That's actually the official way to reset the password for a number of systems. [0][1][2]
[0] https://www.dell.com/support/article/au/en/aubsd1/sln170684/...
[1] https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkStation-Workstations/How-d...
[2] https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Boot-and-Lockup/how-to...
Can I obtain this somehow? I have a business grade HP laptop from 2006 (nw8440 I think) and I forgot my BIOS setup password. I need to enable the NX bit to upgrade from win7 to win10! Removing the CMOS battery overnight (and all other power) did not help.
1. Power off.
2. Hold the Windows, Up arrow and Down arrow keys all at the same time. Only then hit the power button to start.
3. Release all buttons and press F10.
4. You should see something about "SMC Command" starting.
5. Press File, press "Reset BIOS security defaults" or similar.
The only way to get the SMC.bin file, that I know of, is directly from HP Business Support.
It's also unusual that discharging the CMOS removed the boot password. It shouldn't do that. I also worked on similar desktops (they were IBM desktops from before they were spun off) and they didn't have this problem that I can recall. Very few systems had boot passwords, however.
I'm certain that the BIOS passwords didn't clear this way, however, because we had a few systems that had old passwords that nobody knew. Instead, we had a copy of the tech software used to program the BIOS. You had to boot that program and use it to clear the password. HP had a similar program, but that stopped working around 2010 when the computers started to ship with a TPM and you could no longer just clear the content.