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I recently found some of my manuals to remove BIOS passwords in a very familiar design on a totally foreign site:

This page is from 2006.

I found three different ways for bypassing the password-check on a Toshiba-notebook. I had no chance to test them, so I can't promise they will work.

Please also see this homepage for more information regarding removing passwords from IBM ThinkPads.

This is a short one:

For skipping the password check, you have to hold down both mousebuttons after power-on until the first beep. If this doesn't work, try to press both mousebuttons repeatedly.

1. Turn the notebook onto its lid and remove the power plug and battery
2. Remove the screws of the top left cover and open it. You will find the CPU-Cooler.
   
3. Now remove the 4 screws of the Cooler and also the Cooler itself. The BIOS battery is now accessible through a fishplate.
   
4. Short the battery's poles with a screwdriver at the red mark for about 2-5 seconds. After that, the BIOS settings should be deleted.
   
5. Refit everything and take special care to the CPU-Cooler, since a damage to the Dye (the dark rectangular thing in the middle of the CPU) is a death sentence to the CPU. And NEVER boot the notebook without CPU-Cooling!

Thanks to Heiko Kehr. (Everything was done according to this manual.)

These ones are something different. DELL notebooks save their BIOS password in an EEPROM-chip so it isn't deleted when you short-circuit the BIOS battery or something like that.

Also there's no jumper/DIP-switch which disables the password. Nevertheless, there are three different ways to get such things fixed:

This is a short one:

1. Remove the battery, the AC cable and the BIOS battery
2. Wait 10 minutes
3. Insert the AC cable into the notebook and DON'T PRESS ANYTHING
4. After 5 seconds, the notebook should turn itself on and the password should be gone.

1. Open the lid.
2. Remove the keyboard. Proceed as follows:
   First use a flat screwdriver to get unter the keyboard at the green line. Perhaps you have to push in the small clip (the bottom-left red circle in the left pic) to be able to pull slightly the keyboard. Now get another screwdriver and push in the small clip above the ESC-key marked with a red circle. The keyboard should snap out partially. Proceed with the remaining 3 clips in the same way.
   
3. Now turn over the keyboard and locate the BIOS-battery. It is accessible through the hole marked with an arrow:
   
4. Use a screwdriver to short-circuit the BIOS battery for 3-5 seconds. The battery is hidden somewhat right under the metal plate. But you can reach it without removing any other parts. Look:
   
5. Get with a screwdriver between the slit marked with those arrows and short the golden contact in the front with the battery housing.
6. Replace the keyboard. Make sure it snaps into all clips. Now, the BIOS (incl. the password) should be erased.

In the newer SONY VAIO Notebooks, the BIOS password is no longer stored in the volatile CMOS-area but on an EEPROM.

Jean Delvare has published his results of an analysis of various Sony Vaio EEPROM dumps on his homepage. There you can see that the BIOS password is stored encrypted in the first 7 Bytes of the EEPROM and, if no password is set, these Bytes are 00h. So if you delete the whole chip - like you can do with DELL notebooks - you should get rid of the password.

Unfortunately, this would delete all other informations like e.g. serial number, model name, etc., so that specific Sony-Applications might cause trouble or even don't accept the notebook as a SONY-device.

1. Turn the notebook on its lid, plug out the power cord, remove the battery and the CD-ROM drive

2. Remove the screws marked below:

   

This page in English.

Da Notebook-Hersteller die Vergesslichkeit von Passwörtern als Problem erkannt haben, ist es oft recht einfach, ein vergessenes BIOS-Passwort zu entfernen.

1. Öffne die Klappe.
   Hier siehst Du die "Schultern", das QuickAccess-Panel und die Tastatur:
   
2. Entferne die "Schultern", indem Du sie nach aussen schiebst. Sie schützen die Display-Scharniere. Sie befinden sich über der Tastatur, links und rechts von den 4 QuickAccess-Knöpfen.
3. Entferne das QuickAccess-Panel. (erst nach rechts schieben, dann nach oben klappen und dann heraus ziehen)
4. Jetzt die Tastatur oben etwas anheben und ein wenig nach oben schieben. Dann in der Mitte anheben (ein Finger unter F7/F8, einer unter der Leertaste) bis die Tastatur ausrastet. Leg sie am besten kopfüber auf den Touchpad-Bereich. Jetzt sollte es so aussehen:
   
5. Hier sieht man wieder die "Schultern", das QuickAccess-Panel und die Tastatur. Der rote Kreis markiert die DIP-Schalter, die wir suchen.
6. Finde die DIP-Schalter.
7. Schalte den 6. Schalter (von links aus; siehe Foto) auf ON (obere Stellung):
   
8. Jetzt schalte das Notebook ein und drücke im richtigen Moment F2, so dass Du ins BIOS Setup gelangst.
9. Gehe zu "System Security" und schalte das "power-on password" (oder sonstige Passwörter) aus oder geb ein neues ein.
10. Drücke 2x ESC und SPEICHERE die BIOS-Einstellungen.
11. When das Notebook neu startet, schalte den 6ten Schalter wieder auf OFF (untere Stellung). (Schalte das Notebook auch ruhig aus, wenn Du magst.)
12. Bau die Tastatur wieder ein. Erst die Nasen unten in die Halterungen einsetzen, dann links und rechts drücken, bis sie einrastet. Danach, setz das QuickAccess-Panel wieder ein (Einsetzen und nach links schieben). Und zu guter Letzt, die "Schultern".

Diese Seite auf Deutsch.

Since Notebook-manufacturers know of the problem of forgotten passwords, they often implement easy ways to remove BIOS passwords into their notebooks.