HELP: Fresh install asks password but none set!!!

R

Randell D.

Folks,
This is not easy... I'm in Canada, and my mate with the Windows XP Home
Edition is in England... I've been a dab hand over the years at earlier
Windows operating systems so he's looking to me for help... The thing is,
I'm content with Windows Me and thus am not yet familiar with XP to steer
him through his problem.

The situation?
When he first installed XP months (a year?) ago he was amazed with it - by
and large things were fine until about a month ago his PC started suffering
what I think is either virus related, or failing hardware... (It would take
ages to boot and sometimes it would freeze altogether) He decided to do a
re-install...

He has managed to boot from CD and was advised that his older (troublesome)
XP installation was on the C drive - He chose to delete it but the install
routine advised otherwise (it thought he wanted a dual boot I guess). He
took the recommended option of installing it on to his D drive.

When installed on his D drive, things worked fine but he wanted to delete
his older installation on the C drive - He tried formating the drive but he
was not alloewd to do this - I guess this is probably because a small amount
of the installation was written to the C drive (boot manager or something?)
while the rest was written to the D drive.

Not content with this, we agreed that he would re-install, this time going
against the recommended option and installing Windows XP on the C drive, and
taking the option to delete the contents of the C drive...

He did this - He tells me the C drive 'disappeared' during the install
routine, before it was re-created (I gather it was either being fdisk'd or
formated or something).

The install continued as per normal he says... and when it finished, he was
presented with a login screen for user OWNER and user GUEST. Both require
passwords which he has never set... We've also tried safe mode with F8
during boot but that brings us to Administrator and Guest, again, both
requireing passwords...and thus, therefore is my (or his... or our) problem.

I believe his machine is booting from the C drive and what we need to do is
1) Log him in
2) Re-format his D drive which has a failed installation.

When he attempts to log on (with or without a password) he gets the message
"The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted."

Can anybody help? Again... as a reminder, its specifically XP Home Edition
that we're talking about... He has the original CD/license/whatever that
came in the box when he bought it. I've read some of the Microsoft KB
notes, including
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/howto/gettingstarted/guide/newinstallation.asp
(Install: New Installation) but that doesn't help me...


Replies please... via the newsgroup, so everyone can learn...
Thanks,
Randell D.
 
G

Guest

I don't know what your problem is....but I do know how to reset the password.

(1.) Turn off the computer and unplug everythin
(2.) Open the computer cove
(3.) Locate the configuration jumper on the system board and move the jumper plug so that pins 2 and 3 are jumpered (to clear the password when you turn on the computer)....this part confused me...what you have to do is move the jumper plug over to the next pin
(4.) Close the cover and turn on you computer(after you plug it in of cource!
(5.) Access the system setup program(I think you hit "F8" or "Delete" repeatedly as the computer is starting up) and assign a new supervisor or setup password in the Maintenance menu
(6.) Exit and save( MAKE sure you exit & save...not just exit!) the system setup program settings
(7.) After the computer boots turn it off and unplug it...then open the computer cover again
(8.) Move the configuration jumper plug back to the normal stting(the way they were before you moved them
(9.) Close the computer and turn it on....the password should be reset to whatever you chaged it to.
***note*** you do not have to make a new password you can just clear the old one if you want to ***note**

I really hope this helps
-Andy
 
R

Randell D.

Andy said:
I don't know what your problem is....but I do know how to reset the password.

(1.) Turn off the computer and unplug everything
(2.) Open the computer cover
(3.) Locate the configuration jumper on the system board and move the
jumper plug so that pins 2 and 3 are jumpered (to clear the password when
you turn on the computer)....this part confused me...what you have to do is
move the jumper plug over to the next pin.
(4.) Close the cover and turn on you computer(after you plug it in of cource!)
(5.) Access the system setup program(I think you hit "F8" or "Delete"
repeatedly as the computer is starting up) and assign a new supervisor or
setup password in the Maintenance menu.
(6.) Exit and save( MAKE sure you exit & save...not just exit!) the system setup program settings.
(7.) After the computer boots turn it off and unplug it...then open the computer cover again.
(8.) Move the configuration jumper plug back to the normal stting(the way
they were before you moved them)
(9.) Close the computer and turn it on....the password should be reset to whatever you chaged it to.
***note*** you do not have to make a new password you can just clear the
old one if you want to ***note***
I really hope this helps!
-Andy

I think you mis-understood my post - Its XP that is asking for the password
for 'OWNER' and 'GUEST' users during normal boot, or 'ADMINISTRATOR' or
'GUEST' during safe mode boot.... There is no BIOS password on the box..

Thanks though - have you any other ideas?
randelld
 
G

Guest

I had the same problem...I had wiped off my harddrive and installed XP. And during normal boot it asked for a password that I had not set...so I did what I desibed in the last post and cleared all the 'passwords' that were on the system.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top