Hello to one and all I hope i am posting this message in the right place if not i am sorry.. I am new to this forum and am in need of assistance i have a dell inspiron 8100 that some one who was supposed to be my friend locked up with the administrator/ primary password in the infamous gray dell security screen. would you be able to provide an unlock code for it. the guy palyed a april's fool joke on me amd locked the laptop to the point where i cant boot from cd, floppy anything else for that matter and he even forgot what the password was or so he says... any help would be appreciated. i need to file my taxes and the info is in my laptop so you know the stress i am in. :dead: Any ideas feel free to send mail here ==> pctek01@gmail.com this is a junk email account i use for about almost anything so it's ok to send mail.

my info is as follows:

SERVICE TAG: #HR1V311-595B
EXPRESS SERVICE CODE: 38641016341

I don't know if this would work but you could try resetting the BIOS by pulling the little backup battery(usually found under the main battery) out then puting it back in. then it will ask you to put the time and date in and then it should work fine. But it depends on your laptop setup as to whether you can get to the backup battery without screwing up the whole laptop!

I just found something on the Dell website about removing the backup battery HERE.
It looks a bit risky but it worked with my laptop (resetting the BIOS).
Hope it helps

Check the Read: Dell Password Removal post at the top of this page.

To jono91:
Have tried both methods and still get the same result the dammed grey screen asking for the passwords. From what I read in the forum referred by realblackstuff the grey screen is either one of 2 items a locked hard drive or what i am suspecting the famous security chip embedded on the motherboard but I have tried to short it out about a dozen times and still I have no luck… thanks for the info I am focusing on the hard drive issue for now I shall apprise all of any new developments..

can you boot up the computer to get access to safe-mode?

Unfortunately it had nothing to do with any version of windows as it happens it has to do with the security chip embedded on the motherboard. As it happens the computer won't allow to even boot via the usual methods Cd, floppy, usb, or nic etc... So it really has nothing to do with windows xp but thanks for the thought anyway..