Phoenix Bios.

I have a Mobo with Phoenix BIOS on it, its 1.7 Ghz, (My current machine.) I had quite some difficulty getting it to run everything okay without access to BIOS because it is (to my surprise) Password locked!

It's an HP Vectra vL800.
Anyone have any suggestions / familiarity with this piece of hardware?

I already have tried default backdoor Passwords and I was more or less thinking about trying something more or less like a program to hack the password for me.

I also tried removing the battery. (I took it out for about 40 minutes.) & BIOS still asked for a password.

did you try "shorting" the BIOS? not sure if it will do anything removing the battery didn't do but it might be worth a shot... there should be two/three pins with a jumper... check the manual or look for the jumper near the battery

[edited]
also disconnect the power supply from the main board before shorting the jumper

I've tried looking for the three pinned jumper, I did not see anyone near the battery nor any jumper even labeled CMOS. So I was puzzled, I also checked the manual on the hp website. I might of missed something in it, but from what I read the section on the motherboard was very brief.

HP Vectra vL800

you will need the mainboard model/manufacturer

did you try disconnecting the power supply and then remove the battery ?

Yes, I did. For 30 minutes or so I removed the battery.
Should I remove the PSU's Pin connector? Or the power cable in the back and put it into the OFF position instead? Because I didn't disconnect the cable, I just removed the back plug and turned the switch followed by taking the battery out.

you need to disconnect the PSU from the main board...(24 pin mod.)

any luck determining exactly what main board is in the box?

The only clue I got is that is a "Alpamayo Motherboard" that HP used for this model. I haven't had any luck finding manuals on the item though.

if removing the battery with the PSU disconnected does not work and you can't find the jumper to short the BIOS you might have to consider one of these alternatives:

http://library.mobrien.com/Manuals/MPRM_Group/Cracking_CMOS_Password.html

Oh I forgot to mention!
I have a series of DIP SWITCHES on the side of the motherboard, 0-9 and 0-6. or so. I dont remember exactly but there were two sets.

I would not mess with any jumpers/switches without a manual..

However the "clear CMOS" pins MAY look like a standard jumper but the the jumper might only be over one of the pins...so to "short" the CMOS you would place the jumper over both pins and then return it to its current position... it would most likely be the only jumper normally over a single pin...

question...

When you access the BIOS setup (regardless of the user/pswd prompt) does it not tell you the make/model of the motherboard at the top of the screen?

No, it doesn't tell me what kind of Motherboard make I have. It only says HP and gives me the ability to select SETUP (HP's version of BIOS) & it loads and requests a password. No user, just a password. I tried CMOS, BIOS, Phoenix, PHOENIX, and phoenix. None of those work.