I have a old Dell Latitude laptop that I have not used for over 3 years. The laptop runs on Windows 2000. It has both a user and a admin password. I recall, the admin password was set by an ex-colleague and I set the user password some 4 years ago. However, I have forgotten both the passwords!

Also, the laptop is set to boot only from its internal fixed disk and this can only be changed with an Admin password.

Is there a simple solution to this problem? Is it possible to reset the user or admin password? I have a working desktop PC that runs Windows XP and I have the original cd for XP that I purchased a couple of years ago. I can upgrade the laptop to XP but don't know how as I can not go past the loggin screen of the laptop!

Any advice will be greatly appreciated?

Hello and welcome to PCHelpForum.

Ok power off the laptop and remove mains battery.

Turn her over and under one of the plates you will find the BIOS battery.
Remove the battery for 1-2 minutes replace and reboot.

Password should be gone.

You can now enter BIOS/Setup.

The Tech Team and helpfull members can help you further.

JB.

Hi JB

My laptop is a Dell Latitude CS400XT model. There is only 1 small panel (4"x3") that is held by two screws. Opening it only exposes a circuit board populated with several chips etc. - no sign of any BIOS battery. I removed the main battery and then tried to open the entire back plate by unscrewing about a dozen screws, including 5 within the main battery compartment but the back plate won't come off. It appears to be sticking along the back of the laptop - didn't want to break it by putting too much pressure! I also took out the internal hard drive but this doesn't help.

Any thing else I can do to access the BIOS battery? Also, I do not require any data files etc. on this laptop. Is it possible to clear everything on the hard drive and reload the operating system without logging on to the current system?

Thanks

vs1101

Hi there,

Try calling Dell. Quote the service tag and see if they will give you the Master BIOS password.

Thanks - just spoken to DELL technical support for Latitude and gave details of the laptop, including the service tag code (IXSEX). After a lot of waiting around on the phone they eventually told me that my laptop was too old and it was no longer supported by DELL. Will need to try some other option!

Not sure but perhaps this may be of use... CmosPwd - CGSecurity

Ran across this post which is specifically about Dell Latitude... http://www.techspot.com/vb/post124984-9.html

I know that it is possible to log on to windows xp as administrator in safe mode without needing a password but I'm not sure about win2k.Still it could be worth a try and if successfull you should be able to reset the passwords through the user accounts pages