[RWebb]

the Biostar motherboard manual lumps "Headers" into a single chapter with Jumpers - a Header is just some sort of connector (i.e. serial, parallel, S-P/DIF and some extra (?) USB) - also has USB "power source headers for USB ports" which appear to be jumpers - guess I can safely ignore those

I DO see at least one oddity: the manual sez the Clear CMOS Header (a jumper, called JCMOS1) should be set to Pin 1-2 Close (jumpered together) for Normal Operation, the default.

However, the board came with Pins 2-3 Closed.

This sounds something like what you had.

I don't know if it matters as the instructions to "to restore the BIOS safe setting and the CMOS data" tell you to set it to pin 2-3 close; wait 5 sec. then change it to pin 1-2 close; turn on the power and then reset your password or clear the CMOS data.

- not clear what the idea here - maybe the jumper prevents alteration by the user going thru the BIOS?