How long does a CMOS battery need to be out before it resets PW?

slightlyhuman · 12-09-2012, 11:16 AM

I have an Acer TravelMate 5520. Trying to reinstall the OS on it but can't get into the BIOS due to a password. I managed to get to the CMOS battery and pulled it out. Left it out for 10-15 minutes and tried getting back into the BIOS but it's still prompting me for a password.

:beer;

MagnusTheBrewer · 12-09-2012, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slightlyhuman

I have an Acer TravelMate 5520. Trying to reinstall the OS on it but can't get into the BIOS due to a password. I managed to get to the CMOS battery and pulled it out. Left it out for 10-15 minutes and tried getting back into the BIOS but it's still prompting me for a password.

:beer;

You might try pushing the power button while the CMOS battery is removed. At least one person I googled had luck resetting the CMOS with the HDD disconnected.

Mark R · 12-09-2012, 12:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagnusTheBrewer

You might try pushing the power button while the CMOS battery is removed. At least one person I googled had luck resetting the CMOS with the HDD disconnected.

I'm pretty sure that this model stores the password in flash, not in CMOS. It cannot be cleared by removing the battery.

MagnusTheBrewer · 12-09-2012, 12:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark R

I'm pretty sure that this model stores the password in flash, not in CMOS. It cannot be cleared by removing the battery.

If so, the only option would seem to be contacting Acer.

slightlyhuman · 12-09-2012, 02:09 PM

well crap. what exactly will acer do, a master password that i'll have to pay for or what?

i saw this site that said if you give them the number error code after trying to type the password in they will give you a password that works. $35 or so. is that legit?

slightlyhuman · 12-09-2012, 02:16 PM

http://www.biosremoval.com/Get_acer_...ur_laptop.html

corkyg · 12-09-2012, 03:46 PM

AFAIK, the Travelmate is a laptop. By design, many laptop BIOS passwords cannot be reset by pulling a battery. This is deliberately done to work against theft. With some brands, a factory service center must be used along with ownership verification.

slightlyhuman · 12-09-2012, 08:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

AFAIK, the Travelmate is a laptop. By design, many laptop BIOS passwords cannot be reset by pulling a battery. This is deliberately done to work against theft. With some brands, a factory service center must be used along with ownership verification.

so the site i linked would be a waste of money? it has paypal as payment..

corkyg · 12-09-2012, 09:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slightlyhuman

so the site i linked would be a waste of money? it has paypal as payment..

I can't speak for Acer. Just a caveat to keep in mind. It's your money. I think it would be prudent to conbtact Acer first.

ultimatebob · 12-10-2012, 08:18 AM

What ever happened to the good old trick of putting a penny in the CMOS battery slot to reset the CMOS instantly?

piasabird · 12-10-2012, 08:32 AM

Laptops/tablets can be built in such a way as to make it extremely difficult to defeat the BIOS Password. This is because they are mobile devices and are prone to threats of tampering due to their mobility and frequency with which they are stolen. So they work differently than desktops.

imagoon · 12-10-2012, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ultimatebob

What ever happened to the good old trick of putting a penny in the CMOS battery slot to reset the CMOS instantly?

It doesn't do anything when the BIOS config is stored in flash. In most current laptops, the cell only runs the real time clock. The BIOS settings are stashed in a flash chip.

slightlyhuman · 12-10-2012, 11:22 AM

damn it. well guess i'll be calling acer.

i tried installing win7 on the HD using another laptop and throwing it back in the acer(did this a month ago and it worked fine to my surprise).

is there any other way to get win7 on this HD using another computer? I wiped the drive formatting the previous version of vista=/ now it can't be used for anything until this password is dealt with.

imagoon · 12-10-2012, 11:41 AM

Pop a syspreped image down on the disk. I would use Windows Deployment Services myself to do it but that may not work for you if you don't have the images / infrastructure built.

ketchup79 · 12-10-2012, 12:00 PM

Kinda related, but maybe not. The registers we and our customers use can have the flash/ RAM cleared. It's a fast way to clear problems or do a renumbering. Just put the appropriate files on a floppy.

I would think laptop manufacturers would have something similar, but I have never had to do a search for that.

mfenn · 12-10-2012, 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slightlyhuman

damn it. well guess i'll be calling acer.

i tried installing win7 on the HD using another laptop and throwing it back in the acer(did this a month ago and it worked fine to my surprise).

is there any other way to get win7 on this HD using another computer? I wiped the drive formatting the previous version of vista=/ now it can't be used for anything until this password is dealt with.

The laptop doesn't fall back to booting from CD when there is no OS installed?

Imagoon has a good idea about installing on another machine and then running sysprep before inserting it into the laptop. WDS makes it easy, but you can do the same thing manually for a one-off.

The general steps are:

Install Windows 7 on the drive using a different computer.
Don't enter a key during install
When you get to the part of the install prompting you to create a user, hit Ctrl+Shift+F3 to put the system into audit mode
IF you know you will need some drivers on the laptop, go ahead and install those now.
Open a command prompt and type sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown
Once the computer shuts down, move the drive to the laptop
Boot it up, and you should get the usual first time setup stuff

slightlyhuman · 12-11-2012, 08:52 AM

thanks for the replies, going to give this a shot tonight after work! will report back!

corkyg · 12-11-2012, 12:42 PM

None of this will fix a BIOS password. It is not on the hard drive.

imagoon · 12-11-2012, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

None of this will fix a BIOS password. It is not on the hard drive.

From the description, the machine has a config password not a boot password. So it boots to the HDD fine, he just can't enter the BIOS to set "boot to the CDROM."

slightlyhuman · 12-11-2012, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

None of this will fix a BIOS password. It is not on the hard drive.

I'm just trying to get a working install of win7 on the HD now(since i wiped the original install of vista off of the disk trying to hot swap).

corkyg · 12-11-2012, 01:49 PM

"I have an Acer TravelMate 5520. Trying to reinstall the OS on it but can't get into the BIOS due to a password. "

So, I guess we simply rreade and understand things differently. I read that as a BIOS password problem.

ketchup79 · 12-11-2012, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

"I have an Acer TravelMate 5520. Trying to reinstall the OS on it but can't get into the BIOS due to a password. "

So, I guess we simply rreade and understand things differently. I read that as a BIOS password problem.

I did too, but if BIOS settings are correct for booting off the DVD, it shouldn't really matter unless it's a boot password.

imagoon · 12-11-2012, 02:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by corkyg

"I have an Acer TravelMate 5520. Trying to reinstall the OS on it but can't get into the BIOS due to a password. "

So, I guess we simply rreade and understand things differently. I read that as a BIOS password problem.

He mentioned a bit farther down that this was a problem because he wiped the OS. From there I assumed he can boot the machine but not get to the BIOS to change the boot order or enable the CDROM.

slightlyhuman · 12-11-2012, 04:32 PM

The machine boots off of the HD without any problems.

slightlyhuman · 12-11-2012, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mfenn

The laptop doesn't fall back to booting from CD when there is no OS installed?

Imagoon has a good idea about installing on another machine and then running sysprep before inserting it into the laptop. WDS makes it easy, but you can do the same thing manually for a one-off.

The general steps are:

Install Windows 7 on the drive using a different computer.
Don't enter a key during install
When you get to the part of the install prompting you to create a user, hit Ctrl+Shift+F3 to put the system into audit mode
IF you know you will need some drivers on the laptop, go ahead and install those now.
Open a command prompt and type sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown
Once the computer shuts down, move the drive to the laptop
Boot it up, and you should get the usual first time setup stuff

about to give this a try but can someone chime in what happens if it needs drivers and i didn't install any? i went and looked up the laptop on acer's site and it has a page for the particular model but not one driver for any OS on there