I recently purchased a second hand DELL L400 P3/700 at a local computer show.

I took it home and installed windows 2000 which i purchased along with the notebook since it came with no OS but this is where the problems begain.

In my bios, I could not change the boot order, this is a simple thing to bypass since I had the F12 option to change boot device at startup.  The problem is, I get a blinking cursor iAFTER i installed win2k if I just leave it to boot in win2k

After doing some research it turns out that a config password was set by the previous owner.  Funny thing is, the ADMIN password is clear and I can not even begin to enter in a config password.

I've called Dell for help but the tech wanted me to provide proof of ownership.  I went back to the company whom I've purchased this notebook from and they tell me that it was a off lease unit and that they have no idea whom it belonged too.

Now I am stuck with a notebook that for me to get it working, i have to press F12 and select the HD.  This get very annoying and would be a great help if it can be resolved. 

I purchased the L400 cause it was small and portable.  I already have a main notebook which i bought new and also couple of desktops.  I purchased the L400 for work to do presentations from office to office for my clients but this is becoming a hassle not too mention embrassing when I turn on the notebook in front of my clients and all I get is a blinking cursor since the bios setting is on quiet boot and alot of the times the F12 option goes by before I can press it or I forget to press it totally.

Is there anything I can do to remedy this?

thank you in advance