I need to change the boot order on an old Acer Aspire 4410/4810T laptop that I have, but as soon as I hit F2 on startup it asks me for a BIOS password. I have no clue as to what the password is.
I have read a number of web pages that offer weird and wonderful ideas1 for resetting the password, but the three main options seem to be:
- Boot with a USB stick, which is loaded with some recovery software
- Locate to jumper pads on the motherboard (usually under the RAM)
- Disconnect the CMOS battery for 10-20 minutes
This tips are covered in this video, How to Clear/Remove Acer Bios Password, and appear to be backed up by numerous other sites.
As I have said, option one won't work for me – as I can not change the boot order, due to the required password (chicken and egg).
I have located the RTC battery (I am not sure if that is the same as the CMOS battery), using this complete disassembly guide, Aspire 4810 Series
Disassembly Instruction, which was linked to from How to disassemble Acer Aspire 4810T 4810TZ 4410. The complete disassembly guide does not show the CMOS battery, but does show the Real Time Clock (RTC) battery. I disconnected this, for an hour, but still I was asked for the BIOS password, when hitting F2.
So, I am still looking for the BIOS/Password reset jumpers. I have seen photos of many acer laptop motherboards showing the jumpers and their location, just not for the 4810T.
1 This site, How to Reset an Acer BIOS Password, makes mention of the Acer proprietary software Acer eSettings Management, that has a pre-requisite of Acer Empowering Technology. I read a comment on this site, Windows 7: Acer eSettings Management is not on my acer laptop, which says that eSettings Management is now called the Launch Manager, from the Acer downloads page – a dubious claim. I have installed the Launch Manager, regardless, but I was not able to find the software after the reboot.
This page, ACER eSettings Management Software? was useful, but says that eSettings Management only works on Vista. Plus, this page, Acer Empowering Technology question, implies that it is bloat ware.
Best Answer
If you can still load the operating system, you can reset the password with Acer eSettings Management (Acer eSettings Management --> Click BIOS Passwords near the footer of the screen --> Use Create Password or Remove Password option).
As for hardware reset, the reset jumper should be marked CLRP1. If you cannot find that one, just remove the battery, wait up to 1h and re-attach it. In the service manual page 57, they show where the battery is located and how to remove it.