Ok first things first i know what your all gonna ask is it a stolen laptop.

No! i was willing to give the serial number to acer support(to prove ownership / non theft) but.

the guy who was really REALLY helpful but said if i was to send it back to acer the they would charge me a ridiculous amount to reset the password as its not a warranty issue so its best to ask the previous owner (who i have asked) or the retailer (who the previous owner asked) for the password as acer as standard do not put a password on it. - could something i downloaded be a trojan or virus and done this im really doubting this as it wouldnt want me to use the laptop would it.

I said we have asked both the retailer and the previous owner who both have said they did not and would not put a password on it.

i have been told by a reliable source that these laptops can be cracked (im not here to ask for this but pm me if you have any info i dont want it put on a public forum for thieves to see and steal my laptops thank you )

I cant get into windows (blue screen and reboot) so i decided to reinstall it so out comes the installation cd and put it in but the boot order is wrong so it will always boot off the hard disk first.

now then how do i go about changing this - is there

1 a bios emulator - so i can just change the bloody boot order lol

2 a master password if so who do i ask for this.

3 a service manual for a travelmate 2000 (2001xc)

motherboard yuhina3
03245 -2
48.101011 021

so i can at least attempt to fix it myself as its not the cmos battery i have to remove.

i have a bank of 4 switches sw5 and i was told to switch number 3 which i did but this didnt clear it.

Sorry for the long post.

Regards

Mike