Lost Password

[Jez]

Yesterday was not a good day all around, so when I restarted my PC (Windows 7) and went to enter my password, it decided it didn't like it. It's the same password that I've had for the last several months and it had worked earlier in the day. So, what to do.

Well, I have a temper. So, I unplugged then threw my keyboard. Not much left of it, but I feel better. Got another keyboard out of the closet and just let it sit for a bit before trying again. No luck. Still not liking the password. I even tried other variations just in case I did enter it wrong. Nope. Still not working.

I cannot find my recovery CD, which I'm not sure would work anyway considering the CD player isn't marked a boot device and getting into the BIOS on this thing is a pain in the rear.

Out of desperation, I have emailed the support people where I bought the PC (CybertronPC... good people... usually very helpful) in the futile hope they can send me another recovery CD. I'm not going to hold my breath, it has been 3 years. But I'll even pay for one if it's reasonable.

I've tried the safe mode trick as well. problem is, my main account is also the admin account, so need password, which it is not liking. So lovely.

Next option is to get a flash drive and attempt some kind of bypass applet. There are a lot of them out there. In fact, I used to have one on a flash drive, which you guessed it, I cannot find now.

So, any other advice from the technologically savvy amongst us?

[Mr Brolin]

One possible option

Boot into recovery mode with command prompt. Typically from a fully powered off state, power up whilst holding the F8 key down until it enters "Advanced Boot Options"

Select "Safe Mode with Command Prompt", press Enter

When you get a command screen up type

net user

This will show all the accounts on the PC including Administatrator, Guest etc, assume your ID is Jez or Whatever.

Type

Net user (whatever the ID is) *. Such a net user Jez * There is a space between Jez and *

Press return 3 times, this should remive the password for the account

Reboot, logon As normal without a password

Update to a later version of Windows than 7....

[Jez]

OMG... I think you just saved my sanity. I'll give it try. thanks

And I like Win 7.

Still booting to the password splash screen. And of course, not liking the password. But thanks.

I am going ot try and find a utility that I can use, download it to a flash drive and hit the "reset password" link.

[ZekeB]

I have a Microsoft account and the password I use is the same for both my computer and my account. I've clicked the "lost password" option before and it took me to my account with a recovery option. I never went beyond that. Are you sure you didn't accidentally switch Windows to a foreign keyboard? Was your shift key working properly? Did one of the keyboards develop a bounce?

[Jez]

I'm not sure about the whole language thing. I was able to get an old PC to boot up (dang, it's slow). It also has Win 7 on it, so I was able to create a recovery disk. I'm going to give that a shot and see how it goes. If nothing else, i'll slave in the hard drive to the old system and pull the files I need, the blow it out and turn it into a Linux box or something. I have my Mac laptop. Just probably won't be able to play Skyrim again until I can get a new PC.

[MsDaisy]

You can always take it to your local Best Buy's Geek Squad, they're pretty good and in some locations even do house calls. They've helped both of us in the past.

If you get the chance to make the switch to a Mac it's a hell of a lot easier than a PC. The conversion does take a while to stick in your brain bone though, even the mouse rolls backwards but once you get use to it it's hundreds of times easier than a PC.

Good luck!

[Jez]

You can always take it to your local Best Buy's Geek Squad, they're pretty good and in some locations even do house calls. They've helped both of us in the past.

If you get the chance to make the switch to a Mac it's a hell of a lot easier than a PC. The conversion does take a while to stick in your brain bone though, even the mouse rolls backwards but once you get use to it it's hundreds of times easier than a PC.

Good luck!

I think I found a solution. Gonna take a few steps back and forth from the old PC to the newer one and stuff. And I have a MacBook Pro. :D
Only problem with that is I can't game on my Mac. Thought, technically, it is possible, I would have to buy new copies of my games, and I'm not quite ready to shell out that kind of money.

I do a lot of my personal word processing and movies and music on my Mac, because that is where the good programs are, and I can work on stuff upstairs while watching TV. But for gaming, it's my desktop that is superior in this instance.

[MsDaisy]

You can always take it to your local Best Buy's Geek Squad, they're pretty good and in some locations even do house calls. They've helped both of us in the past.

If you get the chance to make the switch to a Mac it's a hell of a lot easier than a PC. The conversion does take a while to stick in your brain bone though, even the mouse rolls backwards but once you get use to it it's hundreds of times easier than a PC.

Good luck!

I do a lot of my personal word processing and movies and music on my Mac, because that is where the good programs are, and I can work on stuff upstairs while watching TV. But for gaming, it's my desktop that is superior in this instance.

That's good! You sound like my son, he's 40 and still plays games, he uses a PC for that too. I played a computer game once when they first came out. It really pissed me off and I never played another one.

[Jez]

Took a closer look at some of the programs I found for cracking/resetting/erasing the password on my Windows PC. When someone misspells Windows and Microsoft.... Yeah, probably not a good thing. Also one had a website that looked like it has been run through Google Translate and then copy/pasted. Bad grammar and everything.

So, swallowed my pride and talked to the guys at Geek Squad. $40 to reset my password. I'm gonna let them. The software I was leaning towards cost about that much, so... might as well let the pros do it.

I will be taking the desktop in around 1pm today. They said it would take about 20 minutes. Then, when I get home, I will be making a plethora of restore CDs, flash drives, etc. Just in case it happens again.

[RTH10260]

Re: lost passwords
I made a comment about password managers here: http://thefogbow.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... 06#p994306

[Jez]

Geek Squad did a pretty good job removing my faulty password. Now, it just logs in directly, no password needed. Which is fine. I'm the only one ever on it. Even if D would get on my PC, not a big deal. Nothing in there that is secret. It's my gaming pc.

[Reality Check]

Did you say what version of Windows you are running?

[Jez]

Did you say what version of Windows you are running?

Windows 7 Professional. I couldn't find any of my backup discs or my boot thumb drive. Probably lost a long time ago. I have made new ones, just in case anything like this happens again.

[Reality Check]

OK, You didn't upgrade to 10 then. I use a PIN. It's easy to remember and is enough to keep nosy guests from getting into my PC's.

[Jez]

OK, You didn't upgrade to 10 then. I use a PIN. It's easy to remember and is enough to keep nosy guests from getting into my PC's.

I tried upgrading when it was free, but it kept failing on me during the download. And I have cable internet, so it's not like a dial-up or DSL that can have frequent interruptions. It would start downloading, everything seemed fine, I would start and boom... failure for some reason. It was weird. And I followed directions, had nothing open that didn't need to be open, etc. Just didn't want to upgrade. So, I kept Win 7.

There is no password as of right now, which is fine. It's only me and D in the house, the PC is in the basement so not out in the open, and nobody really goes down there except me. Not worried about it.

[Reality Check]

I tried upgrading when it was free, but it kept failing on me during the download. And I have cable internet, so it's not like a dial-up or DSL that can have frequent interruptions. It would start downloading, everything seemed fine, I would start and boom... failure for some reason. It was weird. And I followed directions, had nothing open that didn't need to be open, etc. Just didn't want to upgrade. So, I kept Win 7.

Yes, my Windows 7 machine gave me fits too. It locked up during the upgrade a time or two. Then there was a problem with the video driver in Windows 10. It would go to a black screen after it booted up. I found a fix for that on line. I think it was common problem on HP machines with that particular video card. I reverted back to Windows 7 for a while.

Things finally lined out after I upgraded again but it was touch and go for a while.

[DejaMoo]

Geek Squad did a pretty good job removing my faulty password. Now, it just logs in directly, no password needed. Which is fine. I'm the only one ever on it. Even if D would get on my PC, not a big deal. Nothing in there that is secret. It's my gaming pc.

When people bring their pcs to me with this problem, I use a Linux CD to crack/reset it. But that's absolutely not something for inexperienced people to experiment with. You were right to take it to a pro shop. I'm glad it worked out for you.

Off Topic

Fortunately, I never had a Roommate From Hell, but I did have the Neighbors from Hell awhile back with druggie prostie granddaughter and her lowlifes living with/off her dementia-suffering grandma. Then she was forcibly evicted and went on the run from a warrant or two. Her enabling mom got a lawyer and got her into treatment and a halfway house in exchange for having the charges dismissed. At least we got nearly a year of blessed peace out of it. Alas, her mom moved her back into the house this past spring, and worse, one of her redneck asshole cousins from Florida moved in a couple of months ago. The police have already been paying visits. This past week her angry uncle (who technically owns the house now) flew in from the West Coast, infuriated that his sisters have let their ne'er-do-well kids live for free in his house. His goal is to get them out and get the house sold. Crossing my fingers. Like I told my sister, no matter who moves in next, odds are they won't be as much trouble as these losers.

[Jez]

I have an old Lenovo that I'm trying to figure out what I want to do with. Not quite enough to run my games, but it still runs really well. There are files on it I would have to get off, but I've considered turning it into a Linux/UNIX machine, just to play around with. Several years ago, I had a Linux machine that I practiced my BSH and CSH scripting on, but that thing is scrap now. Never could get the GUI to work, it was total command line.

Someday. :D

I do need to get a new video card. One of the Geeks at Geek Squad suggested that since I have an AMD processor I should look at Radeon based GPUs instead of the NVidia that I have. He said in his experience they play better together.