Cannot boot up ACER LAPTOP

[maira_uk]

Hi guys,

please please can you help me.

i bought a acer laptop second hand, windows vista.
i just switched it on and realised its asking me for a setup password, which i do not know. so please could anyone tell me is there any way for me to re-install windows becz password is unknown. The thing is it is not asking me for a windows password but for setup password which comes up as soon as its in the booting process..

waiting for any kind suggestions plzzz....

thanks!

[Mickha]

Did the laptop come with a Windows Vista disk?
If the laptop is asking for a setup password it might be that the hard drive is partitioned and the Vista back up is on one part of the partition.
If the seller was lazy he could have just wiped the partition containing the Operating System, to destroy his personal details, and now it's booting up it requires a password to procede with re-installing the Operating System.
But this seems unusual.
Can you please post the full make of the laptop, name of range and model number.
Do you have any manuals with the laptop?
Acer do have technical support, on their web site, and the answer could be in the FAQ's, but to get the correct information requires more details of the laptop.

[shorep]

My favourite trick with computers in this state,find the little onboard battery,usually a 232,bit smaller than 10p,take it out and leave the machine for an hour or so,it will forget settings,including passwords,replace battery and start again.
A small phillips to deal with the screws,either under the keyboard for th battery or underneath next to the little cover for the ram memory.

rgds pete.s

[spangle]

Sounds like its asking for a bios password. Doing what shorep has suggested may clear it, but most laptop passwords are stored on a seperatechip, and clearing CMOS or removing the battery will not work to get rid of them.

You should also check that none of the keys are stuck down, usually the Del or F1- F12 keys open the bios options. I've seen that a few times in the past.

[Analoguesat]

I had a similar compaq lappie problem a while back - I was told if I could fix it I could have it.

I had to remove the bios battery and the battery pack to defeat the password. Works fine now

[spangle]

Nice one! Sometimes removing the CMOS battery works but i'm seeing more and more laptops that store the password in flash ram. This is due to the mobility of laptops and how easy it is for them to get lost etc.

[maira_uk]

thanks for the suggestions guys but how do i remove the CMOS battery?

[spangle]

Originally Posted by shorep

A small phillips to deal with the screws,either under the keyboard for the battery or underneath next to the little cover for the ram memory.

look underneath and you should find some access plates, open them up and if you see a small flat battery that's it. Usually you can remove the plastic plate along the top of the keyboard below the screen which will reveal the screws to remove the keyboard. Under the keyboard you would usually find a RAM stick and the CMOS battery if it isn't on the bottom of the laptop.

[maira_uk]

sorry for the late reply!

Thanks for all ur help guys...it did work!

cheers!

[spangle]

Cool glad to hear it