Found an old computer Dell Optiplex GX100 - has a password for bios?

Something unexpected has been happening to replies to this group, but I'll
try again, without links.

There is a jumper on the GX100 mainboard to reset the password. Details are
at support.dell.com. (The jumper is near the front left corner of the board,
near one of the ends of the riser card slot.) I'd provide a link, but my
last attempt gave a posting that disappeared. There are all sorts of
instructions available there, including how to open the case.

You shouldn't need any sort of boot floppy with this system. Its BIOS can be
set to boot from an IDE CD drive, allowing you to install XP in the normal
way.

Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"David D" <netrate@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:a700b951-a80b-4741-ba66-7711e977c7e2@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> Well, it seems that I have some other problems. I took out the hard
> drive and loaded Win 2000 on it using another computer. It worked
> great and then when I reinstalled the HD, I now get the blue screen
> saying the HD is inaccessible. It must be the drivers on the DELL
> motherboard or something that is doing it. I was hoping to find a
> piece of software that would work from the A drive or something -
> going to Bootit.com and get the Win2000 boot disks, maybe that will
> help, but not sure. I guess I am going to try leaving the battery out
> overnight - try to set the boot to the CD drive the Win 2000, and if
> that fails, it is going into the garbage.
>

Bob,

Sending you a personal email about this.
The jumper for the PASSWORD worked great. But the new issue is that
it won't boot from the CD rom, even though I tell it to boot from
there in the boot sequence. I get this error :

F1 to retry boot F2 to enter setup.

Nothing else. So I have tried a few other HD I have lying around,
same year as the computer and they all do the same. Is this a BIOS
problem?


On Jun 27, 11:56 am, "Bob Knowlden" <nk...@comcast.net> wrote:
> Something unexpected has been happening to replies to this group, but I'll
> try again, without links.
>
> There is a jumper on the GX100 mainboard to reset the password. Details are
> at support.dell.com. (The jumper is near the front left corner of the board,
> near one of the ends of the riser card slot.) I'd provide a link, but my
> last attempt gave a posting that disappeared. There are all sorts of
> instructions available there, including how to open the case.
>
> You shouldn't need any sort of boot floppy with this system. Its BIOS can be
> set to boot from an IDE CD drive, allowing you to install XP in the normal
> way.
>
> Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.
>
> "David D" <netr...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
> news:a700b951-a80b-4741-ba66-7711e977c7e2@m73g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
>
> > Well, it seems that I have some other problems. I took out the hard
> > drive and loaded Win 2000 on it using another computer. It worked
> > great and then when I reinstalled the HD, I now get the blue screen
> > saying the HD is inaccessible. It must be the drivers on the DELL
> > motherboard or something that is doing it. I was hoping to find a
> > piece of software that would work from the A drive or something -
> > going to Bootit.com and get the Win2000 boot disks, maybe that will
> > help, but not sure. I guess I am going to try leaving the battery out
> > overnight - try to set the boot to the CD drive the Win 2000, and if
> > that fails, it is going into the garbage.

Gurney wrote:
>
> Ask elsewhere
>
A somewhat more useful answer would be
"Ask Dell"

Bill

Bob,

After about 7 hours of working on it, finally got it. I had to make
up the 4 floppy disk for Win2000 boot from bootdisk.com. Finally got
it installed and running. Now, going to put XP on it and see if that
takes. Thanks for all the help.
David

In article <c18fadc8-9b40-4467-88dd-26f979a2f179@
34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com>, davidfilmdirector@gmail.com says...
> After about 7 hours of working on it, finally got it. I had to make
> up the 4 floppy disk for Win2000 boot from bootdisk.com. Finally got
> it installed and running. Now, going to put XP on it and see if that
> takes. Thanks for all the help.

I just tossed about 8 GX100 units, they are P2 if I remember correctly,
and most of them had 128MB RAM, XP will run, but you're going to want
256MB RAM.

--
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
spam999free@rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address)

Yep, I upped the RAM to 256 for this.


> I just tossed about 8 GX100 units, they are P2 if I remember correctly,
> and most of them had 128MB RAM, XP will run, but you're going to want
> 256MB RAM.
>
> --
> - Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
> - Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
> drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
> spam999f...@rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address)

In article <91c551c0-0d03-4b38-b388-2d5760174de8
@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>, davidfilmdirector@gmail.com says...
> Yep, I upped the RAM to 256 for this.

If they still have the Service Tag you can still go to Dell's website
and just enter that ID number and it will provide you with all of the
drivers.

--
- Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum.
- Calling an illegal alien an "undocumented worker" is like calling a
drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmacist"
spam999free@rrohio.com (remove 999 for proper email address)

"Bill Sharpe" <wfsnopam@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:uaMOJiJ2IHA.528@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Gurney wrote:
>>
>> Ask elsewhere
>>
> A somewhat more useful answer would be
> "Ask Dell"
>

Gurney doesn't do useful answers.

What are you replying to because there is no post from Gurney here?

M.I.5¾ wrote:

> "Bill Sharpe" <wfsnopam@adelphia.net> wrote in message
> news:uaMOJiJ2IHA.528@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
>>Gurney wrote:
>>
>>>Ask elsewhere
>>>
>>
>>A somewhat more useful answer would be
>>"Ask Dell"
>>
>
>
> Gurney doesn't do useful answers.
>
> What are you replying to because there is no post from Gurney here?
>

Perhaps you don't see it? it is on the MSnews server.
>

M.I.5¾ wrote:
> "Bill Sharpe" <wfsnopam@adelphia.net> wrote in message
> news:uaMOJiJ2IHA.528@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Gurney wrote:
>>> Ask elsewhere
>>>
>> A somewhat more useful answer would be
>> "Ask Dell"
>>
>
> Gurney doesn't do useful answers.
>
> What are you replying to because there is no post from Gurney here?
>
>
You must have kill-filed messages with "ask elsewhere" in them. This
clown with a one-track mind keeps changing his name...

Bill