Dell Dimension 3000 factory reset help

If you found it it the trash, you should consider that it might be there for good reason.  However, you should note the following:

Only the original hard drive will have a utility and a restore partition, and those things will only be there if the previous owner did not scrub the disk with one of the available disk erase programs.

If you do have the original hard drive, and it's functional, you should be able to reach the factory restore by pressing CTRL F11 during the appearance of a blue stripe having the Dell company name at the top of the screen.  The stripe shows up immediately following the self test when the computer is started.  If you don't see the stripe, you can assume that the factory restore is non-functional, and you will need to restore the computer in a more conventional manner using installation disks.

The Dimension 3000 was originally shipped with Windows XP, but will also support Windows 7 32 bit.  If the machine has a processor capable of supporting 64 bit, you can also use the 64 bit version of Windows 7.

Edited to correct an error in call up of PC Restore.

I can get to where it gives me an option to go to the utility partition but it will not go there after I select the option.... :(  just trying to reset it. Theres a recycle center in my town and this is where I found it. I figured I could refurbish it and get some use en out of it

Also as it is, its protected so i cannot even add my Internet connection.

Actually, if the system still has XP on it, and the hard drive hasn't been wiped, the correct key strokes to access PC Restore to reset to the factory image, is CTRL-F11, not F11 (sorry Jack! :emotion-5:), when you see the blue stripe at the top of the screen after rebooting

And keep in mind, PC Restore was only installed on systems that shipped starting in ~mid-July 2004, so if the system was shipped prior to that date, it never had PC Restore on the hard drive.

Where is -F11 on keyboard?

No need for apologies Ron.  One would think as often as I used the feature I would know better than to leave a part of it out.  Thanks for the catch.

Ok well I did that.... now the pc is making a beeping noise til I hit either F8 F2 or F12... but when I try to change anything it wont lrt me. I can still use the pc as a guest but cannot connect pc to my Internet or do much of anything because the guest option isnt an admin.

Oh happy <ADMIN NOTE: Profanity removed as per TOU>

F11 is one of the function keys usually running across the top of the keyboard.  In the case of PC Restore, while the blue stripe is visible, it is necessary to press both the F11 and the CTRL keys, releasing both at the same time before a notification appears beneath the stripe indicating that the descriptor for PBR2 has been loaded.

Did the blue stripe appear?  What should happen if the hotkeys work properly is that you get a screen with two options;  Restore My Computer, and another to cancel the process.  If you are getting anything else, I'm afraid the PC Restore is damaged and can't be used.

My experience with this is that only PS2 keyboards work with CTRL F11.

This might be a little late and not an answer to the original post but if you can burn a copy of Hiren's Boot CD and boot from it, there is a password changing utility that will allow to set the admin password. This won't necessarily enable you to reset the PC but you will at least be able to setup networking for your network.