Administrator password required, but I never set one!

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Guest

I tried to restart my computer yesterday, but when the computer rebooted,
instead of going to Windows, I got a black screen with a cursor line blinking
in the upper left corner. I tried using the Windows Recovery Console, but it
asked for an administrator password. I don't remember ever setting an
administrator password, and I'm quite sure I never did. I tried just hitting
<Enter>, but that didn't work.

I am not able to get into Windows Safe Mode. I can't even type any commands
while on the black screen.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue? Is this a Windows password or
a BIOS password that is being requested?

I am running a Dell Dimension 8250, with Windows XP SP2. The computer is
almost four years old. I replaced the hard drive a couple of months ago
(moving the crashed one to secondary position to access data files from it),
and have had no problems until this happened.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Al
 
Restart the computer and keep tapping the F8 key. This will get you to
the boot options screen. (It's all text.) You can try the 'last known
good' option and/or, if you can boot into Safe Mode with networking I
would update my virus program and run a full system scan.

Otherwise, if you have an up-to-date rescue CD from your antivirus
program, I would boot the computer from that.
 
Well, as I mentioned in my first post, I cannot enter Safe mode. When I tried
again just now, by tapping F8, I got a "Keyboard failure" message. F12 is the
boot screen command on my system.

I have some floppies that I made from AVG. I tried one the other day and it
didn't do anything, but I'll try again. You think it might be a virus? I was
wondering that myself. Have you heard of this happening to anyone else
recently?

I just tried putting in the AVG rescue disk again, and I get the message
"Remove disks or other media. Press any key to restart." Then, "Strike F1 to
retry boot, F2 for setup utility".

I didn't see a "last known good" option anywhere.

If I took my hard drive out and put it in a case and hooked it up to my
laptop, could I run a virus scan on it that way? Would I risk getting the
virus (if there is one) on my laptop?

Al
 
"If I took my hard drive out and put it in a case and hooked it up to my
laptop, could I run a virus scan on it that way?"

Yes - and that may be your best course of action now. (Of course, your
laptop needs to have updated virus definitions.) You should also check
for other types of malware.

"Would I risk getting the virus (if there is one) on my laptop?"

No - At least, not so long as your laptop has a recent version of a
competent antivirus (and antispyware) program installed with updated
definitions.
 
I thought I HAD all the latest virus definitions from AVG on my other
computer! Now, I'm paranoid! I don't want to lose my laptop too!

The ironic thing is that I noticed AVG wasn't running on my laptop for some
reason. When I went to reinstall it (cause I couldn't find it in my program
folder, though later I did see the shortcut on my desktop), I could only
download ver. 7.5, which I thought wasn't going to be available until January.

Al
 
What would happen if I left the hard drive in my inoperable computer and
hooked it up to my laptop via USB cable? Would I be able to access the hard
drive in the desktop computer that way?

Al
 
How do you plan to attach a USB cable to a hard drive while it's still
inside your computer? Forget it...it's a rhetorical question, because it
can't be done. Look, don't play around. Just do what you need to do.
 
OK. Sorry for the apparently dumb question. It's just that I know it is
possible to connect a desktop and laptop and transfer data from one drive to
the other, so I thought maybe the laptop would recognize the hard drive in
the desktop, and I could do what I need to do, without having to go through
the trouble and expense of taking it out and putting it in a case.

Al

PS - I wasn't planning to attach the cable directly to the hard drive.
 
Of course it's possible to transfer data directly from one computer to
another, with the right software and the right kind of connection.

So it seems you're taking a different track now? Instead of using
computer A to scan the hard disk of computer B for viruses, you're
thinking of backing up your data files from B to A and then erasing B
for a clean install?
 
Well, no, I thought it might be possible to scan the drive while leaving it
in the inoperable computer (in other words, the computer would act like the
enclosure I considered buying), but maybe that's not possible. I just hate to
spend $50 for a drive enclosure, then find out that the drive is fine and
there is no virus.

I was able to get the computer to start to boot from the Windows CD again
(turns out that somehow the BIOS got set to OFF), so I think I'm going to try
to get one of those password crack codes and do the Windows Recovery Console.
The only roadblock to getting to the next step is the original problem--an
administrator password is required and I never set one.

Al
 
I tried to restart my computer yesterday, but when the computer rebooted,
instead of going to Windows, I got a black screen with a cursor line blinking
in the upper left corner. I tried using the Windows Recovery Console, but it
asked for an administrator password. I don't remember ever setting an
administrator password, and I'm quite sure I never did. I tried just hitting
<Enter>, but that didn't work.

I am not able to get into Windows Safe Mode. I can't even type any commands
while on the black screen.

Any suggestions on how to resolve this issue? Is this a Windows password or
a BIOS password that is being requested?

I am running a Dell Dimension 8250, with Windows XP SP2. The computer is
almost four years old. I replaced the hard drive a couple of months ago
(moving the crashed one to secondary position to access data files from it),
and have had no problems until this happened.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks,

Al
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