to go in to the BIOS and set them?

FazzaGBR wrote on 2020-02-12, 13:58:

Am I missing something as I've watched the video and it shows the laptop being fixed as the device has done what it is supposed to do and remove the BIOS/CMOS password as it no longer requests a password but instead reports that the BIOS/CMOS configuration settings are not set and you need to go in to the BIOS and set them?

Heh, that was joke, laptop actually fixed 😀

Hi there guys, thanks for all the comments.

I recently picked up a cheap Toshiba 490xcdt (p2 era) and Toshiba Tecra 8000. The 490xcdt had the bios password. Removed both cmos batteries and hard drive, bios password still stays (? eeprom).

ANYWAYS, was going to build a parallel port bypass device (soldering/twisting wires) but read somewhere about someone just tying some wires together that made me think.... Why not just jumper the port directly?

Using paper clips, a right angle wire cutter (to clip the paperclips shorter/cleanly where needed); I was able to wire it up and get it working. I made a video but need to edit it... The only tricky one was the 1-5-10 triple cable which I wired by having a 2nd wire/paperclip touch the one in the 1-10 port.

Anyways, I've uploaded a picture. Works great and saves people from having to buy/build devices to use one off.