"Bill Leary" wrote in message
...
"R. H. Breener Jr." wrote in message
...
((..omitted..))

OK. All good news. The machine appears to be pretty much stock. Now go
he

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...d uct=3715498

Scroll down until you find MOTHERBOARD LAYOUT. Observe the location of
the jumpers in the upper right corner. These are the CLEAR CMOS (upper)
and CLEAR PWD (password, lower) jumpers.

These are the jumpers you have to work with in the immediately following
section CLEARING THE BIOS SETTINGS. If everything exactly matches your
motherboard, go ahead and follow the instructions. Follow them exactly.
Do not do the CLEARING THE BIOS PASSWORD SETTINGS section.

I want to thank you for your time, but this is way beyond my expertise, not
for the average Joe or Jane to attempt. The most I've ever done was remove
the case and blow out the dust. I'll see if I can find someone with more
experience with computers to do this. I seriously doubt any of our friends
or family would attempt it in case something goes wrong and it wont boot at
all.


It would be a good idea to get a cheap PS/2 keyboard incase you get any
"press this or that to continue" messages.

You should also unplug the external hard drive before doing this. Once
the BIOS has been cleared, it might try to boot from the external drive.
And that would be another reasons to get a PS/2 keyboard. You may find
that you need to set boot order in the BIOS.

I have no idea how to set the BIOS. I don't think I've ever even seen it. I
was afraid this problem would be a serious one, not something easy to fix.


Do you have another computer that you'll be able to talk with if this
hangs up the machine?

- Bill

Doing something like this by email/text is difficult. I'll have to call
around and see if any of my friends or neighbors can recommend someone with
experience in fixing or working on PCs. I don't mind paying someone if they
know what they're doing. I'll let you know if I can find someone.