Computer illiterate! Need help! Admin P.W, Expired so Locked out...

Hi,

I have a dell inspiron N7110, I was told to set up  two accounts on the computer...a daily account and an admin account, so I did. Oddly, both account passwords constantly expired and I had to change them. I finally had to call dell because eventually I was unable to reset my admin password.Their rep just told me to shut down then turn on and tap F8 to start in safe mode then I would be allowed to reset the password. Ok I did that a number of times. Well, finally that stopped working, now I am completely locked out of my computer! I can only use my daily account, so I am unable to change any settings or add any programs nothing! Can anyone help me with this? I contacted Dell for Operating System disk and Driver disk because my hard drive wouldn't boot from my disks that I had made. But it won't boot from theirs either!

Also, I want to make absolute certain that I have each and every bit of information on my laptop copied onto my flash drive, but I don't know if I do or now, hoping someone can reassure me on this, as well.

Finally, my laptop has a *** "rating" of 3.1 I'm wondering if anyone can give me some great ideas on what would be first items to upgrade. This was purchased in Aug. of  '12, I have been nothing but disappointed with it. I really didn't know what I was doing when I purchased it.

One more...how long should you leave the batter plugged into the outlet and how long should you leave the laptop turned on? Some say leave plugged in and turn on and others say the exact opposite????????

Dazed and Confused~!! Thanks so much

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