Impossible vicious circle

[jarodatkinson]

I have two problems bouncing off each other stopping me finding a solution. Firstly i cant get into my bios for whatever reason, it locks up my computer trying to access any menu. Secondly I have somehow locked myself out as an administrator.... both user accounts showing have my name on them, but the only one i can access is the restricted account. I have no idea of the password on the other one. In an attempt to fix bios, i have downloaded the appropriate update.... but i can't install the bios installer or get into the msconfig boot page without being an administrator.... nor can i delete or hack the administrator password with any software because i can't get into bios!!!! So here I am stuck on a restricted user account with no bios. I have literally spent the last 8 hours trying to resolve this.... i even toyed with the idea of installing a hard drive from another xp computer I have where I know I am the administrator, just for the bios update.... but that wont work either..... I have no idea how to get out of this mess.... Heeeeelp!!!!

 

[vrumor]

You dont need to be in Windows to update a BIOS. No one can help you with your password issue. If you are the owner, you should know the password.

 

[juanrdp]

For a lot of MBs manufacturers you could configure an USB to boot as master with an MS-DOS sop that just launch the update of the BIOS, check the BIOS options in the MB webpage

 

[jarodatkinson]

You dont need to be in Windows to update a BIOS. No one can help you with your password issue. If you are the owner, you should know the password.

FEEL FREE TO CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG........Its my understanding you DO need to be in windows to access msconfig and boot.ini in order to get the computer to boot from a thumb drive or cd if you can't access bios to boot from. And just quietly mate, don't you think that if I could remember the password from 10 fricken years ago, i wouldn't be asking for help?..... Now if i could get access as a system user, i could fix the no administrator problem, and finally flash the bios to see if updating it resolves the problem, but i don't know how to do this...

 

[BFG-9000]

If the optical or USB are in the boot order after the HDD, you could boot from them by simply unplugging the power to the HDD. Then you could update the BIOS from DOS. I assume you can't install a floppy drive because that needs BIOS support to work, so if it's not already installed and running, you wouldn't be able to use it.

If this or a CMOS clear allows you into the BIOS to set the boot priority to optical or USB first, well then you can clean install XP after plugging the power back in. Or boot from a ntpasswd changer.

 

[COLGeek]

Discussions on how to bypass security measures are not allowed. Thus the advice given earlier. We have no means to verify the ownership of the device in question.

Second, updating the BIOS, also as previously mentioned, can be accomplished without accessing Windows. These actions can be completely separated from one another.

If you can access your BIOS, you can update it (you can also change your boot order/boot device in the BIOS as well).

Keep in mind that updating the BIOS will only solve one of your issues.