The jumper to short the pins out isnt necessary, we're only talking of low voltage DC here, providing you remove the AC power lead you're in no danger, and the case provides plenty of grounding so dont let anyone start harping on about bloody static. You can short the pins using anything metallic but if that scares you, or someone for some reason thinks thats dangerous (again, i've done it this way many many times) dont do it....but I use a nail, or tweezers etc. This is why i recommend removing the battery - not everyone feels comfortable shorting pins out nor do they have a spare jumper! But my above procedure provides people with all possible alternatives so that nothing can be forgotten.
The jumper Bytch was on about is a small (usually balck) plastic coated metal plate with two holes to fit snugly over two pins, shorting them out without risk of touching anything else. They fit onto the back of IDE drives to select master, slave or cable select options for the position of the drive. You are most likely to find a jumper on an old hard drive if you dont already have one. But like I said, I dont use a jumper...no need to.
All the pins do is earth the supply to the volatile memory that holds your BIOS information, cut its power off for a short time and you wipe any tempoary data it holds...such as BIOS settings that arent manufacture defaults. In resetting it you put these settings back to default and thats all this is about. The same effect is achieved if you remove the battery with no mains power present...you must remove the mains lead also, this is why.
So, please, just go ahead and do it...take the power lead out, remove the battery and then short the pins somehow for 10+ seconds (many places recommend 30 seconds but i find this unnecessary). If you cant do that then i dunno what...
If anyone else wants to contradict my advice at least have the decency to explain why...