configure disabled

I was given an old Dell 8500. formatted hard drive and installed fresh copy of xp sp3. prompted that time and date wrong during setup. cant change in bios cause "configure disabled". it says i have to enter the admin password in order to change configure from disabled to enabled.if I don't enter anything it says "invalid" and wont switch, defaults back to disabled. how can there be a password if i have not set one? very frustrating because date is set to june 2005 and time is way off.

Things I have tried: Result:
set time and date in control panel. Settings do not stick.
Three different password reset/recover programs. Shows no passwords present.

 

http://en.kioskea.net/faq/1192-lost-password-resetting-the-bios

read this thread, If you give me the make, model, and model number, I can search for a manual that will show the password jumper pin setting.

1. first remove cmos battery for 5 minutes , replace, reboot. did this work? if not go to above and read thread. post back with requested info.

 

AAAARRRRGGGGG! Went online and found pic of blue CMOS battery pack that was in panel under the Laptop battery. It was connected with a red and black cable and a white connector. I unplugged the laptop, pulled the battery, then I unplugged the cmos and waited 5 min. Plugged everything up and NOW THE FRIGGING THING WONT BOOT UP!

 

ok, let's see if we can get you back up: need the make, model and model number!

first there should be a blue screen error, is it showing?

do this to get into laptop, I would do the usb route not the cd route, since you have a laptop:
Courtesy of Jose Ibarra:
Anywho, to make a Hiren's boot CD, do this:

I am going to recommend you use Hiren's boot CD (it will also go on a USB drive).

This is good for you because it has many more tools on it that on the XP Recovery Console CD, does not care about your Administrator passwords and you will not have to futz around in your BIOS if any afflicted system has SATA drives - Hiren's can deal with that.
----------------------------

one of the first things you want to do after booting with hiren's is run checkdisk

chkdsk c: /r
You will have a whole bunch of cool tools that you don't have in the XP Recovery Console... a registry editor, password resetter, and a desktop that looks like Windows XP so you will feel comfortable maneuvering.

You can also easily copy your personal data (documents, images, music.) to an external drive.

From a working system, first download Hiren's Boot CD from here (it is a substantial download but worth it):

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/ (look near the bottom of the page, do not click on any ads).


Unzip the Hiren's to some folder where you can find it. There is a Hiren's.BootCD..iso in there that you are going to need next.

Hiren's has instructions to make a bootable USB that you can use, but it requires you to first burn the .iso to a CD and some other steps, so I suggest another way...

Download RUFUS 1.20 from here (read some stuff on the page so you can know more about it):

http://rufus.akeo.ie/

I will caution you to be careful that you don't accidentally format any of your hard drives - be sure your USB stick is in and know what the drive letter is! This part always makes me a little nervous, so be careful.

Launch RUFUS and all the defaults should be okay, for the Device, choose your USB drive letter, Quick format, FAT32, label it if you want to and in the Format options box, click the little icon that looks like a CD and a window will open. Navigate that dialogue to point to the folder that contains the Hiren's.BootCD.15.iso that you unzipped earlier and the box should change to say ISO image (RUFUS understands the Hiren's ISO file).

Double check you have the right Device selected in the top (NOT you HDD) Click Start, acknowledge the warning and let it finish (it will take a little while) as it copies the files. The Hiren's ISO is also good size.

When RUFUS is done, it will say 'DONE' in the bottom.

Put the USB stick in the afflicted machine and reset/reboot and press whatever key you need to press to get to a boot menu where you can select the USB as the first boot device (that is F11 for me). If you don't see a boot menu choice, you will have to adjust your BIOS to boot from the USB first instead of the HDD.

When the Hiren's menu comes up, choose the Mini XP Mode and it will start loading (slowly from a USB drive) and eventually you should see a Windowsy looking desktop. You should recognize that part and feel comfortable, but it is not your desktop - it is the Hiren's desktop!

Remember: You did not boot on your hard disk - you booted into the Hiren's desktop


http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk
Hiren’s for flash drive

 

The model is PP02X. The screen is black. Lite on dash turns green but blank screen. I think this machine is a bust. I would like to save it but its frustrating.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/top...21A18454B4A6550E030A68F27286358&isLegacy=true

above link is how to reset a BIOS password

http://support.dell.com/support/systemsinfo/documentation.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~subcat=177&~cat=12

I could not find your laptop here, no pp02x, you can look and see if your system is here, so you can get clear instructions to reset the password

a Bios password is not the same as a password used to log onto windows.