Option held at Startup-- Big black lock appears

I think this may be a problem relating to the imac rather than bootcamp, so I'll post it here.
So I've installed bootcamp and can easily switch between the two environments by manually selecting before restart which I want to boot into.
The problem is when I try to startup by holding down option which should, presumably, give me a choice between the two. What happens anytime I boot holding down option is a grey background comes up and a black picture of a lock appears in the middle of my screen. Underneath it is what looks like a password input box without a blinking cursor. I can type in characters which show up as encrypted '•'s and then hit enter. or the small arrow key to the right of it. There's no real acknowledgement of having typed in a password except that the characters in the box clear. I tried using my administrator password but that doesn't do anything.
Is this some kind of firmware password or does the imac have a different key command to boot to different disks? What's going on and how do I disable it.
Oh yeah, specs: mac osx 10.4 and a new 20" imac with dual intel core 2.

You have the option of setting a boot password when you install Boot Camp. Perhaps you selected this option without realizing it or set it up and forgot the password? Try proceeding without entering a password and see if that works. If not, you may have to re-install Boot Camp. You might also try asking this question in the Boot Camp forum as the problem is more likely it than your iMac.

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