Keep the following tips in mind when setting your password:
•You can use up to seven alphanumeric characters in your password (passwords are not case sensitive).
•As you press each character key (or the <Spacebar> for a blank space), a placeholder appears in the field.
•To erase a character when entering your password, press the <Backspace> key or the
NOTES: The password assignment operation recognizes keys by their location on the keyboard, without distin- guishing between lowercase and uppercase characters. For example, if you have an M in your password, the system recognizes either M or m as correct.
Certain key combinations are not valid. If you enter one of these combinations, a beep sounds.
To exit the field without assigning a supervisor password, press the
Using Your Supervisor Password to Secure Your System
Each time you turn on your system, reboot the system, or press the reset button, the following prompt appears on the screen (if the Password On Boot category is set to Enabled).
Enter password:
After you enter the correct supervisor password and press <Enter>, your system boots and you can use the keyboard to operate your system as usual.
If a wrong or incomplete password is entered, the follow- ing message appears on the screen:
Warning, Invalid password.
Press <Enter> to continue
Enter the password again. If an incorrect or incomplete supervisor password is entered again, the same message appears on the screen.
The third time an incorrect or incomplete password is entered, the keyboard locks up and displays the following message:
SYSTEM DISABLED
You must reboot the system before you can attempt to enter a password again.
Operating With a Supervisor Password Enabled
If Supervisor Password Is is set to Enabled, you must enter the correct supervisor password before you can modify any System Setup categories (other than the Time, Date, Num Lock, and Speaker categories).
Deleting or Changing an Existing Super- visor Password
To disable the supervisor password, press <Enter> to dis- play the Set Password dialog box, and then press <Enter> two more times.
When the Supervisor Password Is category displays Disabled, you can assign a supervisor password or operate the system with no password assigned.
To change an existing supervisor password, first enter the System Setup program and disable the current password. Then, with the Supervisor Password Is category set to Disabled, assign a new supervisor password as described in “Assigning a Supervisor Password” earlier in this section.
Using the User Password Feature
Your Dell system is shipped to you with the user pass- word feature set to Disabled. After you assign a user password, set the User Password Is category to Enabled, and set the Password On Boot category to Enabled, the computer system prompts you for the user password at system
You can assign a user password, as described in the next subsection, “Assigning a User Password,” whenever you use the System Setup program. Once you assign a user password, only those who know the password have full use of the system.
NOTE: You can also assign, delete, or change a user password through the EISA Configuration Utility. See “Assigning or Changing a User Password” and “Delet- ing an Existing User Password” in Chapter 5.
To disable the user password, press <Enter> to display the Set Password dialog box, and then press <Enter> two more times.
If you assign and then forget a user password, you must remove the cover of the computer (which may require
Using the System Setup Program |
