Maybe " Hardware " Maybe Not?

I did a search before posting and this is how many pages that exist; a lot to read and hope to find an answer to.

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This is to the question about lost password to sign in to my computer.

I typed a hint but it doesn't seem to work. Either I changed the password but not the hint or something else happened. I purchased this laptop new from Costco in 08 or 09. The password is a common one that I use and is not one that anyone can guess at.

A few nights ago Jimmy Fallon said that : according to Forbes or some other notable company the most popular password in 2016 was....pause ( I said to myself that it was:
"password" but I was wrong. The most popular password was 123456. What surprised me about both guess's is that most email's and other places that require a password say that you need at least one letter, one number and must be at least 3 characters long.

In any event this does not help me. I did try my password using the hint trying caps and a mix of caps and lower case. Trying more than 3 times doesn't seem to lock me out.

I'm not sure if the make and OS matter but if it does I can tell you that the computer is an HP with Vista 64 bit. I do not recall resetting the password but I am wondering if the internal battery is dead and that I allowed the computer to sit too long without being recharged. If I did do that then I wonder if it rest to an original password and if it did do that would the password be : " admin " or " administrator "?

Lastly if it is none of the above is there a way to rest it? I'm told about a wizard reset with a jump drive but each jump drive I insert gives me a message that this drive does not have a rest.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

Have a look over here.
How To Clear Windows Log In Password

 

Hey Eldon,
So it's my windows log-in password. I did a lot of reading and figured that I had a number or solutions but then I discovered something else which presents another problem. I managed to get in from safe mode but found out that there seemed to be no other " accounts " except administrator. But administrator had the password that was given to me in PW hints. So I created a USB PW disk which allowed me to sign in when the same and only password didn't work.
There is a message about user preferences didn't load; check ? ref log-on but a search didn't find that name.
I'm running scan disk from Safe Mode. This computer hasn't been used in over a year and now I recall I was having this same problem the last time I tried to use it and have been miffed by the password " change " or whatever it was that wasn't allowing me to log-on.
If scan disk works maybe it will fix the problem because I changed the password and used my new USB PW disk and bottom line it will not allow me to log-on in full operating mode. After this program get's done running maybe I will have more information but besides the fact that the clock is correct I was thinking that the internal battery is old and weak if not totally bad. The computer is also running hot. I have it elevated and running one of those cooler fans that the laptop sits on.

Are there now programs that read internal battery power and internal temp?
I have them in the form of apps on my cell phone but Vista now seems like a Model T compared to a Tesla.

 

Use HWiNFO.
Ensure you download the 64-bit version.
Also, choose between installer and portable.
https://www.hwinfo.com/download.php

 

After hours of scan disk and many errors fixed the computer restarted and I was asked to sign in. I crossed my fingers and got this message: " DON'T CROSS YOUR FINGERS AND TRY AGAIN!" ( Just Joking ) But I did get this very detailed message which I was getting before along with the " check logs " message AFTER this one:

" The user profile service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded. " I hit the words to the left and got an X in a RED circle with these words: " LOGGON OFF " "THE USERNAME OR PASSWORD IS INCORRECT "

The only other information I thought about trying but saw the potential of causing new problems so I left things as they were until I posted here. When I managed to sign on in SAFE MODE and manuvered over to CONTROL PANEL many of the options did not work. I'm going to go by memory now. Remember that I did manage to create a start JUMP DRIVE which works fine and it allowed me to change the password and hint after rebooting. BUT they didn't work to power on the computer in normal mode. It took several attempts to see the PW hint change but the old password nor the new password worked. I was able to hit " restart " and press F8 at the windows logo and once again sign on WITH the new password in SAFE MODE. In CONTROL PATTERN.
So about THAT and my memory of older time when this computer worked fine: My main sign on was ADMINISTRATOR with the computers name and a picture of the Sun Flower as Identification. In the control panel there are choice that do not come to mind as choices that I should attempt to mess around with...
continued:
There is an option to forget password. Since administrator is the only " member " I'm wondering if forgetting the password fixes the above problem in any way?

I was asked to say what the laptop is and what it has in it.
It is an HP 17" laptop Pavilion Entertainment PC home premium service pack 2with Intell Centrino dual core T6400 @ 2 ghz
4GIG Memorywith an Nvidia "PureVideo HD card dv7
Windows Vista 64 bit purchased in 2008 or early 09 " Copy Right 2007


a window pops up when I sign on in safe mode that says: Your user profile was not loaded correctly, You have been logged in with the default profile for the system. Please see the event log for details or contact your administrator" I am administrator and administrator is the only name to log in with. It has the password I created and is not the so called default ( no password ) that I've read is one way of getting in to reset passwords. Besides that there are no other names in the control panel

Options: Change PW, Remove PW Change Picture, Change account name, change account type, manage another account, turn user account control on or off. Most of these do nothing. I did change the password but it only allows me to sign on in safe mode with that above message.

Under Problem Report and Solutions nearly everything in that area has " stopped working " or " unable to diagnose/repair network problem.

All of the malware and virus protection software is out of date and I have still not found that area that is called " Please see the EVENT LOG for details. Where might that be?

Thanks

 

In the search box, type "eventvwr" (without the quotes). It should come up in the results list and you then click on it to bring up Event Viewer.

 

Thanks md, Then what? I'm not sure what I'm suppose to see and or what I'm suppose to do?

Before the problems there were 3 login names including " guest " now there is just administrator with the given name I assigned to administrator. There is no administrator login name as a stand alone.

 

There is a reply from me with more info about the particular laptop
Here is part of that post:
It is an HP 17" laptop Pavilion Entertainment PC home premium service pack 2with Intell Centrino dual core T6400 @ 2 ghz
4GIG Memorywith an Nvidia "PureVideo HD card dv7
Windows Vista 64 bit purchased in 2008 or early 09 " Copy Right 2007

I read the HP link that you posted but I don't think that's the problem.

I looked for a recovery date and what's interesting about that is that there doesn't seem to be a date that I know for sure the computer was working fine.

 

Not sure if this should be a different post or not but I created a jump drive with Unbuntu on it for a small laptop with an ATOM processor running Windows 7. Can using this Linux OS jumpdrive on the 17" Pavilion help in analyzing the Vista problem?

 

LOL, If you only knew my reputation with " stuff " and mostly computer stuff; I've never thrown anything out and my windows 95 and 98SE still SMOKE everything else I have ( 10 probably boots a bit faster ) So my intention is to find someone who can clue me in. In the olden days if you had the original disk you could reload the OS and have two of the same OS's on the computer and with the drivers being the same it's like a free pass to pick the pocket of anything on the original OS.
I've thought that it is possible that there is malware of some sort on it because of one other odd behavior which is the fan running full speed all the time. But none of the malware programs have found anything. I don't even like Vista but I'm not concerned with it so much as I am with the stuff I created on it.
Maybe I can migrate the files to an external drive?
Thanks for your thoughts and offering of help!

Krypt

I still have my first computer: the first Mac with a 3.5 as the hard drive purchased in April 1986 still have the original BOS for about $2600 plus I can everyone now laughing but the truth of the matter was the Apple was always more expensive than PC's but PC;s were not far behind if you updated to the latest greatest processor which seemed to come out every 2 or 3 months. It might be interesting to start a separate thread with a request for people to confess their computer addictions; names, dates, makes and models.
I wonder how many will confess to owning Packard Bell's and I did sell one of the PC's I inherited from my Dad and it ran windows 3.1 I never got into DOS and NEVER wanted to learn it either.

 

Thanks as always. But I want to be sure I understand. This is what you said: "With all those computers you should have a USB to hard drive adapter. Pull the hard drive from a computer, attach it to another, after it has booted and the look through the files and copy them from the Vista hd to another computer, USB stick or portable hard drive" When I think of " USB to hard drive adapter " I think of what comes inside an external hard drive case where one adds their own hard drive. In the past with a desktop PC I pulled the hard drive and installed in a USB case. Once that happened I first externally ran a virus scan, then I picked the files I wanted then reformatted the hard drive which fixed a problem that was difficult to solve with the hard drive in the desktop. It doesn't sound like that is what you are suggesting. Is one of my other PC's hooked up directly to the laptop? If that is the case I'm not clear on the process. I underlined the exact words that are confusing. What does " a " computer mean?

 

That's exactly what you have to do.
If you didn't have a USB enclosure, you could use an IDE/SATA to USB adaptor.

 

I like both of these devices. It's a whole different approach than the enclosure I used in the past. These seem like one of those "tools" that anyone who tries to fix their own computers should have in their tool box.

That said I had to go back and re-read my original post to make sure I recalled what I was asking about.

I know at one point I mentioned getting files and information off of the hard drive and I think that is what brought us to this point.
I've only attempted to remove a hard drive from a laptop which happened to be an OLD HP laptop that a friend purchased at a garage sale and when he couldn't get it to boot he gave it to me. I couldn't get it to boot either and it's been so long I do not recall the messages I was getting but I thought about doing what we're talking about here. So I start to pull the laptop apart and maybe I can post a picture of how stripped down I got it and I started to think I surely didn't know as much as I thought that I knew because I could not identify a hard drive nor could I identify a place that a hard drive might have existed at one time. I do not want to repeat the same mistake with this newer HP. So as I thought back to recall why I posted this post I do recall mentioning password issues and also mentioning migrating the files to another hard drive or computer.

All of that said I wonder if I'm not taking on job that MIGHT be unnecessary. Based on the messages that I am getting is there not an easier way to " recover " or is that a dead issue with an absence of recovery dates? I'm not positive about this next comment but this PC maybe one of those PC's that did not come with an installation CD. Instead there is a D drive which I never used and I am not sure how to "recover" using the D drive. If the computer doesn't boot at all how does one get to the D drive to " recover "? Since I can get into the computer using Safe Mode is it not possible to recover the missing files and information that is preventing me to logon with full functionality?

In the past I have found PC experts unwilling to spend time ( unless they are being paid ) to get involved in solving problems such as this because, as you mentioned the OS is going obsolete or at least not supported by The Creator ? Does this make sense to you and others reading this post?

I worry about taking that laptop apart. So I'm wondering if it is not possible to hook up the HP with problems with a PC that doesn't have problems and is running the same OS. Can we not do a " transplant " so to speak without literally taking the heart out of one and translating a new heart? If I am correct about not having a physical CD to reinstall everything on a brand new hard drive I can't figure out how to get all of the specific drivers necessary for the Pavilion to run properly.

Are these not fair questions to ask from people with limited knowledge about those particular area's of need?

For a while I volunteered at a Florida Computer Club which seem to be a thing of the past. In any event I taught basics to seniors and since I knew both Mac and Windows classes were held at a local elementary school with a " computer lab " that had both OS's available. It was very interesting working with blue haired ladies long retired men who always wanted to ask question that had little to do with " learning how to turn on your computer and navigating to the internet as well as learning how to use the word processing programs and how to send and receive email. They often wanted to know if people could see them ( way before laptops with camera's built in ) and they wanted to know if the computer could catch fire or blow up in the middle of the night. Once again this was way before Lithium battery fires which are in the news a lot these days. But I had to answer their questions because they had fears based in what can only be called ignorance.

So I confess; I am ignorant about many things and that is why I am glad that Major Geeks ( and a few other help forums ) exist.

Any information that all of you have been giving me is notated and learned ( I'm ordering on of those Hard Drive devices today )

Always grateful!

Kryp