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Maurice6627Flag for United States of America

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CD-ROM diisabled in BIOS on my HP 7600

I purchased a HP 7600 desktop from a company that sells off lease equipment.
I ordered a new 500GB HDD since the unit did not include the HDD and I purchased XP with SP3 license.

When I try to install OS on the new hard drive, I noticed that the computer was not booting from CD-ROM, so hit F10 to get into the BIOS and I was prompted for a password and of course I do not know what it is.  (Just great!)

I tried to guess the BIOS PW and after 3 attempts it failed, but to my surprise it still let me know.
I checked the drivers and HDD and CD-ROM is listed; however, when I checked the boot order it only lists HDD and LAN, the CD and Floppy are disabled and when I arrow down, it gives me an option to enable the CD by hitting F5, but nothing happens.

Does anyone have any ideas on how I can get the CD-ROM enabled and listed on the boot list?
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wpathan
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I will give that a try and let you know.
Thanks
Avatar of lauchangkwang
If still cannot, then you might need to contact HP (Online Chat with HP for free):

http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h_pagetype=s-006&h_lang=en&h_cc=us&h_product=472274&h_client=S-A-R163-2&h_page=hpcom&lang=en&cc=us

Good Luck !!! ......
Directly to your point:

You've locked yourself out of any BIOS changes by missing your 3 chances to get the PWD correct...correct?

Here's what you need to do:

This involves opening up the computer.
 
 There is a small jumper on the motherboard that has to be closed.
 
 You'll have to look for it because they're always in different spots. Read what's printed on the motherboard. You're looking for something like PSWD....
 
 Try searching around the BIOS chip... it may have a sticker that says BIOS on it, or BIOS will be printed somewhere on the motherboard. Also, check where the power/reset switch and LED connections are.
 
 When you find it, place a jumper over the two pins marked PSWD, and then turn on your computer. It should beep or something. Turn it off, remove the jumper, turn it back on, and the password should be cleared.

Here is a copy of the repair manual with jumper locations and settings, so you're not working "blind".  Once the PWD has been re-set, if I were in your position, I'd IGNORE any further requests from the BIOS to set a master PWD, unless you have kids or prying fingers in the house which want to change your system parameters without your permission.

Luck, and let me know how it works out.

David S.


c01115738.pdf
One more thing:

Once you unlock the BIOS, you will be able to change the BIOS to have your CD/DVD act as a boot device.

The corporation which had it prior to you most likely disabled that function to avoid people hacking the system with their own software or cracks, etc.

Of course, if the drive still works, you should not have a problem.  If it's on the blink, they're only $22.00 at Newegg.com!
I am sorry about the delay, but I was away for about a week.  I did exactly what you said and it worked.  Removed CMOS battery and jumper on the PWD.
Put it back on, restarted and it worked like a charm.
I am now able to install the OS on this computer.
Thanks