IBM R40- Can't get past black screen with padlock

not sure if this is the bios password or HD password. pulled out my mom's old laptop as i want to run a program that isn't compatible with my mac. the first screen runs the memory and says something to the effect of "to interrupt normal start up", where which i know you can press f1 to get into bios or whatever. if i do nothing, the next screen is the black screen with a padlock, cylinder and number "1", which i cannot get past. however, if i try to press f1 in the previous screen, it still then takes me to the padlock screen in about 5 seconds.

is there any way to bypass this? i could care less about any of the data on the comp, so if by fixing it i need to erase all memory, that is fine.

stephen