"Norman Frith" wrote:

> Hello,
> After removing the bios, cmos battery, you must use a jumper to rest
> the bios to default. See the motherboard manual for location of bios jumper
> pins. Remove battery, Apply jumper for min of 5 secs and then remove,
> Reinsert battery. Start puter and hit delete. If the password is gone you'll
> get in. If you get in tell it to boot ftom cd rom only.
> This is what my machine would require! Maybe work for you?
>
>
> "gsulliv4" <gsulliv4@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:6A553565-AB0A-4DC0-AC74-5A43711C2127@microsoft.com...
> >I have a Dell Dimension 8300 running XP Home. I want to wipe my hard drive
> > (C and start with a clean slate. Somehow a BIOS password got set, I
> > don't
> > know it, and I am not able to set the PC to boot from CD. I tried removing
> > the battery for a day and a few other things to reset the BIOS. No go.
> >
> > I also do not have a floppy drive. And my disks do not seem bootable. When
> > I
> > enter the boot options during startup, I am not given the choice of "Boot
> > from CD" no matter what I have in my drive.
> >
> > So I tried installing Recovery Console and formatting the drive from
> > there.
> > It lets me in, lets me run format, but nothing happens. I tried a clean
> > install, and all my XP files went away, but all the other garbage on C: is
> > still there.
> >
> > My latest idea was to install an eval version of XP Pro on my Seagate
> > external drive (G, boot from that, and format C: from there. Well, it
> > will
> > apparently not let me install on the external drive. It says startup
> > cannot
> > see it, even though it is listed as an option.
> >
> > I am clueless as to what to do next. Can anyone give me an idea of how I
> > might be able to wipe my C: drive and start with a clean install of XP?
>
>
>

I'm gonna try to mess with the jumpers tonight. Thanks for the advice.

I guess I was hoping that there was a way to remove the OS without messing
with the BIOS.

I went home on my lunch break and tried messing with the jumpers, and lo &
behold, it worked!

Thanks to everyone for your advice. It was very helpful.

Seeing as how your Dell is not working as it should (remove the cmos battery
WILL clear the bios), why don't you call Dell?

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

"gsulliv4" <gsulliv4@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:35743279-61D3-43D5-9795-0181AAB03110@microsoft.com...
>
>
> "Shenan Stanley" wrote:
>
>> gsulliv4 wrote:
>> > I have a Dell Dimension 8300 running XP Home. I want to wipe my hard
>> > drive (C and start with a clean slate. Somehow a BIOS password got
>> > set, I don't know it, and I am not able to set the PC to boot from
>> > CD. I tried removing the battery for a day and a few other things to
>> > reset the BIOS. No go.
>> >
>> > I also do not have a floppy drive. And my disks do not seem bootable.
>> > When I enter the boot options during startup, I am not given the
>> > choice of "Boot from CD" no matter what I have in my drive.
>> >
>> > So I tried installing Recovery Console and formatting the drive from
>> > there. It lets me in, lets me run format, but nothing happens. I
>> > tried a clean install, and all my XP files went away, but all the
>> > other garbage on C: is still there.
>> >
>> > My latest idea was to install an eval version of XP Pro on my Seagate
>> > external drive (G, boot from that, and format C: from there. Well,
>> > it will apparently not let me install on the external drive. It says
>> > startup cannot see it, even though it is listed as an option.
>> >
>> > I am clueless as to what to do next. Can anyone give me an idea of
>> > how I might be able to wipe my C: drive and start with a clean
>> > install of XP?
>>
>> Tried this?
>>
>> 1.. Restart your computer.
>>
>> 2.. At the first text on the screen, or when the Dell logo appears,
>> press
>> the <F2> key every three seconds until the message Entering Setup
>> appears.
>>
>> 3.. When the System Setup screen appears, press the <Alt> + <F> keys at
>> the same time to load the factory defaults.
>> A beep sounds to indicate the defaults have been loaded.
>>
>> 4.. Check and, if necessary, reset the time, date, and year.
>>
>> 5.. Change the Secondary Drive 0 setting to Auto.
>>
>> 6.. Change USB Legacy Support to Enabled.
>>
>> 7.. Press the <Alt> + <B> keys at the same time to save changes and
>> reboot.
>>
>> 8.. Proceed with the installation or troubleshooting that you were
>> attempting.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Shenan Stanley
>> MS-MVP
>> --
>> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
>>
>>
>>
>
> Hitting <ALT> + <F> does nothing. When I hit <F2> during startup it puts
> me
> in the main BIOS screen with a prompt for the System Password. Without
> that,
> I can't change any of the settings. Hitting <ALT> + <F> on this screen is
> not
> doing anything. No beep, and the password prompt is still there.