A thread for boring computer questions.

When you press "unlock" on the BIOS does it show you a system number?

If you try typing it in here, it may be able to generate your default/master BIOS password for you:
https://bios-pw.org/

(I recall doing this for a work Dell laptop at one point, though am not 100% sure it's the same website, but a few other sites seem to vouch for it. Good luck!)

By "does it show you a system number" I mean that the blurb in the password entry box may list a "system number" in approximately the same format as the Dell examples on that page.

(Seems to be the serial number which may be on a sticker on the underside of the laptop plus 4 extra hex digits, not sure where they come from.)

Woohoo!

That site delivered. Thanks so much. I did a little dance.

Changed the SATA mode and the BSOD went away.

Glad you got in and even more glad the BSOD went away!

(Be careful because Win7 is end of life and won't be getting many security updates - but you probably already knew that..)

Yes.

That machine has actually never been online or connected to a network since I got it.

I started looking at the local free ads and see I can get plentiful desktop units that would be a step up in terms of CPU with Windows 10 installed for about £60-£100 so that's exciting.