I recently bought a batch of used computers for spare parts and found one with an unusually capable setup: an Intel DX79TO full-size ATX motherboard, 8 RAM slots populated with 64 GB of DDR3, and an i7-3820. I added a GTX 1070 and tried to bring it back to life, but startup stops with a message saying the chassis was opened and asking for a password. I don't know the password, and the system won't let me reach the BIOS or boot normally. I already tried resetting the CMOS and using the password-clear jumper. Is there another way to remove or bypass this chassis-intrusion password?
4 Answers
This feature was intended for business environments where opening a computer without authorization needed to be recorded. It can be useful for detecting tampering, even though it is a major headache when you inherit a second-hand system. In older offices, people sometimes opened machines and removed RAM, so the warning had a practical purpose.
If the jumper and CMOS reset do not work, the remaining option may be to reprogram the BIOS chip directly with an external programmer. A complete BIOS rewrite can remove stored password and intrusion settings, but it requires identifying the chip, making a backup first, and using compatible firmware for the exact DX79TO revision.
The chassis-intrusion alert and the regular BIOS password are separate settings. On these Intel boards, the manual describes using a maintenance jumper to reach a special menu and then choosing the password-clearing option. Unfortunately, it appears the board may still demand the chassis-intrusion password before allowing access to that maintenance menu, which makes the recovery process rather poorly designed.
Removing the battery alone probably won’t clear this kind of password, since the setting may be stored in a protected area rather than ordinary CMOS memory. Also, shorting the power pins or using a screwdriver will not help here—the system is stopping before BIOS access and specifically requesting the chassis-intrusion password.
That sounds promising. I’ll investigate the BIOS chip and external programming route before giving up on the board.