boot up password

[Guest]

My father gave me a computer and currently living with my brother. I didnt
want him messing with my profile because he always manages to download a
virus or screw things up so i put a password on the profile, not letting him
log in. When i came home i found the computer was off. I turned it on and
it loaded up with the whole dell logo and quickly came to a black screen that
said "please enter password" i didnt understand what happened or how he did
it. So right now i cant lock him out of my profile because all he does it
turn of the computer and i cant turn it back on unless i know the password.
I can do anything on the computer me being a computer admin, but only if i
knew how he did it. If you have any suggestions or know how he did it or
know how i can make it so he cant do it anymore please let me know thank you.

 

[Ronnie Vernon MVP]

My father gave me a computer and currently living with my brother. I
didnt want him messing with my profile because he always manages to
download a virus or screw things up so i put a password on the
profile, not letting him log in. When i came home i found the
computer was off. I turned it on and it loaded up with the whole
dell logo and quickly came to a black screen that said "please enter
password" i didnt understand what happened or how he did it. So
right now i cant lock him out of my profile because all he does it
turn of the computer and i cant turn it back on unless i know the
password. I can do anything on the computer me being a computer
admin, but only if i knew how he did it. If you have any suggestions
or know how he did it or know how i can make it so he cant do it
anymore please let me know thank you.

A black screen and password prompt probably means that your brother has set a password in the BIOS settings. This password must be entered before Windows can start.

You can clear a BIOS password by opening the computer case, remove the CMOS battery for 10 seconds and then replace it, if the motherboard has a removable CMOS battery. If the battery is not removable, there should also be a jumper that can be switched to reset the password. Some motherboard manufacturers also have a "backdoor" password that can be used to gain access to the BIOS.

The only way that you can prevent this from happening again is to set your own BIOS password and hope that he does not know how to reset the password.

The bottom line is that if someone has physical access to your computer and that person is computer savvy, they will be able to access the system, regardless of the security you have in place.