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a friend of mine recently gave me a Dell Inspiron 2320 which he has not used for a very long time. He had, what he called a "password problem" that he could not resolve. He put the Dell away and bought a new computer. He knows that I am fairly good at fixing computers and having two sons he gave it to me.

What I found out was that his password problem was not a Windows log in or admin problem as I suspected but rather a bios password at startup. He does not know how the password got set and does not even recall ever seeing that screen until after having houseguests. Regardless of why the computer is asking for a bios password, it is and no one knows what it is. I have tried all the common ones and none of them work.

I read Shawn B's post on Help Owl dot com on how to reset the password using the jumpers. It hasn't worked. I have also removed the cmos battery and left it out for nearly an hour -- that didn't work either.

When I first turn it on, just for a moment I get the Dell splash screen that shows F2 for Setup and F12 for Boot Options, however pressing neither of those (either quickly, slowly, repeatedly and/or in conjunction with either ctrl or alt) will take me to Set up or Boot Options. I have a Windows 7 recovery disc which I put into the drive thinking that, if nothing else I could restart the computer and it would read the disc. That did not happen either.

What can I do with this?? If I give it back he is going to throw it out. He only gave it to me because I have had success in the past fixing computers. Having bought a new one he isn't going to pay to have it fixed and I cannot afford to take it to be fixed either ....that is why I do my best to fix them on my own :) My kids would love it if I could get it working.

Can you help?

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  • Following this guide and tried the backdoor method?
    – DrZoo
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 20:34
  • You need to leave the battery out for MUCH longer, 8-12 hours in my experience.
    – Burgi
    Commented May 13, 2016 at 23:25

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Complete Procedure is in your owners manual

enter image description here

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  • Yes, I found this info earlier today and tried this already. After following all the steps and turning the computer back on the enter password screen still comes up.
    – Cecile
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 22:35
  • Have you tried simply hitting Enter at the password prompt? I've encountered a few BIOS' in the past where the password does get cleared but you are still prompted for it and hitting Enter with no input takes me past the prompt.
    – waywardone
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 22:52
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    If the jumper didn't do it, fully remove the battery ( its shown on that diagram ) for a minute or two. Make sure that the PC has no power applied to it - unplugged from the wall. If that doesn't do it is baked into your firmware.
    – Argonauts
    Commented May 6, 2016 at 22:54
  • After removing the CMOS battery as @Argonauts suggests, you could also try holding down the power button repeatedly (with the power cable disconnected of course) to drain any residual electricity from the Motherboard and reset the BIOS.
    – Matthew
    Commented May 7, 2016 at 0:01
  • Post the serial number and service tag of the Dell and I will try to generate a master password for it.
    – Moab
    Commented May 7, 2016 at 1:46
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Remove every power source of the PC, then move the jumper from Pins 2 & 3 to pins 1 & 2, dont put the covers yet, place the back leg (plastic clear) to allow stand up the PC and then put the power cable, once the F2/F12 screen select F2, with this the password request disappears, navihate and set a new administration password, then F10 to save, the exit. Once the PC tries to power on, just push the power button to turn it off, unplunge the power cable and then put the password jumper back to pins 3 & 4. Power on the PC again and hit F2 again to go to Bios Setup, then, you can type any password you want. It worked in my Inspiron One 2320

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  • sorry, back to pins 2 & 3
    – RPM
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 1:08
  • There's an EDIT button so you can fix things that need fixing.
    – music2myear
    Commented Apr 21, 2020 at 3:24

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