Solved! Error accessing BIOS setup on Acer Travelmate 3280

wenglock_mok

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Jan 5, 2010
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Hey guys,

I am trying to fix up a friend's Acer Travelmate 3280 laptop. The laptop comes with a Phoenix BIOS v1.28. Two days ago, I went into BIOS setup to disable the splash screen. However, after that, while the Acer splash screen no longer shows (it shows instead the memory tests and hard disk autodetection), I am also not able to access the BIOS setup using the F2 key. The F2 key simply brings up a corrupted password prompt, and the system stops responding to any key input after that.

Does anybody know how I can reset the BIOS back to factory settings or if this is indeed a hopeless case?

Thanks very much for your help guys! Much appreciated.
 

wenglock_mok

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Jan 5, 2010
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18,510


I tried to dismantle the laptop but did not get very far as I did not want to risk damaging any part of it... is the CMOS battery easily locatable (i.e. maybe right underneath the keyboard)?

Thanks for your help!