HELP! Do I need to reformat?

[Ted Kerin]

We have a WinXP Home PC for out son, that I set-up years ago -- I don't
remember whatever I may have set up as user or password info, as they
haven't been needed.

Earlier today, I made the big mistake of installing a new wireless network
card witout first shutting down the computer. I first installed the driver,
per instructions, but then I physically installed the card and neglected to
shut-down the computer before inserting the card.

Then the computer wanted me to logon -- with the username "Owner", blank
password. (huh? As far as I recall, I had never been prompted with username
Owner, even during initial setup.) Sinced I assumed this was a reversion to
some forgotten default, I tried the password "admin" -- no good.

Rebooting didn't help. Rebooting in safe mode presented the same barrier,
asking me to sign in as "Owner".

Any ideas, please???

 

[peter]

have you tried a "blank" password???..........nothing nada ...just press
enter
peter

 

[Malke]

We have a WinXP Home PC for out son, that I set-up years ago -- I don't
remember whatever I may have set up as user or password info, as they
haven't been needed.

Earlier today, I made the big mistake of installing a new wireless network
card witout first shutting down the computer. I first installed the driver,
per instructions, but then I physically installed the card and neglected to
shut-down the computer before inserting the card.

Then the computer wanted me to logon -- with the username "Owner", blank
password. (huh? As far as I recall, I had never been prompted with username
Owner, even during initial setup.) Sinced I assumed this was a reversion to
some forgotten default, I tried the password "admin" -- no good.

Rebooting didn't help. Rebooting in safe mode presented the same barrier,
asking me to sign in as "Owner".

Standard password troubleshooting:

If you have forgotten your password, if you have another user account
with administrative privileges you can log into that account and change
your original user account's password from the User Accounts applet in
Control Panel. If you don't have another account like this set up or
don't have the password to it, you'll need to log into the built-in
Administrator account. In XP Home, boot the computer into Safe Mode. Do
this by repeatedly tapping the F8 key as the computer is starting up.
This will get you to the right menu. Navigate using your Up arrow key;
the mouse will not work here. Once in Safe Mode, you will see the
normally hidden Administrator account. The default password is a blank.

In XP Pro, you do not need to go into Safe Mode. At the Welcome Screen,
do Ctrl-Alt-Del twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type in
"Administrator" and whatever password you assigned when you set up Windows.

If you reset the built-in Administrator account's password in Home or
have Pro and don't remember the password, use NTpasswd to change the
built-in Administrator account's password to a blank.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Then go to the User Accounts applet in Control Panel and set passwords
that you will remember and make other desired changes.


Malke

 

[Ted Kerin]

have you tried a "blank" password???..........nothing nada ...just press
enter
peter

Peter, you got it! I wish I had waited longer, and seen your response --
instead, I despaired of getting back into the computer, and used the
laptop's built-in "restore" option -- wiping out all the data (and the
drivers for post-market hardware) on Drive C, and having to build the
computer back from Ground Zero.

Such a simple idea -- I wish I'd thought of it! Shame on me.

In case this helps anyone else:

The problem, I now realize, was caused by installing a Proxim/Orinoco PCI
wireless card, which in turn installed a driver called athgina.dll. (I
thought I had screwed up by failing to shut down the computer before
physically installing the card, but really it is a software issue.) That was
the cause of my getting the prompt to enter a password -- this driver is
inconsistent with the WinXP method of logging in by just clicking on a user
profile name/icon.

Google showed me that there's a solution, in editing the registry to
neutralize this effect of athgina.dll.

This would have been a true disaster on my "main" PC, but instead I'll only
have to deal with my kid wailing, "What happened to my icons?" and "Why
can't I find any of my Saved (levels of) games?"

Thanks again, Peter. And to everyone, sometimes the solution to not knowing
the password, is to use no password at all.



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