Acer Aspire One – Bios password bug
november 3, 2008Christian 47 Comments »
A few days ago I wanted to set a bios password on my Acer Aspire One so nobody could access it without supplying the right password. I restarted the AA1, pressed [F2] 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. I finally decided to give num-lock, scroll-lock and caps-lock a try, and to my surprise, my password worked perfectly with caps-lock enabled. I could not remember pressing caps-lock when typing my new password, so I went back to change my password once again – this time without caps-lock. I typed a new password – caps-lock free – saved it and rebooted the AA1. But once again, the AA1 wouldn’t accept my password. Pressing caps-lock solved the problem once again, so I guess it’s a bug in the AA1’s bios messing with caps-lock…
So remember, if’ you’re planning on playing with bios passwords on your AA1 – keep caps-lock in mind!
november 18th, 2008 at 01:49
Thanks a billion, just did the same with my work computer.. =S
Was just about to open the damnt thing to find the battery when I saw this post..
U saved my ass, and my warranty ;)
november 18th, 2008 at 18:33
Happy to be an ass and warranty saver :)
november 21st, 2008 at 01:02
You rock. Thank you!!!
november 23rd, 2008 at 11:41
Thanks a lot, I too was in same situation and found this forum thread. Thanks once again.
november 24th, 2008 at 23:45
hah – this solved my problem!
Thanks Christian =)
december 2nd, 2008 at 01:55
thanks so much for your help, it works!
december 7th, 2008 at 22:04
I had the same problem which I could solve by pressing caps-lock. I informed Acer Germany about this bug by e-mail Sep.2008. No response!
december 12th, 2008 at 18:13
Thanks so much for that!
And if someone from Acer happens to read this thread: lousy support!
december 13th, 2008 at 14:41
Acer accept only first 8 characters for bios password.
december 14th, 2008 at 18:58
HowTo reset the Acer Aspire one BIOS Password
Use the utility unetbootin-windows-299.exe (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/unetbootin-windows-latest.exe) to make a FreeDOS bootable USB pendrive, I used a FAT32 Formatted 2gb Sandisk Cruzer
see http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/07/flashing-bios.html for more info
Copy the KILLCMOS.COM (http://www.majorgeeks.com/download2969.html) file to the root of the pendrive – IT IS NOT A VIRUS EVEN IF YOUR SCANNER SAYS IT IS.
plug in the pendrive
power on the acer
press f12 and choose to boot from the USB pendrive, choose option 5
type c:
type KILLCMOS – there will be a beep and the machine will reboot
press f2 to enter the BIOS
killcmos just clears stored settings, basically it resets the bios to be clear
december 14th, 2008 at 23:46
Just insane. I hate that bug. In fact I had a complicated password with #¤%&/() characters. Now I have no idea how I am going to login as master to BIOS. For some reason not only all charactars became versals but also something happened with the symbols aswell. Now I have no idea what to do. Going to reset BIOS tomorrow when I buy more ram too.
december 17th, 2008 at 16:36
So BIOS uses uppercase characters rather than lower case alpha-numeric and transfers them across. This is standard stuff that other websites use to when putting in importand data. How is it a bug?
december 17th, 2008 at 17:28
Soratah,
This is not standard. Google, Facebook, MSN, Yahoo, MySpace, etc. does not transform passwords to uppercase. I’ve never heard of a password system on a website that changes what the user inputs to uppercase.
Furthermore, the Aspire One is a computer, not a website…
december 20th, 2008 at 11:50
Thank you very much Christian. I just my problem was solved. I bought Acer aspire one today and set bios password and power on password too for security reason. After restart I try many time , it’s wrong password . I try to caontact service center many time there no response .So I think maybe there are many people around the world have same problem with me. I use MR GOOGLE to find it till found you. Thank god. You save my time and money to go to service center . I love Google and Internet community.
december 20th, 2008 at 22:32
Thanks man! After a big OMG and faster going heartbeat I found your post and it saved me, 12 hours before departure :)
december 28th, 2008 at 17:30
Unfortunately, it doens’t work :(
I set passwords using digits only (four digits), and bios doesn’t accept it no matter is caps lock on or off. I also tried the shift key – just the same. I finally could boot the laptop after flashing bios from usb drive (downloading bios to the drive and turning the aspire on while pressing fn + esc), but still cannot access bios settings. I do know the exactly password, but have no idea how to enter it =-(
december 30th, 2008 at 19:48
Thanks a LOT!!!
december 30th, 2008 at 20:58
Thank you very much Christian, you saved my life !!!!!!!!!!
januar 15th, 2009 at 21:08
I set password on my Aspire one’s hard disk like most of u poor guys BUT after trying to unlock the hard and receiving Password Check Fail, a menu came with two options:
Enter Password
Systerm Continue
i chose system continue hoping to see another option or a reboot but NOTHING HAPPENED
1 week has passed and still nothing:(((( When i power on the screen is blank black and NO key makes any reaction. Only the green power button light is on and I hear the fan turning on and off every now and then and after some minutes it turns off…:(
PLEASE HELP ME! :s
I downloaded unetbootin and put it in my flash disk as instructed but my acer even didn’t care! blank screen :|
januar 15th, 2009 at 22:25
HEY GUYS!!!! i’m back :)
I have AA1 150 ZG5. I set password on my hard disk and got the blank screen after password failure. There was no boot menu or anything when i powered on, absolutely nothing. I was gonna DIE cause i was worrying to lose all my photographs on the disk (i’m a photographer).
i found the SOLUTION (and flashed my bios)at http://www.qrpcw.com/2009/01/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
I downloaded the files from this url (for AA1 110 u have to use the url in article):
ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_150/bios/
i copied 3305.bat, flashit.exe and ZG5IA32.FD (renamed) to my flash disk. stuck the pendrive to AA1,…. and it WORKED! just like nothing happened :| :D
januar 17th, 2009 at 05:15
just registered my aaone acer.co.uk while filling in reg form noticed all text upper case even e-mail looks like i will not recieve comformation of registration then
januar 29th, 2009 at 14:33
Your post made my day! Thanks a lot man, good luck!
februar 5th, 2009 at 11:22
Thanks a lot. If you only get a black screen, you can find the solution at: http://macles.blogspot.com/2008/08/acer-aspire-one-bios-recovery.html
februar 9th, 2009 at 22:31
thank you!!! It was a surprise for, but it works pretty nice.
marts 13th, 2009 at 16:47
People you could tell me if the recovery process of the BIOS (fn + esc + the Power button) works for the case of a failed BIOS update from? when I was updating the BIOS and turned off the A110 after One can not access the file by Pendrive fn + esc.
If anyone can help me I will be very grateful!
marts 23rd, 2009 at 14:16
Thanks a lot. I was in the same problem. It rulez. When you enter the password in the BIOS, it only saves the first 8 digits. Then, after reboot you went crazy with de Caps lock and the lenght of password.
april 5th, 2009 at 23:22
just a warning for those with AA1 and setting or changing bios settings…
a side from this caplock password issue, if you change the bios password and hdd password at same time and F10 to save and exit, the AA1 will crashed and will not boot anymore! the power will come ON but now POST screen, no beep, nothing on lcd, no other LEDs are on.
i could stand the annoying click button location on the AA1 and the high pitch cpu fan sound, the password caplock issue, but now this, never an Acer for me ever again.
<tag> aa1 </tag> <tag> aa1 bios </tag> <tag> aa1 bios crashed </tag> <tag> aa1 bios locked up </tag> <tag> aa1 lcd no display no bios </tag>
april 7th, 2009 at 16:50
Thanks, exactly the same problem.
april 17th, 2009 at 13:55
This is a bit off topic, but I thought some of you might have an answer this problem.
My keyboard is stuck in the mode which is think would be called numeric lock. I might have pushed a buttom by accident. Anyway,…when I try to type any letter keys that have a number on them, the number comes out.
Coincidentally, I recently bought an acer monitor, so I would work with a larger screen when I was at home as well as a seperate keybord, and the numeric lock is not a problem when I use it. Here’s an example of me typing on my labtop keyboard:
he336 fr5neds….That was supposed to say hello friends.
april 17th, 2009 at 13:56
I need help getting the numeric lock taken off..I mean I don’t know how it happened, but the numberc lock is on and wont let me type letters where the numbers are on my acer aspire one laptop. Can any one help?
april 24th, 2009 at 21:12
Many thanks!
april 26th, 2009 at 14:17
Thank you!!! I’d set a BIOS password this morning and found myself locked out of my computer. Your research saved me a lot of trouble!
maj 10th, 2009 at 05:31
mate, your a GENIUS, it took me 8 days to find this, thankyou so much!
maj 19th, 2009 at 05:33
Hi everyone!
I have a nice Acer Apire One ZG5 and I”ve set a BIOS password that I forgot. Killcmos did not help. Instead I have SUCCESFULLY got acces to my BIOS again with CmosPwd 4.6
-formatted a 256 MB mem stick FAT32
-copied cmospwd 4.6 dirs&files on the stick
-At Start/Run/Cmd (in Win XP) I ran from the stick ioperm/-i <enter> and then cmospwd_win /k
It killed the cmos and the password. Only had to reset the time and date at the reboot.
Thanks to all the people who posted the sollution on the net before me. Nothing of the above is my invention or discovery. Just used what other suggested.
On my Acer worked fine but there is no warranty in all I”ve posted.
maj 27th, 2009 at 05:11
Thanks to other posters. Here’s what worked for me:
1) passwords must be typed in capitals: asdfASDF becomes ASDFASDF
2) use the first 8 characters in your password: ASDFASDFASDF becomes ASDFASDF
3) ignore symbols: ASDF@#$ADSF becomes ASDFASDF
juni 30th, 2009 at 20:35
wow, thanks you…. you save my life! fucking bug… thanks for that!
Kind regards
juli 3rd, 2009 at 10:13
Thanks a million, Christian, for the caps-lock tip! It saved me pulling out whats left of my hair!
juli 17th, 2009 at 06:43
You saved my day!
juli 29th, 2009 at 02:50
Tks man!
[]s
august 7th, 2009 at 05:07
hi mate, i got the same shit too, but seems even worse than yr situation…. i tried to format it some days ago, it’s my frd’s computer. anyway, it’s locked now and couldn’t even show me the bios’ “blk and white screen”, the whole thing just dead like a brick. send me the solution via email if possible. kind regards, derek
august 24th, 2009 at 21:35
damn, you saved my ass:p i freaked out here but thanks to you i have my notebook back
september 2nd, 2009 at 21:54
Mange Tak Christian jeg ogsaa har problem med BIOS men nu med tak til dig det er godt!!
(Unskuld min dansk, men jeg har tale bedre!!)
Arfon
oktober 31st, 2009 at 02:16
Thanks a million. And here was I thinking that the “Caps Lock is on” message at the password prompt is a warning, when it’s actually a requirement. People who TYPE IN ALL CAPS ALL THE F*ING TIME are Acer’s target demographic.
november 5th, 2009 at 13:00
[...] lembrar, principalmente porque resolvi mudar a forma de gerá-las e para acabar com tudo existe um bug na senha da bios (…).” [referência: [...]
november 8th, 2009 at 11:02
Thanks a lot once again! You saved me a lot of time!!!
januar 23rd, 2010 at 01:13
Hello, I ended up selling the laptop for a huge loss and buying another Acer (Wish I seen this post beforehand!!!). Anyways, I still have the locked password protected HDD from my aspire one. I would like to get my data off of it without paying a crazy amount of $$$. Is there a way that I can install in my new Aspire (7730Z) and remove the password? Please email me if you know how this can be done….. Would really like to have the pics of our son when he was a newborn in the hospital…. Wifey was/is not happy @ what happened…. I thought it was my fault!!!! If I knew this was an Acer bug, I never would of bought another model. Thanks in adanve to those that can possibly help out?
marts 23rd, 2010 at 06:05
Andrew, You are my hero.
Thanx.