Restoring Dell Inspiron 1501

minigirl762003

Hi

I have been given a Dell Inspiron 1501 which use to belong to a company. It has come with no passwords so i cannot gain entry to it. Is there any way to reset the passwords or restore it to factory settings without any passwords?

(No its not stolen, the business has upgraded its laptops so I got given this one lol )

googler

What do you have in the way of other PC equipment, Operating System install discs, etc?

Notmyrealname

Which password, the BIOS one on startup or Windows?

Figment

Surely the company giving it to you can either furnish you with the passwords or, if security is an issue, remove it/them for you.

minigirl762003

Hi

Thanks for the replies. I have a Toshiba laptop which I am using now but cant find any disc's that go with it (not sure if it came with any).

I havent got any of the passwords for the Dell. Neither users or admins which is why I thought a factory reset would be the best thing to do.

Cant get any password from the company as when they upgraded their computers there was also some people laid off which is how I got the the Dell (Cousin works for this company)

Figment

Is it the BIOS password (required when you first switch on) or the Windows user password (required at a login screen)?

minigirl762003

Figment

I think I can get into BIOS but not windows. How do i check??

Thanks

Figment

If you switch it on and Windows starts to load without asking for a password, then the BIOS password is not set.

Also, if you can get into the BIOS screen without entering a password then no BIOS password is set.

Which version of Windows?

minigirl762003

Windows Vista. It will load to the windows login screen so Bios password must not be set

Figment

OK. If the restore partition is still intact, you should be able to do a factory reset. Switch on. As soon as you see the DELL logo, press the CTRL + F11 keys together and follow the prompts.

minigirl762003

All CTRL + F11 does is beep at me then it continues to load as normal.