About Lauren Bennett Expertise I am a computer science major and my dad is an Electric Engineering, so my life has revolved around computers. For as long as I can remember, I have been buying and selling computers. I tend to travel a lot, so I have always had a laptop. I have bought 5 of them for myself, and bought around 30-40 for friends and family. I have dealt with the good and the bad of various version and brand names. If you are in need of buying a laptop, feel free to contact me and I'm sure I will be able to guide you into purchasing the laptop that will be the best fit for you. I will custom build you computers for you to choose from so you can get an exact idea of what to go and buy when you do it yourself and so that you have an exact price. However, I am in the USA and am only knowledgeable about computers here in the US. I do not know about foreign currency or the quality of computer brand names outside the US.
Experience B.S. in Computer Science. Buying and selling for years. Assisting friends/family.
Question My son purchased a used laptop from someone who was fixing to leave Iraq. He gave that laptop to me, but now I can't get it to start because it ask for the guys password to turn on. Is there a way that I can do that or do I need to take it to a shop and have them do that for me? It's a Toshiba Satellie 0035-S155. I hope you can help me out, if not, let me know what I need to do.
Thanks,
Ronnie
Answer If you have Windows XP and his account is the only one one on there, there is no way to retrieve the password without reinstalling Windows unless you have a way to contact him.
A quote from Microsoft:
"Note If you have forgotten the password for all user accounts, and if you did not create a password reset disk, you cannot log on to Windows XP. This is for security reasons. If this problem occurs, you must reinstall Windows XP. Then, you must reinstall all the programs."
(from article on: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321305)
If you do a Google search, you can find non-Microsoft approved/supported ways to get them to work. They have been done successfully but there is no guarantee that it will work or that you won't lose information on the computer. In addition, of something goes wrong, Microsoft or Toshiba will not be able to help you - so it's at your own risk.
I'd give them to you, but since it isn't technically 'Microsoft approved' I can't specifically tell you the ones I know of (I'd get kicked off the website and Microsoft could technically get me in legal trouble), but Google search will show up a ton of options and you can't get in trouble for using them, if you do so choose :)
