nospam wrote:
> Bill Ruef wrote:
>
>> Hi folks. Hoping somebody can help me out here.
>>
>> I recently bought a used computer for my son on ebay. I was under the
>> impression that it would come with the HD wiped and I would install my
>> own
>> OS (Win98 w/ an XP Home upgrade. But when the computer arrived, I
>> found it
>> had XP Pro installed on it already. At first I thought "Great - will just
>> stick with that". Problem is the unit was pulled from a school when they
>> upgraded and therefore, pretty much everything on it is password
>> protected
>> (and there ain't much chance of getting the passwords from the seller). I
>> can't even get into the "Start" menu (clicking on the button does
>> nothing).
>> So I figured I'd go back to plan A and reformat the HD and install my own
>> O.S. But I can't even seem to do that. I can't even get into the setup
>> menu
>> on boot-up because that's also password protected. I've tried booting
>> with a
>> start-up disc but it doestn't seem to be recognizing that.
>> I'm relatively new to working with XP and although done reformat &
>> reinstalls before, I've never done it with an XP system. So I don't
>> know if
>> I'm overlooking something relatively simple or if there's a way to get in
>> there or what. Anybody have any ideas or help they can offer?
>> Thanks in advance for your help.
>>
>>
> Bill,
>
> Can you get to the BIOS settings? You probably need to reorder the boot
> sequence so it will boot from a startup diskette or from the OS CD.
> Worst case, replace the hard drive. If you have another 'puter at hand,
> put this one in it and reformat. Note, too, that this one is likely
> formatted NTFS which will NOT be recognized by Win9x systems.
>
> Interesting challenge.
>
> Myron E. Williams
> Crossville, TN


Hi Folks,

I'm new here, but I might add to the above help that if the
bios is also set with a password, it becomes necessary to
get info (manual) on the MB so you can temporarily pull a
jumper on the MB which allows reset of the bios password.

School systems are often set with a bios password to keep
the students from messing up the settings.

HTH,

John King