The Lost Password Problem Again

My brother's son died, leaving a Dell 3800 (XP) machine that no-one can get into. I've searched extensively for a solution: one class of solutions seems to use the reinstall CD, and basically just starts over. The second class tries to avoid the reinstall by working thru the BIOS or Safe Mode (eg, "control userpasswords2 "). The second class is preferable, but we're finding messages at the last step like "User account is not recognized" or the keyboard quits working....it looks to me like all those "backdoor" schemes have been plugged by M$, leaving reinstall the only way to go. Am I right on this? Am I all wet? Thnx

 

Steve...I understand. This morning I found a freebie on the Internet that cracked the password. Scary, but effective. Thnx.