A BIOS level password would look like a DOS screen and would appear before the Windows screens.
If he put in a BIOS level password then the only possible recovery is to remove the CMOS battery that supplies power to the BIOS chip. But, this can be a major problem with laptops because the button type battery is located on the motherboard and most often requires partial disassembly of the laptop case. This can't be done without full instructions from the manufacturer. When people, including me, try without instructions they most often fail. If it's a late model laptop that is worth the cost of sending it to a authorized repair facility that would be your best bet. If it's not worth the cost, you could try to download the factory maintenance manual. Then follow the manuals instructions - take notes and pictures. Since the various screws may be different lengths I find that using tape to fasten the screws to a photo of the laptop avoids a ton of problems when you reassemble the laptop.

Some business level laptops have an extra level of security and store the password in non-volatile memory and the above method does not work.

Good Luck