Another one for the techies . .

[oldrocker]

My daughter stopped using her desktop in favour of a laptop some 18 months ago and it's lain idle since then. We've had a change round and SWMBO wants to use it to replace the Tiny machine she's using now.

Problem is that when it's switched on it goes to the user login page for my daughter and despite trying she can't remember the password= useless machine.

Any way round this Chums ?

[Easilyconfused]

What operating system does it have ? There is usually a built in administrator account but then again that will have a password set.

[oldrocker]

XP

[ArthurC]

HI

If you open the case and look for the small battery on the mother board and remove it. That should allow you to boot up. Replace the battery and if you want you should be able to enter the bios and create a new password. Hope this works OK.

Regards Arthur

[oldrocker]

Thanks both but I just came across this http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 524AA523JK

Works like a charm !

[MGD11]

Glad you got your issue fixed!

At least you're not like some on the users I've had to deal with in my job as a Desktop Engineer, who seem to forget their password mere seconds after they've used it.

HI

If you open the case and look for the small battery on the mother board and remove it. That should allow you to boot up. Replace the battery and if you want you should be able to enter the bios and create a new password. Hope this works OK.

Regards Arthur

Arthur,

You are correct that in removing the battery on the motherboard removes the custom BIOS settings and reverts it to it's default ROM settings. However, 'oldrocker' was looking for the Windows password (which he's now got round) which wouldn't be affected by the BIOS.

- MG