HDD Password?

[zillaflame]

My friend gave me a Gateway Solo Pro 9300 Notebook last week, because he got it somewhere second-hand and couldn't find a way to get it power. I just found a AC adapter that fit it, only to turn it on and be confronted by a blue box with:
Primary HDD Password exists
Enter Primary HDD password [______].
Is there a way to fix this? I only want to be able to use the computer, I don't care about recovering anything on it.

[Murray S.]

Howdy and welcome to CTH:

If it is a hdd lock password, your only option is to send it to either Gateway or to a registered Gateway repair depot, pay their price and they can reset the password..

Without the password, you can't even just format and re-install Windows!!

Murray

[zillaflame]

Thanks for the welcome.
So there's no other option than sending it to Gateway? I may be completely off on this, but I heard somewhere that I could replace the hard drive and that would fix it. Just want to have all the posibilities.

[Murray S.]

Nope.. the password option is NOT part of the hdd but a separate chip on the motherboard itself..

Murray