Windows Vista Help

[Jarahl]

Ok first a little story:

My missus has an old laptop she currently uses, however she has a newer and much better laptop that has an electrical fault causing it to reboot and freeze when you touch the lower left corner.

I've isolated the problem, thus preventing it from happening, but here comes the tricky part!

My missus haven't used this PC for 1½ years now, since it has been broken, and she changed her password for windows vista just as she met me, and now she doesn't have a clue what that password was.

She always comes up with airtight passwords, using both words and numbers, so guessing it is out of the picture.

I've tried booting it up in Safe Mode, trying to access the Admin account that way, but it has been disabled, and I don't think I can enable it before I get into Vista.

Also her Bios apparently has a password, and I can't even enter that in order to change boot order.

So my questions are simple:

- Is there any way to get around her Vista account password?
- How do I reset the bios password on a laptop?

Hope someone can help, because I can't even use the flippin' recovery CD that came with the PC cus the bloody thing won't boot from it :S

Cheers

Jacob

 

[Appollo]

No idea, but hai Jacobe

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

- Is there any way to get around her Vista account password?

Yes, but you need to be able to boot from CD/USB.

- How do I reset the bios password on a laptop?

Depends on the make/type of the laptop. Most times there's a dipswitch to clear/reset the CMOS underneith the keyboard. Sometimes also located underneith the laptop.

 

[soze]

It is worth trying removing the laptop battery the motherboard battery and power leaving for a while to see if it resets the bios for you.

 

[Ingafgrinn Macabre]

It is worth trying removing the laptop battery the motherboard battery and power leaving for a while to see if it resets the bios for you.

True, but generally the dipswitch is next to the battery and then there's not that much waiting till all capacitors are drained

 

[- English -]

there are some software you can get to sort it out (google), but i reconmend just formatting from your vista cd if you have things you dont mind losing on your pc.

 

[Access Denied]

I don't know if it will work but after you've pressed the power button repeatedly press F11. If it works it'll bring up the boot menu and you can select boot from CD.

 

[Bahumat]

yeah google programs that can find the password. A guy at work has one but I cant remember the name of it.

 

[Cromcruaich]

For those though, you need to boot from a different media. There is an excellent utility called widows ultimate boot cd, but boot order needs changing first. Its got password recovery tools and all sorts.


One option is to get another laptop harddisk and recover the OS to that, you can get a caddy to get all the data off the current harddisk at a later date.

With that scenario you may also have the option of installing the manufacturers tools on the newly installed disk which *might* have a software solution to resseting the BIOS password, at which point you'd be back to being able to using a utility from a bootable media to reset the admin password on the original disk.

Thats all if there is no easy way to clear the cmos as talked about above.

 

[Tuthmes]

Holding down the "insert" key directly at startup resets the bios on (some) desktop MB's, however i'm almost positive that's not gonne work on a laptop (would be too easy).

As for Vista you could try using an ubuntu disk (or some other linux distro) and startup with that. It doesnt install anything it just plays straight from the cd itself. See if you can access the hd from there (which will require some understanding of linux though :x)

Googling i found:

Ophcrack v3.3.1 Review - Password Recovery Software Review - Ophcrack Live CD ISO Download

Password Recovery - Top 5 Free Windows Password Recovery Tools - Password Cracker

But i dunno if its any good.