Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop asks for password

Hi,

I replaced the hard drive in a Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop with a new one. The old hard drive wouldn't boot and failed several Dell hard drive diagnostic tests.

Now a message pops up when the laptop is powered on, "Hard-disk #***********-595B, the system primary HDD is protected by a password authentication system..."

I am repairing this laptop for a client of mine. I don't remember a password prompt before replacing the old hard drive, but now the laptop won't even let me enter SETUP without entering a password.

What am I missing? Thanks in advance.

Bill

 

Eh, this is shaky ground since you're talking about passwords... but try re-seating the HDD. Sometimes a bad connection will bring up this error; happened to me at least a couple of times on my old 500m.

 

Fixed it! Had to remove the new UNFORMATTED drive and connect it to my desktop computer using my Hard Drive USB adapter. Then I formatted it in Disc Management.

The laptop did not complain this time when I reinstalled the new hard drive. Windows XP setup is now running!

Hope this helps somebody else!

Bill