Re: Passwords

Oh boy, that's what happens when you hit the send button without reading your scribblings twice! Maybe this makes a bit more sense:

The password for what? If it's the BIOS password leave the laptop at the thrift shop! If it is just the Windows password then the laptop *may* be worth buying. The Windows password is easy to work around and the laptop may have a recovery partition that allows you to completely reinstall Windows to factory condition, but unless you can first make it past the BIOS the laptop is completely useless. On many laptops if you lose the BIOS password you have to contact the manufacturer and prove bona fide ownership of the laptop before they will help you. If the laptop is out of warranty it may be a costly proposition to have them reset the password, usually you have to ship or bring the laptop to an authorized service depot.

John

John John (MVP) wrote:

The password for what? If it's the BIOS password leave the laptop at the thrift shop! If it is just the Windows password then the laptop *may* be worth buying, that is easy to work around or the laptop may have a recovery partition that allows you to completely reinstall Windows to factory condition, but unless you can first make it past the BIOS the laptop is completely useless. On many laptops if you lose the BIOS laptop you have to contact the manufacturer and prove bona fide ownership of the laptop before they will help you and if the laptop is out of warranty it may be a costly proposition to have them reset the password usually you have to ship the laptop or bring it to an authorized service depot.

John

CB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

I saw but did not buy a laptop at a thrift store that looked fairly modern
and appeared to have XP Pro. The store had a very low price due to the fact
that the pc was donated with the password still in force. No one there had
a clue what it was. Other than fdisk and installing another os is there a
way to work around the password problem????

This is a serious question, I am not trying to hack into someone's
computer.

Comments welcome.

Regards........

.