Fought a BIOS password lockout for 3 days, then found a jumper pin I ignored

I picked up an old Dell OptiPlex from a surplus sale in Phoenix last week, and it had a BIOS password the seller didn't know. I spent 2 days trying default codes and CMOS battery pulls, nothing worked. On day 3 I noticed a tiny jumper labeled PSWD near the RAM slots that the service manual mentioned in a footnote. Moved it to pins 2-3, booted, and the password was gone. Has anyone else wasted time on a fix that was literally printed on the motherboard all along?

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rose_murray6d ago

Ngl Ive done the exact same thing with an old ThinkPad. Pulled the battery, shorted pins, tried every default code on the internet. Then I noticed a little switch under the keyboard and felt like an idiot. That jumper was sitting right there the whole time. At least you got it sorted before you did something dumb like removing the chip.