Hello, I hope it is not the wrong forum to post it on, if not, please excuse me. First post here btw, hello guys :-).

So, a friend of mine brought me an ACER Aspire ES1-131 (N15Q3) with a linux MINT a few days ago where some supervisor password was set and then incorrectly typed in three times, so the option to try again is grayed out. I don't know the context, but I suspect drunk user or a prank gone too far, I wouldn't know. I tried learning what to do with Google, but the issue is too complex for me.

Is there a way to make it unlocked again, either myself or by finding someone who can do it better, or has specific hardware? The computer is still on warranty, so taking it apart and removing the battery is something I would like to avoid (plus I've read it won't help at all with this computer), and I was hoping one of you might know a magic trick I could perform in Mint to get the password to reset. Also, if I told Asus what happened the warranty would probably go void. I didn't supply any pictures or extra data, because it is an unorthodox case and I don't know what would be helpful.

The computer has boot order set to USB first, then HDD, if that helps, but has trouble seeing the pendrive most of the times.

I know some things about computers, but mostly what happens after the BIOS loads, so please treat me as someone who doesn't know how to turn on the computer should you be willing to help :-). I can access BIOS using https://bios-pw.org/ , but that's about all I know how to do.

Thank you in advance for your help.

EDIT: Sorry if it's posted in a wrong spot, I thought it would be most fitting for my case.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

I would contact Acer Aspire support for this issue to see how the company recommends proper reset procedures.

If you want to manual reset then look at this under the Laptop section; http://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/ma...cer-18989.html

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

You might also investigate Acer's procedures for updating/upgrading the BIOS. This can be dangerous and can brick the whole computer, but if contacting Acer doesn't help it might be worth a try. If you reflash the entire BIOS it MAY (I don't know how Acer does it) overwrite everything so you start fresh, or it may keep things like passwords but you probably won't know until you try. The only BIOS I have upgraded or flashed is HP. Once I learned how to do it I found it was simple. Getting to that point was anything BUT simple, so I don't envy you. But it is worth a try if you can't fix it any other way so the computer is useless anyway.

Hi,

Most BIOS that I upgraded that had a password protection required the input of the password to update. One reason to know the proper procedure to clear the CMOS.

I stand by the recommendation to contact Acer support for the proper procedure to reset the password; http://acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support

The linked procedure requires the removal of the HDD which would not violate the warranty as it is a consumer device that is designed to be upgraded. No seal on that access panel to void anything.

Hope this helps.
Have fun & enjoy!

Never having had the problem I've no idea if the solution offered here works. It looks like the InsydeH20 BIOS is covered though. Looks like you'd need to find a system running Windows to run the script on, apparently doesn't have to be the locked one. (Huh? How would you do that?)
This looks like the password generator which goes with the scripts. What can I say... Best of luck, try at your own risk but if it's already stuffed, what have you got to lose?

My

Play Bonny!