Don't know password

NORM WADDELL wrote:
The computer remains as was....showing a background
photo of beach and sailboats, and a box asking for
a password. Resolution.....we will 'junk' that computer,
and use others which we already own. The bad guys
won this one, but they did NOT get any money from us.
Thanks for all your suggestions........I could not
use most of them because the computer screen would
not all ANY input......pressing various keys and
combinations of keys and restarting, etc, were useless
THANK YOU.

There really is no need to junk it. It just needs a new install of Windows on a freshly formatted hard drive. Find your windows install disk or better a full backup of your PC (hopefully you have been making backups), boot into the Computer's Bios (each company has a different key to press after turning on before the OS loads to go into BIOS. From there you can format the drive and start fresh.

If you don't have a Windows disk, download a free Linux OS, burn it to a CD or DVD, and install that to the formatted drive - the computer will work and there are many things that you do in Windows that you can do in Linux.

Easy to low-level format and reload. No need to junk it, unless it was junk to start with. Being a few years old, it probably is junk.

The computer remains as was....showing a background
photo of beach and sailboats, and a box asking for
a password. Resolution.....we will 'junk' that computer,
and use others which we already own. The bad guys
won this one, but they did NOT get any money from us.
Thanks for all your suggestions........I could not
use most of them because the computer screen would
not all ANY input......pressing various keys and
combinations of keys and restarting, etc, were useless
THANK YOU.

I am not sure if you are having trouble with the SYSTEM password or the USER password. Each has a different solution. I assume you are having a Systen password problem.

I have never had this problem. I am not sure if you said that you can get the computer to display the BIOS or not. If it will display the BIOS make sure that it is booting from the correct disk by checking the setup. I think F2 is the key to enter the setup. There is a place in the setup to set password on or off.

But here are some more suggestion.


1. Go online and see if you can download a copy of the service manual for your computer. Some computer have a small switch on the mother board that will reset the password.

2. If you have your Windows CD, use it to REPAIR the installation. If all fails, you may need to reformat and reinstall complete but try 4 below first.

3. There are a number of troubleshooting software programs that work from a CD. That is they boot from the CD not from the hard drive. Can you boot into one of this type program.

4. Do you have a extra hard drive? You can get a small used one for less then $20.00 on ebay. Install it and re-install Windows. Once you get the computer working then install the OLD HD and copy your data from the old to new.

I am following all your suggestions.........have turned the
computer OFF to prevent (I hope) and access by "Mirrosoft"
Thanks for your help

Norm Waddell Pensacola FL

"Microsoft" called my Mother a couple of years ago with the same scam. She let them talk for a while before informing them that she didn't own a computer. They hung up on her.

Did you ever wonder how Microsoft got your phone number?
Sorry, but like the other said, you got scammed

Aridon wrote:
They very well may have done more than enabled a security account.

System restore may not get rid of everything.

You need to do a full format and reinstall or you run the risk of your date being unsecure. No telling what they had your wife install.

correct which is why we're recommending the PC be shut off or at least disconnected from the net.

If your computer is old you might consider buying a new computer. I have received three phone calls from these scammers. I play with them a little and then tell them to get loss.
Don