I'm trying to fix up my old dell inspiron 2650 for my sister. I went to reinstall windows for give it a fresh start in its factory settings, but it was asking for a BIOS password. My brother set the password and doesn't remember what it is. So I took the computer apart to remove the battery and reset the BIOS but I cannot locate the battery. I found something that I believe may be it on the underside of the mother board but I do not want to mess with it. Does anyone know where the CMOS battery is located on a dell inspiron 2650. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

You don't have to remove the batter to reset the bios. There should be a set of pins that you can put a jumper over for a second or two that will reset the bios. If you have a manual for the motherboard it should tell you where the pins are, if not contact Dell support and they can tell you.

I don't really know anything about pins or jumpers... not even what they are. If you could explain it to me I would appreciate it. I think I may have found the CMOS battery but it is connected and won't come off an I don't want to do anything to mess it up so I left it alone. It is a small silver circular object attached to the motherboard by two metal objects on each side. It says Maxwell on it.

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Originally Posted by lost??

I dont really know anything about pins or jumpers.... not even what they are. If you could explain it to me I would appreciate it. I think I may have found the CMOS battery but it is connected and won't come off an I dont want to do anything to mess it up so I left it alone. It is a small silver circular object attached to the motherboard by two metal objects on each side. It says Maxwell on it.

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That does sound like the cmos battery. Usually there's a little level on one side, if you just press it out away from the battery, the battery will pop up out of the slot.

Jumpers are little pieces of plastic with metal in them, and they go on a set of pins. When you put the jumper on the pins, it shorts them and makes a connection. Sometimes it's near the battery, sometimes it's not... It should say Clear CMOS or CMOS reset or something like that next to the jumper, but they don't always say that either.

You can download your laptops' manual from here Documentation

I called dell and they said there is no CMOS battery on laptops and only in desktops. This doesn't make sense to me? Does anyone else know if this is true or not?

[called dell and they said there is no CMOS battery on laptops and only in desktops. This doesn't make sense to me? Does anyone else know if this is true or not?]

You got one of them idiots at Dell. Yes there are cmos batteries on laptops. I have two Dells and have cmos on both. I like the original poster of this thread just have to find it on my Inspiron 2650 I just got.

I do not know what bios manufacturer you have but I'm guessing as with most dell laptops ts a phoenix bios customized by dell so try entering the master passwords either:

Phoenix

Or

DELL

If they do not work then bad luck, these inspirons have the EEPROM chips soldered on the board so you will need an eeprom reader and also a program that can decode the password from the data (not to mention extracting the chip... ).

--REASON WHY DELL ARE W!#@ERS #17--
They code the passwords different for every hardware tag (cant remember since when your inspiron might be old enough)

If that's the case then contact dell, do a change of ownership (or if she was who bought it get your sis to phone and they can give her the password) and get them to give you the password... a lot of people want a program to decode the password from the hardware tag... just a thought: if we gang up and kidnap a dell employee he can tell us how to do it eh ;)

Last case scenario you can get a new mobo for it

Edit:ill ask around and see if anyone knows which chps the bios one as a lot of people need to get the bios password off these inspirons (my inspiron's main battery broke, then the power supply broke and when I replaced that I found out the cpu fan is broken so it only turns on for 5 seconds then overheats! Grrr THIS is why I ONLY trust thinkpads, everything on them just works)

I have used a program called KILLCMOS on a few computers and this will remove the BIOS password for you.
You must remember to go straight into the BIOS and either set your settings or set it back to the BIOS factory defaults or it might cause you more problems.
I will not take the blame if your laptop or PC breaks.
This program has worked every time for me in the past.
Hope it works for you guys too.