Laptop

[codswallop]

A couple of years ago,not knowing anything of computers,my wife bought herself a laptop.After a fortnight it went into a cupboard never to be seen again till now.Unfortunately the password that she remembers won't open up the lap top and any paperwork is nowhere to be found Any ideas please AND how do you turn it off???? Certainly not with the off button!!!!!!! Thanks.

[wildwood]

I'm Confused. If you can't open the laptop (because of a forgotten password????) how do you know there is no 'paperwork' and how would you expect to turn it off when you can't open the thing.

[DrFilth]

do you still have the original discs that came with the laptop

[codswallop]

I can only get to the login stage which then requires a password but as explained in my post it won't accept it but knowing "her indoors"it could be the wrong one.By paperwork I meant any software or instructions.Can't find a thing at the moment as we have been decorating big time. Thanks

[ChuckFickens]

If it's new then just restore it back to factory settings, you may be able to do this from a hidden partition on the hard drive, but without knowing the make and model can't advise how to start the process.

[TTG]

Try Administrator as the user id and just leave the password blank.

[mike11111]

Have you tried Googling the manufacturer's name to see if they have a help site or help line?

[codswallop]

How can you reset the factory settings if you can't boot it up? It's a HP .Home premium OEMAct....Win Vista....Athlon.X2......AMD 64 Can't see an actual model name. Thanks!!

[dabees]

This will work if your wife hasn't accessed the admin account.

Boot laptop and press and hold F8, then use the arrow keys to select "safe mode" this will not require a password.

Once booted, select start, then run, Now type the following command:

net user administrator /active:yes

restart the laptop normally and the hidden admin account is now active without the need for a password. You can then use the admin account to change your wife's password. Once done I'd suggest turning off the admin account, type: net user administrator /active:no into the run box to do this.

[codswallop]

Sorry Dabees,it keeps coming back to the page that needs a password.

[MarkRae]

Page? What page are you talking about? Do you refer to the login screen as a "page", or are you past that and in e.g. Internet Explorer...?

[codswallop]

The login screen is what I called a "page"

[ChuckFickens]

Keep tapping the F10 key as soon as you turn it on and it should (hopefully) start the recovery procedure and allow you to restore it back to factory settings.