Hi there,

The laptop is an Acer Aspire 5253-BZ489
Windows 7 Home Premium
AMD Dual core C50.

I cannot access BIOS. (asks for password)
same when normal boot through Windows log-in.
this laptop has only 1 user account, no other admin nor guest.
so I cannot get to boot menu to boot from cd or usb.
any help is very appreciated.

thanks in advance.

Hi kurly2970

If you Acer laptop is still under Acer warranty, its best that you have an authorized Acer Service Center check and remove the password for you. Take note that they might charge you for the password reset. Remember that opening the laptop screws and tampering with the settings might void your existing warranty with Acer.

Even if your Acer laptop is no longer under warranty, authorized Acer Service Centers will still help you with the password removal and charge you the necessary service fee.


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If your Acer laptop is out of warranty and you are more willing to experiment in trying to reset the cmos password yourself (instead of going to an Acer service center)

Then take note that the steps and ideas below are not supported by Acer, but some users have reported success in removing the cmos battery..

Unplug the laptop from the charger, remove the laptop battery, unscrew the back cover of the laptop, locate and remove the CMOS battery for 30 minutes.

In a previous thread here in Syschat, it seemed that removing the CMOS battery and other observable wire connections for 30minutes or so worked

http://www.syschat.com/hp-pavillan-d...word-6828.html

The pictures are taken from the previous post


The picture on the left is how a CMOS battery looks like in an HP laptop. If you can find that and detach/disconnect for 30 minutes or so, it is hoped that this will reset the cmos password.


This website http://www.insidemylaptop.com/taking...e-5100-laptop/ shows some previews as the blogger opens several laptops. It might help you inspect the insides of your acer laptop and hopefully find the cmos battery.

Im taking some of the pictures to here for faster viewing.










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Also, there is said to be a “text” password saved in the hidden partition of your Acer’s hard drive.

A summary of the steps that they did is to:

1. Boot the laptop from an Ubuntu Live CD (just boot the CD and DO NOT INSTALL)
2. The Ubuntu OS will detect the hard drive and its hidden partition called the “PQSERVICE”
3. Browse the contents of the “PQSERVICE” partition, in its root directory, there is said to be a \TOOLS\AIMDRS.DAT
4. You can open the AIMDRS.DAT file with notepad.
5. There should be a line that says "password" PD= "XXXXX"
XXXXX is the password that yor can try.

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Well, goodluck on this, you may choose to send the laptop to an authorized Acer service center for a guaranteed fix. Or if the laptop is no longer in warranty and you are initially hesistant to pay the service fee, you can try the suggestions above.

Hi Dominic,

Thanks for your help. I actually did contact Acer, thety were very helpful.


jackie

Hi jackie,

Can you post the steps you used?

Thanks!

Fixed it. Just pull the BIOS battery easily accessed by removing the hard drive access cover.