A friend came by the other day and dropped off a computer he found cleaning out his old house. It's a windows 2000 professional and it looks like it works fine but it asks me for a username and password. He said the computer's been there before he moved into that house so he wouldn't know how to start it. Is there anyway i can do about this?

Well, I'm assuming you were inside the case poking around.

First of all, the system isn't going to POST if you changed that jumper setting. It must be in the "non-cleared" position. If you moved it, to clear the BIOS, move it back. Some system will POST with the jumper in the clear position, but its not supposed to be run in that position anyways.

Second, double check all your connections. Make sure everything is still plugged in good and solid. Reseat your RAM and make sure it had a good connection. There are some instructions here that covers reseating the RAM near the end of the article: http://forums.whatthetech.com/How_Test_Mem...ms_t103823.html

If the problem occured after you poked your fingers inside the case you can bet that the problem is related to something you poked.

Are you getting any error beeps ?
Often it doesn't take much to upset the video card, so if you knocked that gently check it's seated properly as well as the above.

I never found the jumper so i don't think it's that. I double checked all of the connections and everything seemed in order. I even reseated my RAM, but it seems like it didn't do anything.

Oh and I really can't tell the difference between both cards, but they both looked like they were on properly too

If you remove all your memory modules and power the computer up, it should BEEP at you if the motherboard and CPU is functioning properly.

Try that and find out if it beeps, then put the memory back in.

Also, if you removed the battery then you already caused a reset on the BIOS settings. Your computer might have an add-on video card that has been added after the computer was bought. If that is the case, you will see two video ports on the back of the computer. One on an expansion card, and one coming off the motherboard itself. Resetting the BIOS may have upset these two different video cards and you might need to plug the monitor into the other port. This is just a long shot, but its something to look for.

Are the RAM sticks the memory module?..

Each stick is a module.

Stick is kind of a generic term.. As in, "If you don't behave I'm going to whip you with my memory module (stick)!" Not very scary.

No not at all. Well I tried starting up the computer after I took off the modules but it made no beep.

Also, I'm trying to see which port you're talking about(hopefully I uploaded the picture right and you can all see it). On the right is where I normally plug in the monitor from, but I don't see anywhere else where I can plug in.

Sorry, this is what I meant to show on that last post.

Looks like that is the only place you can plug into.

Can you take a picture of the inside of your computer showing the motherboard and other components. Back up enough to show the entire cabling mess and motherboard.

I hope this helps

Yes it does.. But, its not showing me everything I wanted to see in good enough clarity.

Can you post the service tag on this Dell? A lot of times Dell has detailed diagrams on-line.. I can look it up according to the service tag on the machine.

Where can I find the service tags and what does it look like?

For now, try this... I have attached a picture high-lighting some of the components in your computer based on the picture you sent me.

 DellPCDiagram.bmp ( 451.14K ) Number of downloads: 30


Be sure the power is unplugged from the back of the computer.

Plug the memory back into the slots circled in green. Push them in until the white clips on the side snap up and lock the chips into place.

Now, look on the sides of the CPU, where it is circled in RED.
There are little clips there you can push that will allow you to pull the CPU out of its slot. Please remove the CPU out of its slot and push it back in. These are cartridge style CPUs that were about as notorious for bad connections as the memory slots were.

Now, remove the plug circled in YELLOW. You'll have to push the little clip (circled in BLUE) to release the plug. This is your ATX power cable that comes from the power supply. You were messing around in this area I believe when you were removing the CMOS battery. Please remove this cable and plug it back in. They also get bad connections sometimes.

Once you have everything plugged back in, try powering up the PC again.

When you're done, please take one more picture of the box circled in green.. Zoom in and get as much detail of that area as you can.

 DellPCDiagram2.bmp ( 451.14K ) Number of downloads: 29

Well I put the memory back, I pulled the CPU out and pushed it back in and unplugged and re-plugged the ATX power cable and the monitor still stayed black. Oh and here's a pic that you asked for. Hope it helps