HP Store Online - I have an hp laptop, I bought it used and I can't get past the old access info of the old owner?

I have an hp laptop, I bought it used and I can't get past the old access info of the old owner?

What can I do to bypass the old owners info to change everything. It was an auction sale and the owner passed away and the children did not know any info.

Public Comments

reformat the drive. you can either use the recovery CDs that would have come with the laptop, or you can reformat using a copy of windows you have.
If you can not get the password, then my best guess is that your format the laptop and that would definitely fix this problem.. The process of formating is really simple and straight forward.. Hope this helps & good luck,
You are probably best off, as someone else mentioned, formatting the drive. You can do that with an operating system disk such as Microsoft XP or Microsoft Vista. The software comes with instructions on how to load/format, but the operating system wizard (startup menus) usually are easy to follow.
just reinstall everything and it will be just like new.
If you reformat the hard drive, you must have the System disc and a valid Windows license. It's possible to change the owner's name from within the Registry, but you have to be able to boot into Windows to do it. If you can't get into Windows because of a login password that you don't have, read these: http://www.wikihow.com/Retrieve-a-Lost-Windows-XP-Password http://www.governmentsecurity.org/archive/t2156.html
A format is the best option, You can also boot into SafeMode and remove the old Amin account and create one for yourself