Locked out of laptop

Boston Brawler

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Jan 17, 2011
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My wife has an HP laptop running windows 10. She used it yesterday with no issues. This morning, it prompted her for a password upon waking it from sleep mode. She has never used it with a password before. One was set up when it was purchased in 2016 (it gives her a hint), but she doesn't remember it. We disabled the password login and she has been using it for two years without a password.

She called HP, and they said they can fix it for $150. Does this sound right? How does the password turn itself on? Is there a way I can work around this?
 
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Back Bay

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Dec 9, 2008
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Reboot the laptop, press F8 repeatedly, it will be Safe Mode when it boots. Then go to the admin section and reset accounts you have password enabled.
 

Harry Hooper

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If this concerns the hardware-based password on HP laptops, that kicks in before the booting process really gets going. HP's help will likely be required.

If this concerns a Windows login password, then there likely are some workarounds.
 

Boston Brawler

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Reboot the laptop, press F8 repeatedly, it will be Safe Mode when it boots. Then go to the admin section and reset accounts you have password enabled.
F8 did not work. I was able to get a menu by pressing and holding shift while selecting restart from the password prompt screen. However safe mode did not come up when I selected it. It just brought me right back to the password prompt after selecting it and rebooting.
 

Boston Brawler

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Jan 17, 2011
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If this concerns the hardware-based password on HP laptops, that kicks in before the booting process really gets going. HP's help will likely be required.

If this concerns a Windows login password, then there likely are some workarounds.
It is the login for the windows username. I don't think it is an HP specific thing. It's the microsoft username at startup.
 

Boston Brawler

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All roads prompt a password. Shift plus restart brought up a menu of options, but any that are selected (safe mode, command prompt, etc...) bring me to a screen that says "choose an account to continue", the only account is my wife's, and then it prompts for a password.
 

Boston Brawler

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I also attempted to interrupt booting three times in a row by cutting the power during boot, to force safe mode. It brought me to the password.

So did selecting system restore point on the menu I got to.

Is it possible this is one of those ransom hacks and we just don't realize it yet?
 

Boston Brawler

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Jan 17, 2011
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By pressing esc when powering on, I can get into something called InsydeH20 setup utility. I don't see a way to disable or change the windows user password, though.