Laptop won't get beyond start up

[dothawkes31]

Hi my son has an acer aspire 6920G. He's picked up several viruses including a worm or two and now it will not get beyond the second screen, the first screen is the acer logo and then it goes to the bios blue and white password bar but when i try to type in the administrator password i set up in the bios this mroning, the first letter will not appear on the screen and the flashing curser freezes.

Sounds pretty serious but apart from the hardrive being destroyed is there any other possibility?

[AlBags]

So you replaced an old bios password? or tried to set a new one?
Not necessarily hard-drive problem.
Can you get into bios at all? If you can get there, find the setting .. "load optimal default settings" and save/exit.
Bios could be corrupted. It's possible to reset to default by shorting on-board pins.

[dothawkes31]

ahhhh, that's totally beyond my understanding, should I not be able to get into bios by holding down a particulat f key? There wasn't a password in there and so i created one this morning, at least i assume that is the password it is asking for

[AlBags]

Wish you hadn't done a bios password : (
Probably F2 ..

Others .. F1 (old) Del, and a few other F keys.
You need to check to see if Hard-Drive is recognised first. If it is not, HDD may be screwed.

See here about Bios .. (I know wrong model) ...
http://www.techsuppor...-7520-reset-bios.html

http://www.techsuppor...epeats-going-off.html

[dothawkes31]

Cheers A1 but I'm not getting anywhere with it. Why can't I type a password in? Is the one it is asking for going to be the one a set up this morning? It doesn't matter what letter i press it doesn;'t appear in the bar and the curser stops flashing, how do i sort the pin thing out?

[AlBags]

I think you need help with it Dot! Very frustrating when you can't see what's happening.
If you saved and exited this morning, and it asks you next time on boot .. yes.
Pin reset for bios is stripdown I believe.

[dothawkes31]

oh right, do i need to take my bra and nickers off aswell as my top clothes cos if i do i better shut the curtains

[tamborine]

have you got a reset cd & can you load it ?

[dothawkes31]

no and no tambo, can't get past the first screen which just has the acer logo when i press an f key or it goes past that and then on to the screen with the bios password entry and the thing won't let me use the keys to type anything ,

[tamborine]

can you arrow to the cursor & type in p'word

[dothawkes31]

I don't know what that means sorry : ( I need to get to bed I've opened a bottle of bud to try to chill but it's not working : (

[tamborine]

Can you insert Windows CD & boot?

[dothawkes31]

sorry i was postin garth songs cos someone thought they knew a good country song and i had to put them right.

no can't load a windows disc cos it didn;t come with one : (

[tamborine]

if you can open the CD drive insert a 'borrowed' Windows disk and boot.

On some PCs, boot & keep hitting Fn & F7 (look for the key with 2 monitors).

[galeck1947]

Here are some default BIOS passwords that you could try
AMI concat
Award AMI_SW (case sensitive)
bios AMI!SW/
setup AMI?SW/
cmos j262
With respect to the Award BIOS the "AWARD_SW" (use without quotes) and (is is case sensitive) password should even override a set password ! If not,you may also want to try j262 as the password

[Vagrant]

Until the BIOS password is successfully entered, the BIOS won't even attempt to boot from the hard drive, CD or anything else.

[dothawkes31]

i've tried to enter the passwords but as soon as o press any key at all the cursor freezes

[Vagrant]

Quite often, when entering a BIOS password, it appears as if the PC has frozen - ignore the cursor freezing, and just continue entering the password.
If you still have no joy, then in my opinion, the motherboard is fried - these symptoms are not typical of a virus - the hard drive is most likely still intact and can be recovered to another PC.
The bad news is that this is not a DIY repair ...

[dothawkes31]

but no letters appear on the screen when i try to type in the passwords from that list, nothing at all, the cursor freezes and no letters show.

[AlBags]

Remember my two links Dot?

You can reset the bios/password by removing the CMOS battery for a while, re-inserting and resetting BIOS after new succesful boot.
Gonna need to find the CMOS battery by sounds of things. Some are even soldered in.
It can be done tho.
Still hoping it's not a disc failure .. but only way to find out is to get into BIOS.

[dothawkes31]

I still don't understand why I can't get any letters to type into the password box though, why would that keep happening?