Hi there,

I have a big question here. My brother in law got a computer from a friend. It is a Dell. It has all of the CD's that came with it when it was originally purchased. The OS is Windows XP. Now, when the computer starts it immediately goes to a black screen with the following (It looks kind of like a command prompt in DOS but I am not sure of that) lines:

Type the password and press <Enter>
Enter Password:

I tried putting in the bootable re-installation CD but even when you restart the computer it won't go to SETUP. It just redirects everything back to the black screen with those lines.

I thought maybe it was asking for the Admin password, but when I put in the password the friend gave to my brother in law, it said the password was incorrect and then went again to the black screen.

(If you put in the wrong password too many times it displays a "!" (Without quotes) and says "System must power down."

So? Anyone have any suggestions? Help please!

Sounds to me like there is a BIOS password set. Try resetting CMOS to see if that clears it:

Shut down and remove the power cord. Open up the system case and locate the round CMOS battery. Remove it, wait several minutes at least, then replace it and see if the PC boots up without asking for the password.

It is becoz ur CMOS password is locked .U can either break ur ur CMOS passowrd by the method as stated by CAtweazle or there are several softwares to break it.
If u failed to break that , ask ur bro-in-law's friend about the password.

Ok guys,

I tried doing what you described. It didn't get me all the way in. This is what it said:

(It was a Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A00. Before I yanked out the battery, I didn't even know what kind of BIOS it was.)

But anyway it said:

Invalid Configuration Information. Please Run SETUP program.

Press <Enter> to leave password security enabled.
Press <CTRL><Enter> to disable password security.

Anyway,

I tried hitting the CTRL Enter combo and it didn't do anything. IT just kept asking me for a password.

But taking out the battery and then putting it back in at least let me get further than I had before.

If you guys have any more advice I'd love to hear it!

Thanks!

Run the setup and disable any password settings...

Ok, this may sound like a stupid question, but when I initially boot up, like I said, it goes straight to the black screen. How do I go directly to SETUP from there?

Thanks for getting back to me!

It will not let you clear the password without knowing the password.

It will not let you into setup without knowing the password.

If this is a desktop box open the case and pull the battery. and leave unplugged from power for a few minutes or even an hour...

Power it back up without the battery in place

Give the make and model and I will see if I can find a jumper to manually reset the bios..