Reformatting a computer

My Employer asked me to reformatt her sons laptop to remove a virus. Me no problemo . Guess Again. She brought the compac armada E500 used. what neither of them knew is that this was setup by an IT professional tru an administrasion system. which in turn will not allow me to bypass the system to get access to the drive to reformatt it. I gave them this info and maybe whoever they purchased it from can give them access. but i figured i would run it by the forum to see if any one can help with this. her sons a kid and was kind of clueless and mom even more so any sugesstions because i'm clueless at this point also. system is running 2000 professional nt

 

If you are locked out of the BIOS try taking the motherboard battery out for a few minutes (maybe longer) put it back & see if you can now get in.

 

how hard for the laptop to gain access

 

Thsi may help:

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2006/2006-02-16.htm

and read article 2, "Tragic Consequences", follow links.