Is this on a network? If so are you trying to log into the pc or the network? they would be different passwords or at least should be.  If you reinstall windows your programs will be unavailable. There are also programs to reset passwords if needed.

But you could start fresh by reinstalling windows 

no, it's not on a network...when i got it new, i set up a password and it asks that before you get into windows everytime you turn it on.  i dont care what i lose by reinstalling, i just need to know how to do it from the cd, without being able to actually get into windows... that make sense?

Try booting the machine with the cd in it. If you get a message that says press a key to boot cd, do it and you are good to go. If your cd came with 4 diskettes, you probably need to boot off of the floppies and that will launch the cd. If no floppies and it did not boot off of the cd, go into bios and change the boot order to floppy cd hard drive.

You'll need drivers for the motherboard and other cards so make sure you have their disk with you. Windows might have them already but not always.  

i tried to boot with the cd in, but it didnt work...  can you tell me how to switch so it'll boot off of it like you described?

 

dime

 

Are you sure you don't have floppies? If so boot with them. If not, you boot into bios and under boot order, choose 1. floppy  2. cdrom  3. hard drive.

Save and exit  

it worked, and windows is reinstalled...thank you for your help

I think you have a problem with your modem or network card. Check device manager to see if you have any question marks.

ok, windows is installed, everything seems to work ok except i get an error when windows loads.... 

it says cannot load the dll CnxtSdk.dll

any idea what that is and how to fix it?