Need BIOS password

Here's my problem. I recently purchased a ACER Aspire E-1 with a Windows 8.1 upgrade. The original OS was WIN 8. Somehow, a bios password was set by the previous owner. (I NEVER CHANGED OR SET A BIOS PASSWORD IN ALL MY 35 YEARS OF WORKING WITH COMPUTERS)

I have the recovery media and wish to restore back to factory specs. Problem is, It wants a bios password and needs to be in UEFI Mode. I've spoken to ACER Support and since it's out of warranty, I'm out of luck. Seems no one wants to or, knows

how to bypass the PSW. Maybe ACER doesn't know what BIOS was installed. I haven't been able to find out.

Some one once told me there is a "back door" password available based on the type of bios, Be it 'AWARD' or 'PHOENIX' or whatever.

Any comments to this post, or if I'm in the wrong discussion, please let me know

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Sharanji

If the computer was upgraded from windows 8 to 8.1 for free from Microsoft store, you may go to PC settings and check if you are able to restore your computer from recovery partition.

If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, click Settings, and then click Change PC settings.

During the process, all data stored on your computer will be overwritten. This means all your files, such as email and photos, will be erased. Therefore, we recommend making a backup of all personal data before starting the recovery process..

Tap or click Update and recovery, and then tap or click Recovery. Under Remove everything and reinstall Windows, tap or click Get started. Follow the instructions on the screen. If the previous owner has installed retail version you need to used the recovery media to restore windows.

Click the Kudos to say “Thanks” for helping! select "Accept Solution" if your issue is resovled.

wmarsh

I'm sorry I just remembered one other problem. I forgot to mention when trying to do the recovery, I cannot activate WINDOWS. I do not have a valid 'COA' code. This, along with my previous problems, prevent me from trying to reslove my issue.

So much for third party equipment or software. I may have to start fresh and reformat the HDD. Not sure that will even work with because of my bios/UEFI problem.

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