Overriding windows system setup password

My family's computer is down, and last night, I was trying to boot up an old computer that my family had several years ago when I was in middle school. We had an extra copy of Windows XP that I was going to try to install onto this old computer, but when I was in middle school, I got grounded and my mother created a system password. It isn't a regular username/password; it's one that comes up before anything else comes up--you can't go into setup without knowing it. My mother passed away a few years ago, so I can't ask her about it, and I'm wondering if there is anyway to override it. None of my friends have ever even heard of such a password. I'm not sure what version of Windows the computer ran on, but I think it was pre-XP. If anyone could help me, I would appreciate it. My e-mail address is arjones7@usieagles.org . Thanks.

do you mean something like a hard drive password?
if so then you should enter the bios (assuming that she didn't put a password on that) and go to the security section(it might have another name). from there you can get rid of the hard drive password and enter your system once again.

there are a million ways to enter the bios, it all depends on the system you have. it will display what button to press at the bottom for a second or two. some examples are: F2, DELETE, F10, ect