no help from dell on bios password

I got a laptop (dell latitude CPi) used a while ago. the power supply was broken, dell happily sold me another for $80. After the normal post a beige screen appears before windows loads asking for a user or administrator password. three wrong tries and the computer shuts off. also shuts of if some of the function keys are pressed. Dell won't help. I tried to reset cmos by taking out the battery but found no way to flash the bios. is there anything I can do but chuck it?

This article may be helpful.

Hello,
Sorry to hear.. I have a dell (my brother owns it) and I called them for support, but I just had to reformat my computer on my own. Their support has seriously declined, in my opinion.

Try googling for any questions other dell customers may have asked!

thanks, that article was intresting but it looks like the only way would be a backdoor password. looks like it would have been eisier if it wasn't a laptop. I don't know about jumpers or dipswitches, I think the motherboard was made by dell. If anyone has anything else to say I'd appreciate it.

I fixed mine.

Here is the solution:
Most Dell Laptops store password in EEPROM which doesn't need battery to retain informaiton (hint: don't try to remove it to reset the PW)

Dell can provide you with a master password if you're registred customer/buyer for this computer. However, if you bought it used as I did, good luck getting help from dell. I happen to bough two computers and a 20" LCD monitor from them in the last year and ther attitude toward customer bothers me.

Anywho, to reset the password you need to reset the EEPROM device. This link explains how to do it:
http://qasimtoep.tripod.com/dell/dell6.html

First you need to find it, every model has it in a different location, in my case of Latitude CPx, I had to remove the motherboard and it was on the bottom closer to the parralel connector's edge of the board. Look for an 8-legged device with markings similar to the one at the link above. Once you found it, simply connect the two leggs and power the board up. In my case, the lights came on but the computer didn't start. After removing paper clip, the computer started and informed me that it was in Factory mode, press FnX to get out of it. After pressing Fn then X, I was able to go in and reset date and other junk and everything works again.

Follow laptop Service Manual from dell. It'll show you how to strip the computer down.

Good Luck!

Dell- just answer the question, no need for editorial comments