Desktop Computer Packages - purchased computer from garage sale/found out it belonged to city agency?

purchased computer from garage sale/found out it belonged to city agency?

I have this dell optiplex gx150 it belonged to a gov agency and I cant reset the password? It keeps restarting, I was advised to reinstall windows? However I think Iam beat cause this system was illgotten, can anyone help me figure a way to get it to work? I would be very greatful. Thanx Jimmy.

Public Comments

Try going into safe mode and going into the admin account. If that doesn't work you can just re install windows.
Read this see if it makes sense
Linux. Mepis, PcLinuxOs or Ubuntu. Free, functional, legal, and very powerful. 'course... if it were ME... I'd be looking at running the old Austrumi on it... cracking that password, and you know... taking a little peek at what the Govt. keeps on it's drives... Their own darn fault if they can't wipe a drive.....
When you install windows, you have the option to completely re-format the hard drive. This will erase everything (including the old password) and allow you to start over. If that doesn't work, there are two possible explanations: The hardware might be faulty. In which case, you'll need to replace at least part of it. Alternatively, there might be a password on the BIOS. Ask the original owner about this, and he/she should be able to help you.
scramble the drive then restore from partition
Depends on if the password is a bios password or software(windows) password. You can look up the system on the Dell site or google to find how to reset the bios password, normally you just remove the bios battery for a few minutes or set a jumper. If it is the windows password then you need to reformat the hard drive and reinstall windows. If you do not have windows to reinstall I suggest downloading one of the Linux distributions and the Ultimate Boot disk. Reformat and repartition the drive from the ultimate boot disk then you can install Linux for free.