help with old PC resolved

hello-- my dad gave me his old computer, and it is a old Gateway 450desktop. its about 2 or 3years old. he got a new one and gave me this and told me to check it out. the problem is when i turn it on it goes thru the normal boot, but not to far, then asks for the 'current password' - well my dad has no idea how to put a password or any idea what it is and has no memory of every making one. i was just going to see if i could take the parts out of it, but instead i wish someone could help me with the passsword. all i want to do is format the HD for him, but i can't even get to a DOS promt w/ a bootdisk. anyhelp would be apperciated ! thanks -justin.

well i figured out that it is a AMIBIOS. and i cant enter the setup by pressing F1, becos it beeps the password screen comes up. i learend the BIOS whn i hit tab, this computer might actully be older than i thought. ill keep tryin still, i hope someone wants to help ? - justin

if it is a BIOS password, you may be able to disconeect the battery for a few minutes to reset things. look on the mfg's website to see if you can touch a pin on the mb to reset it. that is also an option on some older machines. you haven't said what OS it is.

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Originally Posted by dglienna

...you haven't said what OS it is.

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That wouldn't apply because it's a BIOS password, so it's happening before even attempting to load the boot order.

Take the battery out for a while then put it back in, it'll reset it for ya, easiest thing todo.

just gathering info for after he resets the bios pw.

yeah , i actully open my eyes and checked it out and i found a jumper on 3 pins, it was on 1and2, but when you swithed the jumper to 2and3, i reboot and it beeps and says bios p/w reset. so i ened up formattign the pc, now i can't seem to getxp to install onto it. i have had no problems gettin xp to install on this machine after i formatted the hd. but on my dads gateway i cant get it to copy the files w/o sitting next the compter b/c it cant copy certain files from the cd? no idea why, some one told me the pc is too old and would need more ram. sounds lik a good reason, is that wrong or am i doing something else not right? - justin

which processor is it? how much RAM does it have? You may just have a bad CD drive, but it could be system requirements aren't sufficient.

well i know it has an AMD chip from the front stickers, im thinking maybe 833-800mhz. it's old right. well anyways about the cd drive someone told me to run smartdrv.xe from a bootdisk, so i could enable cache of files from the cd. i think i just might try and install a version of linux of it instead just for fun. but i never did anything with linux before but i would like to learn some things about it so i think that is what i might just do. im not sure tho what version to install? which is better then what, i seen redhat and mandrake, SuSE, slackware and winlinux. which one is easy to install, my friend said i might even be able to d/l soem of the freeware vers off a devlopers website. if u can help me out thanks - justin

mate 833 isnt old, try 233 on for size...i just stopped using that! i had prblems installing on my new pc, first it was the ram which wouldnt be ur problem cos u used the pc before....its most likely gonna be a bad CD or maybe ur laser in ur cd drive has carked it? that has also happened to me...have u wiped out all the sectors and then reformatted prperly?

It may be your CD drive, I had similar problems with one of mine, during the setup, it would for some reason claim that the CD wasn't inserted, and no matter what I did, it wouldn't advance. Once I replaced the CD drive, it worked fine.

im beggin to think it would be usless to replace the cd drive. it's an old pc, i just might take the parts out and use them some where else. iv'e been trying to download a copy of suse linux from linuxiso, but it such a big file and it takes so long. but i'm gonna keep at it. and thanks for all ur help guys. - justin

Edit your FIRST post in the thread to include the checkmark, so that we can see it from the main form, and don't have to read to the bottom of it.

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Originally Posted by jlbovo

im beggin to think it would be usless to replace the cd drive. it's an old pc, i just might take the parts out and use them some where else. iv'e been trying to download a copy of suse linux from linuxiso, but it such a big file and it takes so long. but i'm gonna keep at it. and thanks for all ur help guys. - justin

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Give it a try anyway, no need to jomp ship over something like this :p. If you've got another PC handy, take the CD drive out of it just for the installer and see if it works. If it installs fine, you can plug the other cd drive back in and continue to use it just fine, that's what I had todo at one stage before i got another old CD drive that worked.