So, about those Acer netbooks.

[Occulus]

A friend of mine just called with a little problem. He has an Acer Aspire One netbook computer; he just got it from Craigslist. The thing was brand new, and came with the box and everything except the system disk, which isn't the problem for him. No, his problem is, it also came with a BIOS password (set by the original owner and traded to the Craigslist seller).

This, I thought, will be easy.

Not so. The first indication something was "up" came when he told me that Acer had actually welded the battery in place. Whaaaa...? I've been building my own desktop systems for quite a while now, and I know that when that battery dies, Bad Things start to happen. So that was a huge red flag to me that this was a machine designed to make money at a later date right out of the box. Great for Acer, terrible for end users.

Then he told me that they wanted to charge him to clear the password. You have got to be kidding. So, I did sone digging, and I found this:

A few days ago a client called and asked if we can reset or remove bios passwords. He wanted to set a bios password on his Acer Aspire One so nobody could access it without supplying the right password. This is exactly what he did - part of his email:

"I restarted the AA1, pressed to access the bios and found where I could change the password. I typed a new password twice in order to make sure I typed the same password, saved the new password and rebooted the AA1. And yes, the AA1 now had power-on password protection. I typed in my password, but no… Wrong password! I typed it once more, but with same result: Wrong password! OMG! What went wrong? I did type the same password twice – the same I am now trying to get the bios to accept, but no luck. Please, please, help!!!"

What happened here is simple and Acer is fully aware of this so called "bios bug" It is not a bios bug, it has been designed by Acer in this way in order to make more and more money from customers sending the devices back. They've designed the bios in a such way as the password you've typed in lower case (99% of the cases) is converted automatically into an upper case one.

For example if your password was "santamaria18" it will now work only if you type "SANTAMARIA18"

Another part of the whole fraud (as I cannot call it anything else) is that the password cannot be longer than 8 characters. Therefore going back to the above example we understand that our bios password "santamaria18" is actually "SANTAMAR". That is a huge difference!

So remember, if’ you’re planning on playing with bios passwords on your AA1, keep caps-lock in mind!

The last part of Acer's fraud (the last discovered by us so far) is that in 30% of the cases the password is totally changed into something else therefore you won't get it back following the above given solutions.

If that's your case, then keep reading as we have a solution to that too:

The AA1 has a built-in BIOS recovery routine, making it possible to flash the BIOS even if the system doesn't boot anymore. It's only meant for emergencies and may void your warranty, so use at your own risk.

Follow every step carefully!

:wow: I will be staying away from Acer netbooks, and I would recommend everyone else do the same. They may work just fine.... until. And then, Acer has determined that they and only they are qualified to fix these problems; as I recall, it was a substantial amount of cash to hand to them to clear the BIOS password. Clearing the BIOS password should be a five minute end-user job at the most.

Just thought I'd pass it on. We're going through the whole rigamarole tomorrow; it sounds as though it should work fine and the process is pretty straightforward.

[CK_John]

1. All Laptops or netbooks have the same basic system and you can easily turn them into door stops

just by closing the lid or hitting the wrong Fn key. This is not a scam but part of the security system for laptops built over the years.

[Occulus]

5. This seems to go a bit further than that, though

I mean, really. Soldering the battery onto the motherboard?

[struggle4progress]

2. Which model? And which battery?

[Occulus]

4. All I know is that it's an Acer Aspire One

I haven't actually seen it yet.

I'll be sure to test the password issue if/when I get my hands on it- assuming I can fix it in the first place! But welding the battery in place is just going too far, IMO. The caps conversion thing has me, too- a mix of capitals and lower-case is preferred for a strong password, and adding in symbols is better yet. Why they would take away that option is beyond me- although I bet my own desktop's BIOS does the same thing. Being so flaky as to change the password outright (if that in fact occasionally happens)? That's just plain silly.

I could understand some of these things in a corporate environment- as another person pointed out, these are intended "features", not bugs- but giving the same thing to the consumer is asking for trouble.... or more paid tech support.

[hunter]

3. It's a feature, not a bug, and not unique to this laptop.

Okay, maybe the password setup in this computer is a flaky, but major corporate IT departments won't purchase laptops that employees can easily mess around with. Few people will open up and mess with a desktop computer at work, but when employees take laptop computers home or on the road the temptation increases greatly.

Corporate IT wants the laptop disabled if you try to change things because then you have to return it to them and try to explain what happened.

[Statistical]

6. Acer sells replacement batteries.

http://www.google.com/products?q=acer+aspire+one+battery&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=qnboSoXkDoukMZya6aII&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCwQrQQwAw

They aren't welded into place.

[struggle4progress]

7. The post may concern the CMOS battery. I'm not sure how accessible it is on the AAO --

or whether it is soldered on any or all models. If it is soldered, you hope there's an adjacent connector on the motherboard so one can just attach a new battery; otherwise, unsoldering the old battery and soldering a new one is necessary -- and there are certain hazards associated with this

Soldering the CMOS battery seems stupid to me, but it's been done for years (though not by everyone):

I remember when I was a kid my friend replaced a 286's on-board soldered CMOS battery (the black solid rectangle piece of hardware with usually a white clock painted on). I remember he did that following a guide he found over the Internet ... http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=16327&sid=85ba996ce480a1c009ce5d043385f23e

Unfortunately the CMOS battery is soldered to the motherboard on the <Zepto Zbnote> 6615WD ... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=196406

3.6 volt ni-cad battery - 60mah - 2 pin connector - solder on. Replacement for most soldered on "barrel" type batteries.If your motherboard has a 4 pin connection near your old battery use B220 which you just plug on ... http://murfsgarage.cybertechhelp.com/cmos.htm

With some older motherboards, the battery was soldered on. This is especially true with the 386 and early 486 motherboards. The biggest problem with these batteries was corrosion ... If your adept at soldering, desoldering the battery and replacing it should be a straight forward procedure. For those of us who would rather not solder, there is a way around it. With a lot of the older motherboards, a jumper was available to attach a battery. This allowed for easy replacement of the battery on these older motherboards. If this is the case, you can simply purchase a battery from a local computer store or one of the big name brand stores ... The lead for it connects to the jumper on the motherboard for an external battery. Ensure that you check your motherboard for the type of battery and the method of replacement, especially for the older motherboards ... http://www.cybertechhelp.com/tutorial/article/how-to-replace-the-cmos-battery

If your motherboard doesn't use a CR2032, things could be trickier. With any luck, it will use another easily replaceable battery, but some older PCs use barrel-shaped batteries soldered to the motherboard. If you are handy with electrical equipment, you can get out a soldering gun, remove the old battery, and solder in the replacement. If not, find a computer repair shop to do it for you. (Then again, chances are that any computer that uses a soldered battery is well past its prime. This might be a good excuse to get a new machine.) ...http://www.smartcomputing.com/editorial/article.asp?guid=&bJumpto=true&Isfrm=IN&article=articles/webonly/techsupport/110w10/110w10.asp&ArticleID=31003

[struggle4progress]

8. How can a previous owner have set a BIOS password if the machinbe is brandnew?

[struggle4progress]

9. AAOs have no CD reader, hence do not ship with system disks

[Occulus]

12. True, I'd forgotten that

He'd have to format a USB stick to put a different system on it. Which system would be appropriate, I've no idea; I haven't even looked at the specs and I don't want to guess until I actually have it in hand.

[struggle4progress]

14. You may be able to reflash the BIOS using a thumbdrive

Some Acer sites have BIOS download, with a Windows app, and elsewhere on the web you can find instructions for doing it without the windows app

[struggle4progress]

10. AAO BIOS security screen explicitly warns passwords must be LE 8 char

[Duer 157099]

11. I have an older Dell laptop and the cmos battery is soldered

Really pissed me off when I discovered it because changing the battery is one of the first troubleshooting steps I perform.

[Occulus]

13. I truly don't understand it.

What benefit is it? Do they do this to keep the battery from popping out if the laptop is jarred around or something? Or do they do it for the tech $$$upport?

[Duer 157099]

15. Well until I read some of the replies above, I also didn't get it

But I think I do now. Removing the cmos battery is an easy way to reset the computer (passwords, in particular) and since laptops are so mobile, I can see the logic in wanting to make it just a little more difficult to do so.

I like the idea of a laptop but I don't like the implementation of them.

[MyNameGoesHere]

16. Please use with caution and at you own risk

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2969.html

MAKE SURE you have a new bios and a way to flash it first before doing anything. Also if you do not mind diggin into your Acer Aspire One, which i have done many times, you can jump the cmos and hit power button to reset, IT may not work for the password bug that is known