MAJOR Windows XP PROBLEM! Please help!

Hi everyone,

I have two questions and I would really appreciate it if you would take the time to read them and help me.

Thank you in advance to anyone that does. I would really appreciate it.
Peter.

Question 1 - Windows XP Boot Problem

I am having a major problem with Windows XP, to the point where my computer won't even boot into Windows on occasion.

Basically, this happens every time I turn off my computer, and then turn it back on again (but not after resetting my computer):

It loads the Dell Bios (A09 - the newest version; I hope this isn't the wrong place to make this thread), then, rather than booting to Windows it says:

"Performing automatic IDE Configuration..."

If I sit there and let it continue it says after a while something like "time/date - not configured" and "run setup program" and other things I can't remember and then says "Press F1 to continue" or "Press F2 to enter setup".
The only problem with this is that neither options work!. I literally sat there for 5 minutes pushing the buttons to the tune of the Simpson's (LOL).
I reset my computer and turned on/off my computer several times but still no luck - the options wouldn't work!

I then noticed the "setup" and "boot options" (<--something like that) at the top of the screen when the Dell Bios screen came up. I tried entering the boot
options but with no luck. It would go to the same place as above and say "Keyboard Failure" and do the whole "Performing automatic IDE configuration" thing again. I then figured it was a problem with my keyboard so I changed the keyboard to another old one I had lying around and sure enough I was able to get into the boot options screen and boot Windows normally from there. The funny thing with that is that last time I had this issue (it has happened before) I was using this same keyboard and had to switch to the other one (the one that wouldn't work on this occasion) to make it work, and once Windows is loaded both keyboards work perfectly fine.

This may not sound so bad but it is really annoying having to change keyboards over every time I want to boot Windows and then have to muck around going to the boot options screen to load Windows. This also causes (I'm pretty sure) the time/date to be reset every time as well, which is also very annoying.

Can anyone please help me resolve this issue so that my computer will just boot to XP as it should, without going to this "performing automatic IDE configuration" screen which resets my time and date settings and leads to a dead end?

If it helps I am running XP Home (no service packs), on a Dell Optiplex GX260 desktop (I hope I didn't make this thread in the wrong place, sorry if I did!)

Question 2 - Windows 2000 Professional Password Problem

I bought an old computer from an auction a little while ago and was planning on setting it up and giving it to my grandma. It is a very old Pentium (SSX?) system that I was hoping I could give to her so she could play solitaire and hearts on it (or whatever it would run lol).
I got it home and turned it on and it has Windows 2000 Professional on it. It starts to load and then comes to a password screen with a user name "storage king" and I don't know the password (I have tried to guess it though). I tried to figure out how to disable/remove/find out the password with no success.

The only option I could think of to fix the problem would be to re-install windows, however, the only operating system CD's I have are Windows ME and Windows XP Home. I know for a fact that Windows XP wouldn't even fit onto the hard-drive of this old computer, and so I planned to install Windows ME on it. However, after inserting the CD into the drive there is no way for me to run setup (I have tried). I try to go into boot options thinking there will be an option to do it but I cannot get into this and it just says "keyboard failure" like in my other question above.

Can someone please tell me a way to get around this password, either by disabling/removing/figuring it out, whether this is through re-installing windows or another method (keeping in mind the above problems I am having with reinstalling windows).

Thank you.
Peter.

 

download this: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bd050303.zip
AND READ ALL OF THIS! http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html seriously, every question you could possibly have about everything ever having to do with this program WILL be answered there.

that should help fix your win2k box. I had to do this a long time ago when I had win2k installed.

 

Since you have a Dell, hit F12 for Boot Options at the Dell Splash Screen and select 'Diagnostics'. Choose to do a custom test on your keyboard. The first test is keyboard controller -- I wouldn't be entirely surprised if this failed. Also, run a custom test on your motherboard. (Custom might sound scary, but really in this case all it means is you pick and choose which componant(s) to test, rather than letting the machine test everything).
By any chance, is this Dell a Latitude D600? One of my bosses has one and since February it's had four keyboard replacements and one mobo. Dell didn't want to send us the third keyboard, they thought we were crazy. Heh. I've talked her into replacing it with an E1405.

 

I'm pretty sure this is a desktop.