Boothing up a Dell Inspiration Laptop

A neighbor of mine bought a used Dell Inspiration 1200 from a church yard sale. But he can't get into it at all. Right when he turns it on he gets a admin password notice which he doesn't know. He called Dell and they told him to have a tech format it. So he brought it to me. But I can't get past the admin password. I've tried pc beginner boot disk, I've tried F2, F12 and F8 but still can't get past the password screen. If I replace the hard drive will that get me away from the password probablem? Or do I need to remove some security chip.

 

If the password is in the bios then you'll have to reset the bios which can be an interesting task on a laptop. If it's a password on the os then a simple format and install of a new os will do the trick

 

Re: Booting up a Dell Inspiration Laptop

I've done research on resetting the bios password and I've tried but I can't find the jumper I'm supposed to remove. I've had it apart twice but couldn't find it. It is not the os. Like I wrote I've tried using a pc beginner CD but it won't boot from it. I've tried pressing F12 for boot options but I always get the admin password screen. I've tried pressing F2 to get into setup with the same results. I've tried pressing F8 to select which mode to boot into and exactly the same screen appears.

 

If there is a battery on the motherboard you could remove that and that should reset the bios. and from the sound of it that is exactly where the password is coming from....

 

I don't know if this would work on a Dell, but....
Using the plug you should be able to remove a BIOS password from most Pentium III Toshiba laptops and from some Pentium IV laptops.
http://www.laptoprepair101.com/index.php?s=password&searchbutton=Go!

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS IS FOR LEGITIMATE USE ONLY -

AND ALWAYS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Dells manual
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins2200/en/SM/index.htm

 

Re: Booting up a Dell Inspiration Laptop

It didn't work...I removed the battery and replaced it the next day and now when I try to boot it says "Invalid Configuration Information. Please Run Setup Program." I did some reseach and found out that it isn't a Bios password but a Dell security password. And you must call Dell support and prove ownership. Then they will give you a password for your specific model.
But since I don't own the computer and my customer bought it at a yard sale it's pretty much a large, expensive paper weight. :cry

 

I would contact Dell, give your full name. address etc:, and purchase details- if it is not legitimate, they might have it on file, if it is o.k, you might get lucky- Otherwise, it's a strip out and replace motherboard- the rest should be o.k

 

Try this link http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000235.htm There are various factory passwords that can crack the bios.

Hope this helps