XP-PC Repair Console Help

I have a Dell Latitude D-400 laptop w/windows xp. When last booted I only get blank screen w/blinking cursor in top left corner. Tried rebooting w/disc after resetting bios startup config. got to repair console but will not take password. I normally don't use a admin.password so I just hit enter and that didn't work so went to bios settings and put in a admin. password and that didn't work also tried the F8 button before start up screen that didn't work. Any suggestions on how to get repair console to recognize my admin.password or somehow bypass the password would be greatly appreciated..