Dell Bios Password

I have a Dell 5100 laptop donated to me. The hard drive was shot. I replaced the hard drive, when I started up to boot the OS CD I was asked for an admin password. No good in cracking the code, it keeps shutting down on my third attempt. I checked to see if there was a motherboard battery, but didn't see any--so I could clear the cmos. Any thoughts? Many thanks!

The standard password is dell or Dell. If this doesn't work you should ask the person from which you received the laptop. You can also ask Dell to transfer ownership and ask them.