forgotten password on laptop advice required

gill07

hi thanks for reply.i cant change order of boot because configure set up is disabled and i dont know how to enable it.basically it wont let me alter anything when i press f2 and enter setup

fwor

I think you need to Google a bit more - you'll stand a better chance of finding a Dell expert.

If you Google for "dell laptop configure setup disabled" then one of the first pages you get is this one:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic50281-5.html

Looks like a lot of people see the problem you're seeing...

gill07

another problem is the 3 cell reserve battery you advised me to remove wont go back in.will this cause a problem

bookduck

call dell. I'm sure they will have a master p/w that they can generate for you.

They will probably help you even iif it not out of warranty - providing it is not a h/w issue and takes them minutes to do

gill07

i know the password in bios cos i set it by mistake because when i saw password i thought it would change the windows password doh. it just doesnt promt me to enter password when set up comes up and i dont know how to enable the configure set up . what have i done!!!!!!

BritBrat

have you tried taking the bios battery out for a while im sure ive read that it will lose the password

Did you do both?

I think there are two in laptops.

And it does not always reset password anyway, and you also have to short out the battery contacts with a screw driver. (NOT THE BATTERY)

another problem is the 3 cell reserve battery you advised me to remove wont go back in.will this cause a problem

Sounds like you are getting in a mess, why wont the battery go back in?

If you can get back to where you were and you know the BIOS password it should be easy from then to reset the windows password.

What most of the windows password reset programes do is just void the password, they dont show you what it was they just delete it so there is not one.

bookduck

If I get what you mean all you want to do is log into windows, but there is no user account or password box there just a normal blue-ish desktop screen?

Try control-alt-delete, + another control-alt-delete (that is two) in fairly quick succession? and they will then give you the box to type into. The other accounts will show probably because they have probably been disabled or deleted by boyfriend.

gill07

i want to get into windows.there is an administrator account and password box.my stepdaughter has forgotten her password.guest account doesnt have administrator rights so cant set new password for admin account through thatand even in safe mode i cant get on without password.
re the battery i cant get back in is the small 3 cell one.the plastic bit that should just clip shows as not being connected when you go into set up mode.

gill07

just to let you know i have sorted out the bios passwords (yipee). i have now set cd to boot first so i can run the lost password cd i downloaded to try to remove the password my stepdaughter has forgotton.problem is the cd doesnt launch first it just comes on to windows logon page as usual.any ideas please

fwor

Did you download the lost password CD as a .iso file? If so, you need to burn it as a "CD image" or the resulting CD won't be bootable.

Once you've written it as an image you should get "press any key to boot from CD" as the laptop boots. If you don't press a key then it will start Windows instead.