Bios is locked, revision 5.0 insydeh20

bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

Tinkerer

edited October 2023 in 2020 Archives
So on june 1st i installed ubuntu and today i want windows 8. so i UnetBooted an Usb with windows 8 so  i can run the installer. i enter the bios, notice that EVERY. SINGLE. OPTION. is gray, even tho it says user and supervisor passwords are clear
laptop model: Aspire A114-31
this issue has been going on since i installed ubuntu
i tried pressing f12 to select boot options and nothing happens
i spam esc and the grub boot manager thing pops up, i type in exit and the bios boot manager appears, it only says ubuntu and nothing else, when i press enter the laptop restarts and boots as normal.
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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>EVERY. SINGLE. OPTION. is gray, even tho it says user and supervisor passwords are clear

    Sounds reasonable for a UEFI bootstrapper. Did you try to set and save a supervisor password, then re-enter the BIOS with the supervisor password to see what happens? Or is the set supervisor password option grayed out too?  Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    the supervisor password option is grayed too
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    What happens when you press F9 setup defaults in the BIOS menu? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    it just refreshes it, nothing else
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>So on june 1st i installed ubuntu>>>

    (1) Did you update or change any BIOS settings on or about June 1st?
    (2) What was the original factory installed operating system, if any?

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    The factory installed OS was win 10, on April/March I set supervisor password, everything went as normal until June 1st
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Did you install ubuntu alongside Win10? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    I installed just Ubuntu, and I did the bios-pw thing and it did no help, it just removed the password
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Please post a screenshot of gparted if possible. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Did this problem occur after trying to unlock the password?
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  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    >>>The factory installed OS was win 10, on April/March I set supervisor password, everything went as normal until June 1st >>>

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    the gparted
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    edited June 2020
    Well, at least part of the problem is that you only have the 32GB emmc boot chip. Not enough storage space for a Win8x installation. And probably not enough for Win10 re-installation either without using an 16GB or more NTFS formatted SD card for holding the necessary temporary Windows installation files. Before trying to resolve the BIOS issue,  I suggest that you first insert an empty NTFS SD card to hold the temporary Windows installation files and then try to re-install Win8.x from the USB stick if you haven't tried to do this yet. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    I dont have an sd card, i only have the 16gb usb with win8 installer on it
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    SD and microSD cards are common & cheap.

    (1) Does this mean you can't get an SD card to try?
    (2) How did you make or acquire the Win8x install USB?
    (3) Can you tell if the F12 option is enabled in the BIOS Main tab even though it might be grayed out?

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    1) sd card slot is broken
    2) i got the win8 croatian iso from microsoft's website and used Unetbootin
    3) f12 boot option is grayed out and it says disabled
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    What BIOS version number is installed now? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    edited June 2020
    InsydeH20 Setup Utility Rev 5.0, System BIOS Verision 1.26
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    At this point, I can only make two suggestions to try to re-activate BIOS menu options. The first and safest method is to open the machine, disconnect the battery pack and remove the CMOS lithium coin cell located near the keyboard connector on the mainboard. Then short the coin cell's [+] and [-] mainboard terminals for about a minute to drain all charge on the chip. The second and riskiest method is a BIOS flash using the FN+ESC technique. There is potential for bricking the machine to an unusable state.

    However, even if the BIOS firmware options can be reactivated, it is unlikely that Windows can be installed with a broken SD card reader. Furthermore, even if Win8x could be installed, some of the machine's devices (like wifi, bluetooth, sound, etc) may not be fully backward compatible because there are no ACER Win8x drivers available, only ACER Win10 drivers.

    Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • bbbbaaaaaaaaaa
    bbbbaaaaaaaaaa Member Posts: 21

    Tinkerer

    it let me use the ESC boot manager now I'm installing windows 8
    I'm typing on my phone