forgotten password on laptop advice required

Marty999

I had a similar problem the other day with a PC at work. I knew what password I had set for the Administrator's account but it wouldn't accept it. After 10 minutes of trying different combinations I tried it again with the caps lock on and it worked! Have you tried that?

fwor

Ok - if you accidentally set the BIOS password (doh!x2) you should be alright. After all, there are only so many passwords that you might have used, so just try them all! Don't forget to watch for Caps Lock, and try any of them in all caps in case you had Caps Lock on when you set it...

(edit - Marty beat me to it!)

gill07

gosh i have 2 probs on the go now. i know what password i set in bios but dont know how to make it let me alter to cd to boot first as it doesnt ask me for password it just wont let me do anything cos it says setup configure is disabled and it wont let me enable it . original prob is my fellas daughter has forgotten her windows admin password .i was trying to sort that for her and seem to have made matters worse

fwor

That's quite normal, but it's hard to be precise with instructions because there are many different BIOS makes and versions out there!

Almost certainly what you need to do is to go into the BIOS setup and go to the Security page. You will ~hopefully~ see a section where passwords can be set, possibly with asterisks where a password is set and a blank where none is set. Go to any that appear to be set and press Enter. Normally it will ask you the current password before you can set a new one. If you set the new one as blank, it should let you go back and change the boot options.

marble

You could always move the hard disk into another computer (it's a laptop 2.5" drive, so you'll probably need a special cable to use it in a desktop ... try eBay). Don't boot it into Windows ... boot to the password recovery CD and recover the password. After that, transplant the drive back to the laptop and job done.

Al

gill07

thanks for that will try bios password suggestion now. if i sort it and manage to cd to boot first will it run without having to log into windows because when i tried it the other day the cd didnt run but when i logged into guest account without admin rights the disc ran. its not actually a password recovery cd ( i looked at john the ripper etc but didnt understand half of it) its a password removal programme. i really want to try and sort this for her.she is really upset that she forgot her password

gill07

just looked at password page and it wont let me do anything. it says at side of admin (password enabled) it says to change password press the right or left arrow but nothing happens. it also says
admin password field is locked until configure set up field is enabled.but how do i do that as it doesnt seem to be allowing me to anything

fwor

I know it's no consolation, but last time I came across this, I found it really hard to figure out. In the example that I had to fight with, you had to unset the "user" password before you could change the "admin" password. It seemed completely illogical - you just need to keep trying and think laterally.

Another thing to try: go to the manufacturers website, go to the Downloads section and see if they have a "service manual" download for your model. This should give precise instructions on changing/removing BIOS passwords.

gill07

thank you i will try and find something but i have been searching web for days. any other advise would be VERY greatfully received

2_litre

have you tried taking the bios battery out for a while im sure ive read that it will lose the password