Legit Reviews

my friend Ashley just got a secondhand Dell from her uncle.
too bad mr. uncle didnt tell her it was from a business, and she can't do anything but power on to the login screen since it's passworded.

its XP and thats about all i know other than it being a Dell. is there any way she can just get in and delete everything but the OS?

You can boot to a bartPE disk and there is an option to remove/reset passwords. Cant think of the module off the top of my head but its there.

Can the uncle get the password? If it was from a small business have her try to log in as the admin and leave the password blank, you would be amazed at how many PCs I have worked on in a small business side jobs that didn't even know the account was there to set a password too.

edit: found it http://www.kood.org/windows-password-renew/

ok um so i'd download BartPE, create a bootable disk of it, then run password renew off of the disk?

bubba wrote:... If it was from a small business have her try to log in as the admin and leave the password blank, ...

This works a majority of the time. First, boot up the machine. As the boot display changes from listing the hardware devices to the XP boot screen, press F8 a zillion times. A screen will show up asking if you would like to boot XP in SAFE MODE. Move with the arrow keys to the SAFE MODE option. When it boots up into XP, there will be an Admin account. Just click on that account and usually it lets you into the system. Once in you can change those passwords or delete the old accounts and create a new account for her.

cool cool, yeah her uncle moved and left her with some of his stuff (weight set, pc, old tv) that he didnt want to take with, so he's sort of not available for password poking. i'll let you all know if i can't help her get into her new/old pc day after tomorrow (work all day tuesday)

thanks!

If all else fails, the Dell probably has a hidden partition on it for system restore purposes.
You could run the restore process and have her a fresh OS with no passwords.

I had a buddy with the same problem, my solution was a long shot, (and a little luck) but he actually had a similar dell in his house and i used the dell disk to do a clean install over the existing one. So if you know anyone with the same model around and they have the disks...............
good luck

stev wrote: This works a majority of the time. First, boot up the machine. As the boot display changes from listing the hardware devices to the XP boot screen, press F8 a zillion times. A screen will show up asking if you would like to boot XP in SAFE MODE. Move with the arrow keys to the SAFE MODE option. When it boots up into XP, there will be an Admin account. Just click on that account and usually it lets you into the system. Once in you can change those passwords or delete the old accounts and create a new account for her.

You can also get to the admin log in at the standard login screen. When you hit the "Welcome Screen" before you click on a user, just hit CTRL+ALT+DEL once or twice 2-3sec apart you will get a login in screen that you can type in the account name and password you want.

gah! turns out that 1) the cdrom crapped out and will not pop out no matter what, and 2) she didnt care if they had to wipe the drive and install a fresh OS.

so i couldnt do anything but try and get the cdrom to work, but that was an hour wasted

It's a dell, it likely suffers from "Dell Drive Disease"... press the eject button, and then smack the *#$& out of the top of the case and it will open. From that point on, ALWAYS leave a CD in the drive, even if it's a blank one and it will open every time.

lol i'll give that a go as soon as i can. thanks for the caveman tip ;)

DaIceMan wrote:press the eject button, and then smack the *#$& out of the top of the case...

Reminds me of the Fonz...so apparently defenestrating a Dell is a good way to get the CD drive working again?

A lot, well all actually, of the old dells here at work get stuck all the time. I press the button use a paper clip to pry the tray open, once open clean the dust and crud from around the tray face and it will work great. go a month or so with out opening it and you will have to pry it open again.

bubba wrote:A lot, well all actually, of the old dells here at work get stuck all the time. I press the button use a paper clip to pry the tray open, once open clean the dust and crud from around the tray face and it will work great. go a month or so with out opening it and you will have to pry it open again.

so prying it open might work? o.O i'm a little worried i'd break it

Can you use the manual open hole on the drive? Shove the paper clip in there, that's what it is there for.

DaIceMan wrote:press the eject button, and then smack the *#$& out of the top of the case and it will open.

I actually used to use this method for my Xbox before I got a replacement drive, press the button, and just as it tries to open give it a whack.

Doesn't take a lot of force. If you hit the button you will hear the drive try to open, just start to wiggle the paper clip in behind the tray face plate and it should pop right open. Hell if you have long finger nails you might get it open that way, I use a paper clip for the fact that my nails are cut short.

You could also use the little hole on the front of the drive. With the system off, get a good heavy duty paper clip and straighten it, on the front of the drive there is a small pin hole, stick the clip through the hole and you can push on the gear that opens the drive. Done this many times to drives that the motor had failed and still had a disk in it.

my dell has two drives, and i've had to use a paper clip once to my recollection in 4 years, the drives are empty most of the time also

A long time ago, I owned 4 Dells at one time. I have had many issues with the drive door sticking, but never where one refused to open completely. If that happened to me, I would pull the drive and shove a temporary replacement in there. I keep a CDRW and a DVD Rom as replacements for when I need them. Sticking a paper clip in the hole will generally free it up.

ibleet wrote:A long time ago, I owned 4 Dells at one time. I have had many issues with the drive door sticking, but never where one refused to open completely. If that happened to me, I would pull the drive and shove a temporary replacement in there. I keep a CDRW and a DVD Rom as replacements for when I need them. Sticking a paper clip in the hole will generally free it up.

unfortunately this is a thin drive in a small case. we'd thought of replacing it but it just wasn't able to happen.

anyhow im heading over to their house right now to help them DB&N their drive and do a fresh install! i'll let you guys know if i run into any issues