Did you reboot pc and on reboot repeatedly tap F8 to get into safe mode?
Do not press F8 while PC is already on.
Turn off PC then turn back on as soon as you turn it on tap F8 repeatedly.Before it even gets to logon screen.
yh i have tried that but all it comes up with is a boot menu, about a floppy disk and a cd , nothing about setting the pc to factory settings. there is no choice of password hints. remember: it is re-conditioned