I bought an Acer Aspire 3660 on TradeMe but in order to reset back to factory settings I need to know the Acer Empowering Technology password. It is not the standard factory one of 000000 so the seller (or someone) has put one on, as it has a hint, but the seller has not replied to my emails yet and I need to know if it can be restored to factory settings without the password - in a "reasonably" easy-ish way (not totally computer stoopid) as it's a birthday present and time is running out.

Acer laptops apparently have a hidden partition that holds the restore to factory settings stuff in it (so-to-speak) so you don't need (or have) a recovery disc for it...
However, it should ba as easy as selecting "e-recovery" then "restore factory settings", but it has been password protected so I cannot go any further without it.
Some online forums mention removing Bios passwords etc, but although i'm not completely stoopid, I think it's a bit beyond me... and as i've already spent a couple of hundred on this lappy, I am dreading having to get "Need a Nerd" or similar out to do it... :(

thanks in advance

[Moderator edit (MF): moved to correct forum]