Can't Factory Reset Acer Laptop

So, I was commissioned to set up a laptop for a friend, a Mexican guy who doesn't speak much English or use modern technology. He wanted me to wipe this laptop clean and make him an email & facebook account to help him run his construction business.

But He bought this laptop from a pawn shop, and whatever genius sold it to him didn't think to get rid of the freaking password. I have no idea what the password could be and I can't factory reset without it. Even by pressing f8 and bypassing the regular setup, I still end up at a password page. I literally can't do ANYTHING on this laptop because its previous owner was incompetent and paranoid.

Is there a way to wipe the laptop clean without being bombarded with a million password pages?

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Acer laptops usually have a couple of pads in the wifi or bluetooth board compartments that clear the cmos. Just do a search with the model number and clear cmos. I had the same problem with an ao250 and ao275. Hope that helps.

Cheers - Dave

The previous owner wasn't "incompetent and paranoid" for setting an operators password. You shouldn't be accepting "commissioned" jobs if you don't have the skills to complete them. If you have to post on a forum to do your job, don't be doing that job because you're incompetent.

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Takes a little setup, but they explain it. Maybe try this...Offline NT Password Editor

I used this for a Windows 7 computer a couple years back with great success. Unsure if it works Windows 8 or later.

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Um , take it back to the pawn shop . Call that a lightbulb moment .

a reply to: XxNightAngelusxX

Would help to know the windows version you are running.

a reply to: Vector99

Why would that help?

Password is in bios

a reply to: ParasuvO

the method of accessing dos

Having bought it from a pawn shop, I'd strongly recommend doing a complete wipe of the hard drive and reinstalling a new OS. Linux operating systems are free. Something like Mint or Ubuntu would probably work just fine for him, especially if all he's doing is checking email and Facebook.

There's lots of ways to wipe the hard drive. You can put a program called DBAN onto a cd (and maybe a flash drive?) and run that in the computer to completely eradicate every trace of anything from the hard drive.

With Acer I think it's alt+f10 on bootup screen. This takes you to the factory re-install setup. From there do a complete OS re-install.

originally posted by: hombero
The previous owner wasn't "incompetent and paranoid" for setting an operators password. You shouldn't be accepting "commissioned" jobs if you don't have the skills to complete them. If you have to post on a forum to do your job, don't be doing that job because you're incompetent.

Okay, paranoid, maybe not...

But they were definitely incompetent for selling a laptop from a pawn shop with the freaking password still active, rendering it useless for whoever they sold it to. I accepted the job because I know how to factory reset. But in this case, factory resetting... yeah... REQUIRES THE PASSWORD. And I didn't know that until I'd already accepted the job. Shame on me for expecting a pawn shop laptop to have been wiped clean (or at the very least, accessible) before it was sold. But I guess their negligence makes me the incompetent one...

Get over yourself.

Everyone else - thank you for your input. I'll mess with it more tomorrow and try out your advice.

Did you solve the problem OP?

Here are some tips for windows password reset:

1. NT Password and Ophcrack not working on latest Windows 10
2. You should turn off UEFI and secure boot if booting from external media

Here is a great tutorial to reset login password.

If it is windows 7 you can boot from a UNIX usb and replace the ''accessibility'' executable with a ''windows users'' executable
(just rename them inside system32)

then, launch windows and at the logon screen you'll see the ''accessibility'' icon.. when you click it, it allows you to reset passwords.


google that procedure and you might be able to get around the logon atleast.

I'd recommend you to reinstall the system on the laptop if you bought it in a pawn shop.

originally posted by: aim3333
I'd recommend you to reinstall the system on the laptop if you bought it in a pawn shop.

Of course! the data inside the computer doesn't have anything to do with you , you can reinstall the system on the Dell laptop to reset anything and you won't be asked to enter password ,
There is also a guide that you can reset password .