need help with something in your computer? ask me!

Mighty · **Posted:** Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:46 pm

I have a rather annoying problem with my Aspire one netbook. Whenever I start it up, I get a HDD master asking for a password. Now, let me explain, I was being stupid and tried to set up a dual boot. :oops:

Not gonna try that again...Anyway, I was messing around some password settings. (being more stupid) I seem to be stuck with this annoying box that comes up when I boot up.

How can I re-set this so I no longer have to do this? I want to avoid doing a system restore at all costs.

Amaterasu · **Posted:** Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:28 am

Tinkering in the BIOS security, eh? Not a good idea... especially with new harddrives for laptops that encrypt data in the harddrive control unit itself and the BIOS too, making it impossible to recover data files without the original BIOS settings and the password for the HD itself. The new HD Control Passwords are a pain to crack, and even manufactures cannot fully recover data from a locked-out harddrive if sent to them for help.

Edit: On a side note: watch out if using those passwords for harddrives. They are very good to prevent data theft from it, but if your drive control or computer dies with a password enabled, say goodbye to your data on it too. As to remove the password, it should be under BIOS settings too with the use of your Administrator password. If it's Windows 7, it may be elsewhere. I don't use 7 or Vista.

Mighty · **Posted:** Wed Jan 13, 2010 3:52 pm

Togo wrote:

First of all, you have to tell us EXACTLY what you did, step by step, every small detail. If you messed up the bios, then the problem could get serious.

Amaterasu wrote:

Tinkering in the BIOS security, eh? Not a good idea... especially with new harddrives for laptops that encrypt data in the harddrive control unit itself and the BIOS too, making it impossible to recover data files without the original BIOS settings and the password for the HD itself. The new HD Control Passwords are a pain to crack, and even manufactures cannot fully recover data from a locked-out harddrive if sent to them for help.

Edit: On a side note: watch out if using those passwords for harddrives. They are very good to prevent data theft from it, but if your drive control or computer dies with a password enabled, say goodbye to your data on it too. As to remove the password, it should be under BIOS settings too with the use of your Administrator password. If it's Windows 7, it may be elsewhere. I don't use 7 or Vista.

Agreed. If Mighty were using a desktop I would suggest a clear cmos, but since it's a netbook she can only work on the software side.

I can't remember every detail, but I will try.

1. I pressed F2 at start up.
2. I then enabled the bios.
3. Restarted and pressed F12
4. I set a password

I feel so stupid..

Mighty · **Posted:** Wed Jan 13, 2010 4:14 pm

Togo wrote:

starsky_Hiro wrote:

Oh so you really can't reset the netbook BIOS like with the PC's? I guess if its possible the trouble of getting there can result in even more serious damages to the hardware. Taking apart a laptop only is hard enough.

Technically it's possible, they too have a battery which powers up the BIOS memory; but considering the low experience mightybalto has, asking her to do it would only makes things worse.

Mightybalto1925 wrote:

I can't remember every detail, but I will try.

1. I pressed F2 at start up.
2. I then enabled the bios.
3. Restarted and pressed F12
4. I set a password

I feel so stupid..

So you normally set a password, and now you can't remember it. Well then, I guess you can't even load the OS nor do anything else; and it won't let you enter the bios either. If that's the case, there's not much you can do... Bring it back to the manufacturer and hopefully you will have some luck.

Yes, I can load the OS (WinXP) and everything else. I didn't forget my password. I use it everywhere Oo I just want to know how to rid the password so I don't have to do this every time.

WolfPaws · **Posted:** Thu Jan 14, 2010 2:56 pm

AGH! I made this new avatar for myself, and I can't get it to work because the User Control Panel says 'The avatar's filesize must be between 0 and 24 KiB' but I don't know what that means and how do I get the filesize right?

Famicom · **Posted:** Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:26 pm

every time I update my google chrome to version 4
it does not go over the Internet only in Internet Explorer and
I have to do a system restore to always be able to use chrome because it updates itself to what I have to do?

WolfPaws · **Posted:** Tue Feb 02, 2010 1:46 pm

starsky_Hiro wrote:

Wolf Paws wrote:

AGH! I made this new avatar for myself, and I can't get it to work because the User Control Panel says 'The avatar's filesize must be between 0 and 24 KiB' but I don't know what that means and how do I get the filesize right?

Open it in MSPaint and choose "save as" and your done. The out put file from MSPaint will be smaller than the original.

I don't have MS Paint :/

Animation Source Forums

need help with something in your computer? ask me!