Windows Vista

[JSLeedy]

Any one out there a computer guy/gal?  My Moms laptop is running windows Vista and has locked her out.  It won't except her finger print or password.  Is she just screwed?  If anyone can offer some advice or help please let me know.  Maybe we can work something out for your services.

[UDJustin]

break it, I would suggest throwing it on the ground that will teach it a lesson or two.

[cyberwollf]

I know for XP they have several boot disk out there that will reset your password.  maybe someone made one for vista, i dont know.

[JSLeedy]

break it, I would suggest throwing it on the ground that will teach it a lesson or two.

Thats what I did with mine.  It actually got more angry with me and refused to even turn on.  This of course made me fly off the handle and I taught it a lesson it would never forget.  I backed over it with my truck and took my propane torch to it.  I asked it after that if it wanted to make up and be friends.  But NO it still wanted to act bad so I smacked my wife and got a new computer.

[Viggen]

Do you know Dave Reed from Volleyball?  He is a Dell/HP tech & can probably help you out. 

I have no clue what to do....

[JSLeedy]

Do you know Dave Reed from Volleyball?  He is a Dell/HP tech & can probably help you out. 

I have no clue what to do....

It is a Dell.  Do you know how to get a hold of him?  I know the name and I'm sure I would know his face.

[yinyang]

i am part time pc tech
on the side job
did she have lots important things on the hard drive?
if not just simply format reinstall vista
does she still have the restore cd?
if does  that will be easy i ca restore the pc with all the file she have
Lmk

[Arcade_Guy]

im not sure with vista, but at least with XP if you hit F8 and boot to safe mode you can access the ADMIN account if it hasnt been disabled or passworded as well, and you can reset passwords from there. a *LOT* of people's PC are subject to this lol

I've had to use that trick a couple times myself to gain access lol

but like i said, not sure if Vista would let you go in that way, and also heavily depends on her still having an open admin account......

[MechanicalEngineer]

If it's the user-account password, then you can reset it in the BIOS.  If it's the password to actually turn on the computer, then...you'll have to take the computer apart, and there's a tiny battery usually on the motherboard that keeps the computer from forgetting the time and passwords and such while the computer is turned off.  You'll have to remove it for probably an hour or two to wait for the capacitors to discharge and stuff.  Those two ways I know from experience.

Yes, you could reinstall Vista, but what a pain. 

Here's a website I found that addresses this problem on more than just Vista.  Try Googling "resetting a password on Vista". 

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/27/forgot-windows-administrator-password-ways-to-recover-and-reset-password-in-vistaxp20032knt/

[jeblin]

NT Password Reset has been tested on Vista 32bit. Here is the link: http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

I have used this multiple times on XP systems (in a corporate environment) but never had to use it on Vista yet but it is supported. Another good one that can be used is the Ultimate Boot CD. Hope it helps,

Jerry

[Viggen]

If you need it shoot me a PM & I can give you Dave's number & email

[JSLeedy]

Aparently she took it to a shop today and they told her they had never seen a system so corrupted.  I gues they told her the reformat was all that she was going to be able to do.  If you have an idea yingyang let me know.  Thanks for the links you all.  I went there last night but this thing is really jacked up. I think someone or something got into the system and wrecked it.  Nothing seems to work.  The people at the shop wished her luck and sent her home to do the ugly.

[MechanicalEngineer]

Uggggh, sorry to hear that.  No fun at all.  I try to do a system reformat every 6 months just to clean the junk out, but I also have an external hard-drive where I can back everything up and keep the nastiness out. 

[JSLeedy]

She actually likes to do the opposite of that.  She likes to pile as much crap into her computer as possible and then make it as much of a jumbled dissorded mess as you can on a computer.  What really sucks is she has a ebay store and there are thousands of items she inventoried.  I have told her to back things up hundreds of times but she never listens.  I guess the roles have reversed now that I'm all grown up.   They just never listen when they are that age.

[MechanicalEngineer]

heh heh heh

[ohioreef]

Will the methods listed above work for Win98? I was given a computer for the kids, but the guy said he can't get past the log-in because they don't know the password. I haven't actually been able to hook it up yet to see exactly what I have.

[JSLeedy]

The reformat is on the way.  It will work after that.  The process of reloading everything is just so tedious and time consuming.

[jeblin]

Will the methods listed above work for Win98? I was given a computer for the kids, but the guy said he can't get past the log-in because they don't know the password. I haven't actually been able to hook it up yet to see exactly what I have.

I believe you can just hit the cancel button on Win98 and bypass the username/password "protection" on Windows 98. Once inside Windows, you have admin privileges to reset the password or create a new user with admin privileges. Win98 was almost as secure as Win95 if that says anything 

Jerry

[ohioreef]

This computer came from a school so it kept wanting to access the network to check the password. I ended up just booting into safe mode and changed the log-in to Windows log-in and created a new user and whoila I was in!!

I'm planning on upgrading it to XP but liked the challenge of seeing if I could get in.