Hi people,
I was working on my laptop (Acer Aspire 5100) when suddenly the laptop turned off without any warning messages. When I attempt to switch on my laptop I receive a message to enter BIOS passsword which is something normal but my keyboard no longer responds.
I am not able to enter the password because when I try to enter the password the keyboard does not respond regardless of which key I press or when I press a key. I tried to access BIOS but, but I could not.
I think resetting the BIOS password might help but it is not that easy for a laptop.
Is there any way to reset laptops password?
This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.
Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.
If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.
Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.
Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.
Access the answers to your technology questions today.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.
Try it out and discover for yourself.
30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.
Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.
This apply for Desktops not for Laptops as almost all of the newer laptops store their BIOS passwords in a manner which does not require continuous power, so removing the CMOS battery may not work at all.
My laptop does not seem to have a battery or is either burned on the motherboard or is well hidden.
You are right removing the cmos battery will not reset a bios password, this will work on some older laptops but nay built in the last 3-4 years will have a security chip that stores the password. From the sounds of it you probably have a bad motherboard. If the laptop is still under warranty i would contact acer. Most laptop manufactures require you to ship the system to a repair facility to reset password. The only one i know of that doesn't is Dell they can generate a master password based on Svc tag and other information, but you are unable to even type anything in so if acer does something similar it still wouldn't work. There are ways i have heard of, shorting out the security chip but it can also brick the system. I would definetly contact Acer.
http://www.tech-faq.com/ac
Quick break down. To change the bios password you will have to send it in and pay 100 dollars, it is not covered in a warranty and they don't save their passwords to the BIOS/CMOS, but in an EEPROM.
My guess and your best bet is get it serviced for being broken and hope that is covered in the warranty if it still exists.
"Resetting an Acer BIOS Password Using Hardware
If you cannot boot the Acer and don't want to send your computer back to Acer for an unknown amount of time, you can try to reset the BIOS password via hardware.
Tech FAQ Forum members have reported that they were able to remove their Acer BIOS passwords by simply opening their notebooks and removing the CMOS batteries for 30 minutes.
Once your BIOS password is removed, you will need to press the <F2> key during POST (Power On Self Test) to enter the Acer BIOS setup."
This is a snippet from the above mentioned web page. However, if your keyboard is non-responsive, I would consider getting the notebook repaired anyway. If you have the hardware, back up all data before sending the notebook in or taking it to a repair facility. More than likely, they will wipe the data.
From what I have read about your specific laptop is that the battery is soldered to your motherboard. I am unsure if you can remove it. I also don't think your bios is causing the doom to your keyboard. Have you tried plugging in an extra keyboard through a USB jack to type with and see if that works?
Of your specific model short of bringing it or sending it to a acer certified tech, then the answer is no. The bios is held in the EEPROM which is a flash ram and isn't affected by the removing of a CMOS battery or the jumper switching to default.
I did read that you may be able to unlock your keyboard with FN + F7 or
Hard power-off (hold the power button until the laptop turns off)
Unplug the AC adaptor
Remove the battery
Plug in the AC adaptor
Hold ctrl and turn the power on. You should arrive at a black screen.
Hard power-off again, then turn the power on.
If these above tricks work to free up your keyboard then great, still no answer on the bios though.
From everything I have read this is "normal" and has been happening a lot since october 2007 on the models that came out around the same time.
In all truthfulness, get a new laptop that isn't an acer and hook up the acer to it, transfer whatever you want to keep and get rid of the old one.
Business Accounts
Answer for Membership
by: cycle303Posted on 2008-02-04 at 14:25:21ID: 20818715
If you open up a laptop (usually through 30 or so screws on the bottom) you will find a normal cmos battery affixed somewhere. Simply unplug the batter, wait for about 5 minutes, and plug it back in. This will reset the password as well as all bios settings.