old computer question....

[infamous]

hehe i have an old piece of shit computer (386) and i am trying to figure out how to set a password for protection. i found it, but there is already a password on it. i don't know if there is a way to find out what the old password is, but i really want to. does anyone know how?

any help is very much appreciated.

[Shaolin]

i don't know how to figure out what the password is, but i remember back then you could just play with the jumpers and it will remove the password.. hope that helps.

[Davetronz]

Removing the CMOS battery will usually also reset all the settings and password as well.

[infamous]

how do you do that?

[eur0]

Look at your motherboard, there should be a little flat battery...pop it out for about 15 mins and put it back in. This resets the stored information and should allow you to change the password.

[infamous]

wot is a motherboard?? :banghead: :dunno: :nut:

[Doomsday88]

Take it into a computer place.

[eur0]

Originally posted by Doomsday88
Take it into a computer place.

[Davetronz]

Originally posted by Doomsday88
Take it into a computer place.
:werd:

LOL, I get this stuff all day. People come in and ask how to repair their computer or add something... When it comes down to a question like "So I put the ram into the motherboard.... Now whats the motherboard?" or "I am returning this memory because it did not come with installation instructions or software..." Thats when I reccomend that we install for them...
*But they never get us to install because afterall, every average consumer is a "computer technician"... baahahah
Sorry infamous, had to elaborate.

PS, not many techs would willingly work on a 386...

[Shaolin]

yeah, especially if it was those VESA boards.. i remember working on my old 386/16 with a whopping 1mb of ram.. putting my hand into the computer to play with the jumpers was like putting your hand in a cheese grater.

[Gonthro]

there is 2 steps to this,

#1 pick up computer

#2 drop it in garbage recepticle

[Davetronz]

Originally posted by Gonthro
there is 2 steps to this,

#1 pick up computer

#2 drop it in garbage recepticle

dropping it out a window may also work..

[xrayvsn]

That 386 isn't even worth the money you are going to spend on resetting the CMOS. Please just recycle the parts so that they can be used for something more useful than an elaborate paperweight.

Seriously, it isn't worth the money to try to get running.

[infamous]

well yeah i understand that it is a piece of shit computer, but it has some very valuable files on it. i can't throw it away.....any other suggestions? :dunno: :banghead:

[lam-boy]

Originally posted by infamous
well yeah i understand that it is a piece of shit computer, but it has some very valuable files on it. i can't throw it away.....any other suggestions? :dunno: :banghead:


upload them?

[RickDaTuner]

ug i dont know much about a 386 but i think you might want to take out the Hard Drive then connect it to your current PC and transfer the files? but once again i dont know how the work?

[infamous]

lol...how do you do that? :banghead:

i have tried to transfer them via 3 1/2 floppy, but they didn't show up on this computer....

[RiCE-DaDDy]

Originally posted by RickDaTuner
ug i dont know much about a 386 but i think you might want to take out the Hard Drive then connect it to your current PC and transfer the files? but once again i dont know how the work?
i dont believe that would work as th formats arent correct so you'll end up formattin the drive to make it work on a newer system

[Kor]

Some of the 386's don't even use ATA/IDE hard drives, be carefull.

[Doomsday88]

Ok, your first question was how to get rid of a password, now you want to copy files over? If you need a password to get into the PC, how are you able to copy files onto a floppy?????!!!!!

The 2nd question is what kind of operating system are you running on the 386??? Dos x.xx?? win 3.1??? OS/2??? If you copied the files over to a floppy and couldn't see them on a new PC, chances are 1 of 2 things.
1.) your floppy didn't actually copy anything
2.) incompatible file format

Put the floppy back into the 386 and double check to see if the files actually copied onto the floppy.

And please tell us what kind of operatiing system you are running....

[QuasarCav]

I have an older 486 DX/4 100 that you could probably throw the HDD into. how valuble are the files?

Is it a treasure map?;)