laurentio
11th March 2009, 11:09 AM
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 [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. 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!
First format an USB stick with FAT.
Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD, that's important. Do not remove the USB stick.
Turn the AA1 off, make sure both battery and AC adapter are connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After a while the power button will stop blinking, and the AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.
The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.
If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn't reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BIOS is now also available from Acer Japan here (http://www.acer.co.jp/one/file/ZG5_3305.zip). It's only the BIOS file with no tools to actually flash it. Instead Acer Japan uploaded a tool to flash the BIOS from within Windows, available here (http://www.acer.co.jp/one/file/Winflash.zip). It's official so it's probably safe to use.
Acer Taiwan put the BIOS online now as well, available here (http://twcsddl.acer.com.tw//acerdl/upload/Notebook/Aspireone/AOA150/BIOS//PGM26021-BI-3305FD.zip).
And finally the BIOS has been uploaded to their european server (ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_110/bios). There is also a text file included which recommends to flash the BIOS from DOS via a bootable USB stick.
Now the BIOS has been flashed so all settings reset to default. If for any reason you made a mistake during the procedure let it unable to reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off( just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS).
Bonus : I would really recommend u to disconnect !!all!! USB devices, especially storage class, from your netbook before doing a reboot.
Please leave your feedback.
"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. 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!
First format an USB stick with FAT.
Download the latest BIOS, and put both FLASHIT.EXE and the BIOS file in the root directory of the stick. Rename the BIOS file to ZG5IA32.FD, that's important. Do not remove the USB stick.
Turn the AA1 off, make sure both battery and AC adapter are connected. Press Fn+Esc, keep it pressed and press the power button to turn the AA1 on. Release Fn+Esc after a few seconds, the power button will be blinking. Press the power button once. The AA1 will now initiate the BIOS flash, do not interrupt it under any circumstances. After a while the power button will stop blinking, and the AA1 will reboot shortly after. Wait patiently.
The BIOS has been flashed and all settings reset to default.
If for some reason you made a mistake during the procedure and it doesn't reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off, just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The BIOS is now also available from Acer Japan here (http://www.acer.co.jp/one/file/ZG5_3305.zip). It's only the BIOS file with no tools to actually flash it. Instead Acer Japan uploaded a tool to flash the BIOS from within Windows, available here (http://www.acer.co.jp/one/file/Winflash.zip). It's official so it's probably safe to use.
Acer Taiwan put the BIOS online now as well, available here (http://twcsddl.acer.com.tw//acerdl/upload/Notebook/Aspireone/AOA150/BIOS//PGM26021-BI-3305FD.zip).
And finally the BIOS has been uploaded to their european server (ftp://ftp.acer-euro.com/netbook/aspire_one_110/bios). There is also a text file included which recommends to flash the BIOS from DOS via a bootable USB stick.
Now the BIOS has been flashed so all settings reset to default. If for any reason you made a mistake during the procedure let it unable to reboot by itself wait 5 minutes before turning it off( just to be safe that it isn't still flashing the BIOS).
Bonus : I would really recommend u to disconnect !!all!! USB devices, especially storage class, from your netbook before doing a reboot.
Please leave your feedback.