PCTech Forums

Hello

Friend of mine has a pc and he needs to Format/Reinstall Windows XP, however he cannot enter his bios to enable to boot from cd so he can then format the harddrive and install xp from fresh. Its coming up with a password protect, which he doesnt know ( Bought the PC second Hand) any help would be great.

Cheers

The answer here is going to be a jumper. There is a jumper on the board, usually near the battery or bios chip itself that should be labeled clear cmos. You will have 3 pins with a jumper on only 2 of the 3. You shut the system down, take the jumper off pin 1 and 2 then put it on pins 2 and 3. Wait about 10 seconds then place it back to 1 and 2 then power back up, the password should be gone.

If you dont know what kind of motherboard it is to figure out where the jumper is, download Everest and it will tell you. Then you can go to the manufacturer's website.

Let us know how you get on.

Thanks for your advice, will have a go asap and let u know