Are any of these errors related? XP

Hi,

I wasn't sure where to post this but the main issue a friend has is that her Windows XP password isn't working anymore. She enters it but it says that it's the wrong password. She's had the same password for years. The only thing she's done from the last good boot to not being able to get into Windows was moving the computer (desktop) from one side of her room to the other. Of course, unplugging all cables and reconnecting them.

She is getting error messages at boot up: "System battery voltages low" & "Diskette drive 0 seek failure."

Neither of those should have anything to do with password corruption do they?

I was going to replace the battery. I'm not sure of the best thing to do with the disk drive. She says she doesn't use it so I thought I would just remove it and disable it in the bios, or replace with one I've got laying around.

I read the manual online and saw that I can, uh, forgot the right terminology, switch the jumpers on the pins to reset the password. It said it was for forgotten passwords. This case is apparently password corruption. I'm guessing they're stored in an encrypted file?

Would resetting via the jumpers fix the corruption issue? Can I simply go around it somehow in the start up sequence? Do I need to do something else entirely?

Thanks!

It's a Dell Demension 8400

 

The jumpers would only clear a BIOS password not the Windows password.

If you try to start in safemode (F8) repeatedly during/after the DELL splash screen do you get an Administrator account as a choice on the login screen. You could try leaving that password blank and seeing if it will let you into Windows.

 

Thanks! I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

 

sach2,

I made it over to my friend's house today and it worked. Thanks, much!

Rock