Sage advice from Acer tech support.

COMPUTERKARATE

COMPUTERKARATE

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Aspire 5810 BIOS lock and sage advice from Acer tech support.

Told me to take problem to any repair shop or send it to them for $99.00. I have consulted with two other local techs and now I offer it up to my fellow forum members.

Acer, Aspire, 5810TZ with InsydH20 BIOS.
BIOS is PW protected. F12 alternate boot sequence screen is disabled.
Windows Vista is hosed and unrepairable.
Cannot boot from CD as sequence is set to HDD priority.
It will boot from CD if HDD is disconnected
Note:BIOS does not throw an error code upon halting.
Tried several bootable BIOS password crackers (UBCD, Hiren's, CMOS Cleaner etc.)Note:BIOS does not throw an error code upon halting.
Disconnected main and CMOS batteries for 24+ hours.
Acer service manual suggest flashing BIOS but I cannot locate the JM41X64.FD BIOS file. BIOS update on ACER site download provides a xxx.exe for flashing but none of the files included is the raw .FD file

Acer says to send it in or take it to a local repair shop. Boy that was really a boost to my confidence. Ok, local repair shops of the world.....Am I missing something?

Thanks guys and gals.
 
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Yes, thanks, I've tried everthing I could find that didn't lead to a dead end. What do think of the previous post re acersnoop? Looks a little funny. Just send $10? I don't know?
 
I haven't used them before, but I found it from another thread on technibble.

Let me see if I can find the one I *have* used in the past....

Edit: I've used this service a couple of times and it was worked perfectly both times. Unfortunately, they don't list your model.
 
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Sorry, I don't have an answer to the password question, but I have reinstalled the O/S in what may be a similar situation where I could not get into the Bios to change the boot order.

This is what I did:
I removed the hard drive and wiped it clean, reinstalled the HD and turned the system on with the Vista O/S disk in the rom drive. The system sees that there is no O/S on the HD and then moves on to the Rom drive looking for an O/S, thereby starting the install.:)

Hope this helps.
 
Almost all machines have either a bios reset button or a BIOS jumper reset position. I would go with the jumper option as this is almost guaranteed to work.


I found this quote somewhere:

http://www.fixya.com/support/t5437687-acer_aspire_5810t_bios
Then if you are unable to access with default password then open back cover of laptop then you will find motherboard .There is 1 round cmos cell on motherboard pull cmos cell from motherboard for 10 minutes then put back then check.You can also reset with jumper settings on motherboard it has 3 pin 1-2-3 put jumper in 2-3 position then power up then again put in 1-2 position then check. Let me know if you need further assistance. Thanks for using FixYa.
Click to expand...
 
Outcome

Notebook— so no jumpers. Battery disconnect and jumped— no change. Decided to forget about the BIOS and just reload the OS. Customer was happy. For tech info. Disconnecting both batteries did unlock the BIOS user password allowing machine operation but the BIOS supervisor password remains locked.

Thank you for all the response.

Dave aka ComputerKarate
 
I've just done an Acer, the xxx.exe you have has the FD file in it, if you use uniextract it will extract the exe and files are there?

Just looked at the BIOS on Acer site and all files are there when extracted. Not sure though why it lists it all at kernel patches?
 
COMPUTERKARATE said:
Thanks for all the suggestions. I found the solution for clearing the BIOS. I had it all the time right under my nose. Thanks again.
Click to expand...

Drum roll.................

Come on, you can't say you had the solution all along and not tell everyone that was taking the time to help you? :rolleyes:
 
Was this tried to clear the password?
Clearing Password Check and BIOS Recovery

This section provides the standard operating procedures for clearing the password and BIOS recovery for Aspire 5810T/5810TZ/5410T/5810TG Series. There is one Hardware Open Gap on the main board for clearing the password check and one Hotkey for enabling BIOS Recovery.

attachment.php

​


Steps for Clearing BIOS Password Check

If the user sets the BIOS Password (Supervisor Password and/or User Password) for a security reason, the BIOS will ask for the password during system POST or when the system enters into the BIOS Setup menu. If it is necessary to bypass the password check, the user needs to short the hardware gap to clear the password by following these steps

• Power off the system, and remove the HDD, AC adapter and battery from the computer.

• Open the back cover of the computer and look for the hardware gap on the main board as shown in the picture(s) above.

• Use an electric conductivity tool to short the two points of the hardware gap.

• Plug in the AC adapter while retaining the short condition on the hardware gap. Press the power button to turn on the computer until the BIOS POST routine is finished. Finally, remove the tool from the hardware gap.

• Restart the system. Press the F2 key to enter BIOS Setup menu.

• If there is no password request, the BIOS Password is cleared. Otherwise, repeat the steps above and try again.

NOTE: The steps are only for clearing the BIOS password (Supervisor Password and User Password).
Click to expand...
 

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