Access denied issues with two computers

T

timbo59

Member
We recently purchased a couple of Dell Optiplex GX520’s from my wife’s former company that went into liquidation. They’re obviously not high tech by today’s standards, but we thought that we could set them up for our two young kids to play their games on and perhaps do a bit of homework, with their net surfing confined to our main computer. Only problem is, while we can access my wife’s old computer because she knows her own password, we can’t change anything because administrative controls were put in place by the company’s computer department to prevent any major changes – we can’t even remove some of the private stuff on the computer that my wife would like to keep because every time I try to burn it to disk or store it on a USB device I get messages telling me that it isn’t possible because the material is protected. I thought that I must have been missing something and asked my wife how she and her co-workers ever moved material around the office – she said that the only way she was ever able to perform the task was by emailing things around. If not for the fact that she wanted to keep some of her personal stuff on board I’d simply try and hook up an external CD/DVD drive (the units don’t have them installed) and see if I could do a fresh reinstall of Windows to get control of the unit. The other computer isn’t accessible at all because it also has password issues - we don’t know what the password is because it was used by some other anonymous member of the staff.

Two questions therefore. Is it possible to unlock and save the bits and pieces my wife wants from her old computer before reformatting it, and two, can we use an external CD/DVD drive to actually reformat and reinstall Windows XP on both the units? If not, we’ve just thrown away a couple of hundred dollars buying the units.
 
can we use an external CD/DVD drive to actually reformat and reinstall Windows XP on both the units?
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I can only answer the above question, because any advice regarding bypassing security settings must be against any serious computer help forum rules.
To answer your question, yes, if the BIOS supports booting from an external device.
 
Technically the business should have removed the business info off the system and done a fresh install of windows on both machines. Your only choice is to format and reinstall windows. I wouldn't take ownership of someone else's machines without a fresh install.
 
Hi again,
Yes, I actually started thinking that the only way I was going to resolve this was simply to reformat and reinstall XP.

I can also understand the points about security, as I even wondered myself afterwards if my post might seem suspicious. And I guess any advice given on the issue could also be used by others for nefarious purposes, which I should have thought of in the first place. There's nothing on these computers, I assure you, they were cleaned out - they just left the admin. security features on! My wife tells me that they could never burn or store anything via USB themselves while working in the office, the only way you could transfer stuff around was via email, which seems a tad ridiculous to me! But then, I haven't worked in a corporate environment for a while, so what do I know?

I guess in a bankruptcy situation no one really gives a damn, which probably explains why we received the computers in the state we got them. I just wanted to avoid the crap of doing fresh installs on each computer, together will all the service packs and basic programs that they need. Oh well!

Thanks for the input though. Always appreciated.
 
Back again!
Okay, here’s the current nightmare I find myself in.

I bit the bullet, said to hell with it, and decided to scrub the drives completely by reformatting and reinstalling XP. Not bad in theory, lousy in practice! As soon as I tried with the first unit up popped a box telling me that I couldn’t do it because I needed admin permission and an appropriate password.

I then thought I could outsmart it by taking each drive out, hooking them up one at a time to my main computer via SATA cable, and reformatting them that way. Worked like a charm, and feeling very smug, I then tried putting them back into their respective computers. Here’s how it then went.

I entered setup for unit 1 in order to set my external CD/DVD unit (remember, these units don’t have onboard CD/DVD drives) as the priority for booting. Up popped a box telling I couldn’t do it because I needed an admin. password. What the hell, I thought? How is a HD I just wiped still password protected? I wondered if it might be something locked into the motherboard, and tried taking out the battery to reset – still made no difference!

I then tried having a go with unit 2, and for some reason found that I didn’t encounter any of the security issues I’d had with unit 1. Maybe all it has was just a standard password block, without all of the admin stuff attached, and reformatting made it accessible. Whatever, when I went into setup it allowed me to set the external CD/DVD as the priority for booting, but when I tried doing so I got a message telling me it wasn’t available. I then shoved XP onto a USB stick, reprioritized setup for a USB boot, and tried that. Same message again – not available. I then took the HD out, reattached it to my main computer, loaded XP on there, directed setup to prioritize the HD, and tried again. No prizes for guessing the message I received. In between the rejections notes, I also kept getting a message stating that bootmgr was missing.

I finally decided to try one last tack to see if I could at least get one of the machines running by installing the HD from my old computer into unit 1. As expected it threw up a few boxes because of the new environment it had been inserted into, but I resolved those as the drive became acquainted with the new set up and had it running smoothly in no time except for one thing – I cannot get it to access the net for love or money! Like everyone I’ve had issues in the past with computers occasionally having fits over net access, but one way or the other I’ve always been able to resolve them. Not this time! I thought that it might have been having issues with the Belkin router it was connected directly to and reinstalled the Belkin drivers, but that had no effect. I took it off the Belkin and attached it directly to the cable box. Zilch. I reinstalled XP, but that had no effect. The connection wizard gives me no joy (there’s no user account and I can’t set one up), and all I can track down is that the device manager is having a fit in the ‘other devices’ section (see attached picture) and claims drivers are missing (code 28 errors all round). Obviously I can’t get on line to automatically resolve that particular issue. My best guess is that shoving the HD into a new environment has caused some kind of conflict?

So my questions are –
1) What on earth is causing me to STILL be having security issues with a HD I thought had been wiped clean?
2) How do I get XP to load into unit 2? Is it possible to connect the HD back onto my main computer and do a proper install of XP on it, even though my main computer is running Windows 7 Ultra 64? Or is there something I’m missing that will make it possible for me to install XP via the external CD/DVD drive? I’ve done it plenty of times before, so I can’t figure why I’m having issues this time around.
3) Given that I may not be able to resolve the security issue with the HD from unit 1, how do I resolve the connection issues with the drive from my old computer? If I can get this HD to work I may just take the other troublesome HD outside and give it a little talking to with a sledgehammer regarding what I think about how secure it REALLY is!

Sorry for the long post – so many issues to deal with! Are my kids worth all this grief?
 
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As for security issue. I suspect, you're dealing with a password set in BIOS, so wiping out hard drive has no effect on it. For obvious reasons, I can't advice what to do here.

As for your other problem, you answered your own question.
Unless you have two identical units (hardware-wise), you can't install Windows in one environment and expect it to work in another one.
You could probably run system scan with System Information for Windows: http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html, for instance and try to install correct drivers one by one, starting with chipset driver.
It's a long way to go, though...
 
I thought it had to be in BIOS, but one thing struck me as odd. The HD that was giving me grief with security issues was taken out of unit 1 and replaced with the HD from my old computer, the one I said was giving me connection issues. Yet it isn't giving me any security issues at all. Not that it matters in the overall scheme of things, but why would it not be getting affected by the BIOS security features now?
 
I'm not sure, if I visualize correctly, which computer is which.
Can you restate shortly, using numbers, like #1, #2, what was replaced where and which computer gives you which issues?
 
Sorry for the confusion.

Both computers are completely identical in every respect. Since I reformatted the HD's by plugging them in as secondary drives on my main computer (call this unit #3 if you like) to try and eliminate the password issues we inherited when we picked them up I've had the following problems -

Unit 1
This is the one that keeps throwing up the security issues. I put the HD it came with back in place after wiping it and tried using setup to put in a fresh install of XP - it wouldn't let me, saying I needed an admin. password for permission to proceed. I then took out this HD and slotted in a 80gb HD from an old computer (#4, though it actually doesn't work any more) of mine to see if that would work. Everything's functioning fine other than for the net access issues I mentioned. The odd thing is the security point you made before about it being in the BIOS. Not that I'm complaining, but whatever the password structure was before that wasn't allowing me to access the original HD, it isn't affecting the operation of the HD from my old computer.

Unit 2
This one doesn't seem to have any security issues since I reformatted the HD and put it back in. When I try to work on the boot sequence in setup it lets me, it just won't recognize that the external CD/DVD has been set as the boot device when I try to start install - even though I have set it at number 1 on the boot list. Given the trouble I'm having, I'm guessing that even if I could get past the password problem on Unit 1 (with the original HD in place) I'd have the same boot issues I'm having with unit 2.

Does all that make sense?

Thanks for your help.
 
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Unit 1
I assume, you installed Windows, while the drive was slaved in another computer and then you moved it back to unit 1, correct?
Do you have any errors in Device Manager?
Try to reinstall chipset driver.

1. Click Start>Run (Start>"Start search" in Vista).

2. Type in (or copy and paste):

cmd /c ping google.com>%temp%\$.$&notepad %temp%\$.$

and press Enter.

3. Notepad will open.

4. Copy all text in Notepad ([Ctrl-A], then [Ctrl-C]), and then post it (paste = [Ctrl-V]) in your next reply.

******************************************************

Go Start>Run ("Start search" in Vista), type in:
cmd
Click OK (hit Enter in Vista).

At Command Prompt, paste this:
ipconfig /all>c:\ipconfig_all.txt&notepad c:\ipconfig_all.txt&exit
Hit Enter.

Copy and paste what you see in Notepad into a Reply here.


Unit 2
Reset BIOS to defaults and try to setup external CD drive as 1st booting device again.
 
Hi again,
Been very busy for a few days and only just got back to working on the computer problem.

Unit 1 has basically been taken out of the equation - I found out my Mother-in-law is buying our son a laptop for Christmas, so he doesn't need it - oh well! I guess I can always use it as a doorstop! Seriously, I've always wanted to have a spare computer that I could use as a dedicated jukebox to plug into our sound system, so I may just do that with this unit. So it doesn't matter one way or the other if I resolve the connection issues.

As for unit 2, I finally managed to get it to accept Windows 7, but not XP, which is what I really wanted to load in (the disk IS a little scratched, so maybe that's the issue). I kept going backwards and forwards with the XP disk and it simply wouldn't boot from startup - just kept getting the same error message saying the CD/DVD drive wasn't available. But when I tossed in Windows 7 (64bit version) the computer recognized it and began loading it in. I didn't (and don't) really want a 64 bit OS in a 32 bit environment, as I think it's going to overpower it somewhat and perhaps make some of the kid's programs unusable, but whatever makes it work is fine with me at this stage!

Had no connection issues at all regarding the net, which was a relief, but another issue arose - I can't get any sound out of it. Any time I try and play a sound file I get an error message saying - 'No audio Output device is installed'. The mobo clearly has facilities for plugging in speakers, so I don't know what the issue is. Is the 64bit OS perhaps causing a conflict? I'll go out and buy a cheap half-height sound card if need be to resolve the issue.

Any thoughts?
 
All you need to do is install the correct sound driver. What model of computer is this so I can track down the right driver for you?
 
Make sure, correct chipset driver is installed and 64-bit driver it's available for your motherboard.
If there is not correct chipset driver installed, your sound won't work no matter what.
 
Hi again guys,
It's a Dell GX520 (the FSS model) If you want the exact model of the Motherboard it comes with, it's the Dell OXG309 - though there's hardly any references to it on the net.
 
Most likely, Dell renamed that mobo. It may be made by some other company.

I checked Dell's site: http://support.dell.com/support/dow...H&osl=en&SystemID=PLX_GX520&catid=-1&impid=-1 and the latest Windows version it supports is XP, so you may have a problem here.

Let's try to find some more info...

Download System Information for Windows: http://www.gtopala.com/siw-download.html to your Desktop.
Get SIW Standalone (English-Only).
Double click on siw.exe to run the program.
Go File>Create Report File>HTML
Save the file to known location.
Zip the file, and attach it to your next reply.
 
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