Bypass laptop password

[Wonderinghermit]

Hi, I am new here just wondering I have a Acer Travelmate 4150 & I am having the same peoblem I have forgotten my BOIS password. I know I wrighten it down but cant find. Is there any other places that can help me. Thank you

[peterb]

Welcome to Hexus (as a noob to the forums I'm sure you will be spared a "Holy Thread Revival Batman" comment - glad to see you searched the forum first!

The advice is much the same. If you can dismantle the laptop, removing the CMOS battery will reset the CMOS (BIOS Settings) and should reset the system so that the password is cleared.

[Agent]

Hi, I am new here just wondering I have a Acer Travelmate 4150 & I am having the same peoblem I have forgotten my BOIS password. I know I wrighten it down but cant find. Is there any other places that can help me. Thank you

Most Acer laptops actually have a DIP switch that allow you to reset the password under the keyboard. Simply move this, power it up and it'll blank the password. Power down, move back and you can reset it

Not sure if Acer still make them like that, but they certainly did as close as a couple of year back

The advice is much the same. If you can dismantle the laptop, removing the CMOS battery will reset the CMOS (BIOS Settings) and should reset the system so that the password is cleared.

I'm afraid this is rarely the case now Peter
The password isn't often stored in the user BIOS space on laptops, meaning clearing the CMOS is ineffective. They are usually on some form of Flash chip, often encrypted, that is separate.
Of course, this depends on the laptop and it is the first port of call to try

not sure but you will still be able to get the information off the hard drive if it is important.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=593137

or there are other solutions.

A lot of laptops using the ATA lock now when a BIOS password is set, meaning that simply removing the drive and putting it in an enclosure won't always work. Again, this depends on the laptop though.
Sony are notorious for doing this (plus its major hassle to get the data back if the laptop dies but the disk is fine )

[peterb]

===snip====

I'm afraid this is rarely the case now Peter
The password isn't often stored in the user BIOS space on laptops, meaning clearing the CMOS is ineffective. They are usually on some form of Flash chip, often encrypted, that is separate.
Of course, this depends on the laptop and it is the first port of call to try

Yes - I know laptop security has improved a lot - still worth a try as you say.

A lot of laptops using the ATA lock now when a BIOS password is set, meaning that simply removing the drive and putting it in an enclosure won't always work. Again, this depends on the laptop though.
Sony are notorious for doing this (plus its major hassle to get the data back if the laptop dies but the disk is fine )

Some HP laptops do that too - however the ATA lock can be removed relatively easily with the drive removed from the computer - but it is a pain. (Does not apply if the drive supports encryption of course - when the password is needed to provide the decryption key)

[Pob255]

I've had a couple of experiences here.

On a Dell Dimention D510, a Password lock on the hard drive, although you set it in the BIOS, it actually kicks in before the BIOS so you cannot reset it, Swaped the nard drive over to another laptop and while I can access the BIOS now the one the hard drive was swaped too is now locked.
I tried to ghost it but it just refuses to mount or detect the hard drive, luckly dell was nice about it and let me swap the drive for a new one.

simular thing happened on a Toshiba A200, Hard drive lock that kicks in before BIOS so nothing you can do.
Toshiba do not give out BIOS updates so cannot reflash or reset it and while they'll have nothing to do with it directly, they will give you contact details for a "Toshiba approved" company who will reset the BIOS and reimage the disk to factory settings (they will not skip the reimage or recover data) and charge you £300+vat+shiping to do so.
Which is a bit of a **** when the laptop cost under £500 to start with.
Still it does make a sort of sense as a data protection vs theft. Luckly the student who set it was found and remembered the password, we then locked all the BIOS with a password we know so it will not happen again.