Wow everybody wants to get so complicated re-flashing EPROMs and what not before they have all the facts. Has anybody considered the hard drive, SATA has been password locked? If that's the case, toss the drive and install a new one. Don't waste your time trying to hack your way in, unless there is a very specific reason you want access to that data if that's the case hire a forensics team to recover the drive. Its really not that complicated. If it's bios lockout, pull the batterys for half an hour. if it's not a windows lockout, then it's a sata pw lockout.