Acer Extensa 4220 TravelMate 4320/4720 and Extensa 4220/4620 Service Guide - Page 125

Standard Operation Procedures of Password Bypassing and BIOS Recovery For RD and CSD to debug easily, the system provide one hardware DIP switch for Bypassing Password Check, and one Hotkey to enable BIOS Recovery. 1. DIP Switches: DIP SW1 Default Setting Disabled (High) Description Bypassing Password Check 2. Hotkey to enable BIOS Recovery: Fn+ESC, then Power Button. To use this function, it is strongly recommended that the AC adapter is connected to the system and plug-in to a wall outlet and the Battery is also in the system Bypassing Password Check (SW1): If the user has set Password (power-on or setup password) for security reason, BIOS will check password during POST or when entering the BIOS setup menu. However, if it is necessary to ignore the password check, the user may enable DIP SW1 to bypass password check. BIOS Recovery: Boot Block is a special block of BIOS. It is used to boot up the system with minimum BIOS initialization. The user can enable this feature to restore the BIOS to a successful one if previous BIOS flashing process fails. 1. DIP Location: RD/CSD can enable or disable this function by switching the DIP. The DIP switch is located as shown in the figure below: 2. Clear Password DIP SW1: Bypassing Password Check, Disabled by default. Switching it to ON then powering on the system will force the BIOS to clear Supervisor and User passwords. The power-on, setup password, and the HDD password are all cleared. 3. Restore BIOS by the Crisis Disk Enable this function by pressing the combination: Fn+ESC, and pressing the Power Button. To use this function, it is strongly recommended that the AC adapter is connected to the system and plug-in to a wall outlet and the Battery is also in the system. If this function is enabled, the system will force the BIOS to enter a special BIOS block, called BootBlock. RD/CSD can use this special BIOS code to recover the BIOS to a successful one if previous BIOS flashing process fails. However, before doing this, one Crisis Disk should be prepared in WinXP. Detailed steps are as the followings: a. Prepare the Crisis Disk in WinXP. b. Insert the Crisis Disk to a USB floppy drive which is attached to the failed machine. c. While the system is turned off, press and hold Fn+ESC, then press Power Button. The system should be powered on with Crisis Recovery process. d. BootBlock BIOS starts to restore the failed BIOS code. Short beeps should be heard when flashing. e. If the flashing process is finished, a long beep should be heard. f. Power down the system after you hear the long beep. If the crisis recovery process is finished, the system should be powered on with the successful BIOS. RD/CSD can then update the BIOS to a workable one by regular BIOS flashing process. Chapter 5 115