thewiz said:
My wife has a laptop and set her password for security. I didn't ask and
she didn't tell.
Now she has forgotten her password and I never knew it. She is unhappy.
Is there a way to reset it or recall it so she will once again be happy and
then I will too.
Thank you for any help.
There is more than one kind of password.
1) BIOS password.
a) Non-business class laptops - like a desktop, password is maintained
by CMOS battery. Unplug the laptop, remove the main battery, unplug
the CMOS battery. Hope the CMOS RAM in the Southbridge, forgets the
password as the electricity drains. On a desktop, you accelerate the
draining, with a jumper plug.
b) Business class laptops. The password is stored in a 2KB EEPROM.
The factory can reset those. Or a dude in Eastern Europe promises
to do it, but the technique requires a hardware connection of some
sort. Needless to say, this is not for the squeamish.
2) OS password.
There are techniques for resetting or brute forcing the password.
In some ways, this is easier.
Please clarify what step you're stuck at.
If the machine won't boot, and requests a password immediately (first
couple seconds), that's probably a BIOS level password.
If the machine gets to the Windows type screen, that could be a
Windows 7 password. Which some of your other respondents have
offered suggestions for.
There are more password types than that, you can get stuck at,
but I don't know all of them.
Paul
