Computer Password question (not in sticky)

Factual Questions
1

OK folks, I know there are some smart computer people here. Perhaps you can help with this bugger of a problem.

I have an IBM T30 Thinkpad. This computer has the standard IBM welcome screen lock, requiring me to cntl-alt-del to get to the login screen. Until today, I had no problem logging in with a user name and password to get to the computer. However today, I was not permitted to enter the computer. After many phone calls, it looks like that IBM (or some other security software) had today’s date as a password expire date, not allowing me to get beyond the login screen. No one seems to know why, or how to get at it.

Is there a way to go behind the scenes (F1, F8, Fwhatever) to get to this password, erase it, reset it, or whatever, so I can get back to my laptop? I really need to get to my files on my hard drive, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to do it.

If there is no solution, can I pull the hard drive and get someone to get the data off of it, or is there a way I can reload the system software to clear this password page completely. It’s a home computer, so I don’t need the password page. I am not a computer wizard, so I hesitate to reload software (at this point, I’m not even sure I could reload the software via the CD/ROM.

Details
Computer: IBM T30 Thinkpad laptop.
Software: Windows xP Professional

If you need anything else, please let me know.

THanks!
ILMS

2

Take it, along with proof of ownership, to an IBM service center.

3

no proof of ownership. I was told the laptop was purchased after its 2 year lease was up, from what company I don’t know. They were supposed to be (and as far as I knew until today) stripped of any proprietary info. IBM gets them back, cleans them up and sells them cheap. Mine was a gift for school, and the person who gave it to me has no proof of purchase.

are you telling me that this thing is now worthless?

4

There are plenty of free utilities that will crack a password on a Windows machine in a few seconds. You can boot up your machine with one of them, reset the password, reboot and you’re all set.

If it’s OK with the moderators I’ll post some links.

5

Dunno if this will work but how about booting up, pressing (whatever gets you to the BIOS setup) and then changing the system date back a bit. If that “unexpires” your user ID then you logon, set your password to never expire, or get rid of the logon screen altogether, then reboot and change the date back to the current.

6

Can you get to the BIOS during startup? Usually this involves hitting Delete, F8 or some key during startup. Watch closely when text first comes, and it should say something like “To enter Setup, press…”

If you can get into your BIOS, you can set the boot device to be something else (like a cd drive). Several vendors make live Linux cds that should be able to do this and then mount your hard drives. You may also be able to do it with a WinXP cd in recovery mode or something. This way, you bypass Windows requesting a password.

If you can’t get into the BIOS at all, or if it’s passworded, you may have to reset the BIOS. This usually involves physically connecting a jumper on the motherboard. Then you can do the above.

You may not be able to save the current installation this way, but you should be able to get the data off, after which you can reinstall from scratch.

However, doing the above may be a bit complicated for the uninitiated.

On preview, it looks like Valgard has a much easier method.

7

It sounds as if this is a password at the BIOS level, in which case you won’t be able to enter it to change the date or password, as this would defeat the purpose. (Go ahead and try though).

Sure you can put the drive in something else. The password is on the laptop hardware, not the software on the drive.

I’d look at resetting the BIOS though. If you made any special changes (doesn’t sound like you did) you’ll have to re-enter them, and you may have to run the BIOS auto-detect on some hardware, but other than that it would probably work.

If you have the manual, look for how to reset the BIOS - it usually involves either setting a jumper or removing a battery.

8

valgard,

Tried your method, but it gave me the same problem. One thing I’ve noticed. Their now appears a third pulldown that has "Log on to: and a bunch of networks (I guess). I never really noticed this was all that important because it only appears when you hit the options >> button.

So now when I put the password in, it pops up and says the network isn’t available. But I’m not hooked up to any network.

thanks for everyone’s help so far. Maybe those crack programs would work.

Walrus, I can get to BIOS on startup. I hit F1, that’s how I changed the system time. I think your further explaination lost me a bit.

I’ll go back into the BIOS and see if there is anything else I can find to muck up.

9

OK,

I can get to

F1 - the BIOS stuff
F8 - troubleshooting for windows xp professional, including safe mode, etc.
F12 - hardware stuff

Cripes, I wish I understood this stuff more. I have a sad feeling about my data…
:frowning:

10

Ohhhh. I missed the ctrl-alt-del bit there… so your Windows password has somehow expired, and you are thusly unable to log on to your account.

Changing the time isn’t going to un-expire the password - it’ll have to be reset.
Incidentally, that drop-down is for network logins - your username and password can be authenticated locally, or from a domain controller. You usually want to log on locally, so that should be either blank or have your PC name in it.

Yeah - you can go with what Valgard says (assuming you’ve already tried accessing the “administrator” account with a blank password). Connecting your HD to another PC will work too (unless you’ve somehow turned encryption/compression on)

11

Well, the administrator password isn’t blank… tried that once, and I found the admin. password in a text file on the desktop. Unfortunately, I never wrote it down :smack: and I can’t get to the damn desktop.
Valgard (or anyone else that is hesitant to post a link to a password cracking software), please send to my email address. To be honest, I don’t really know how I’d run them, since I can’t get to a command line. but first things first.

I also have no idea how to connect my HD to another PC, but if that would work, perhaps that would be the ultimate answer and I wouldn’t have to worry about this anymore.

Thanks again everyone!

12

I recommend you remove the hard drive and install it in another machine and recover your data that way.

Here is a site that tells you how to fully recover from this situation but, frankly, after reading the directions, I’d grab the drive out of the lapper and toss the leftovers in the bin.

http://www.ja.axxs.net/unlock/key_for_tp_t30.htm

Good luck!

13

sorry. My last post was a bit unclear. When I first got the computer, I found a text file with the admin password in it. i just never wrote it down. Therefore, I know the admin user name has a password to it. (I tried blank, password, admin, etc. just to make sure).

14

when you startup your computer hit f8 and start in safe mode from there you can get in as an admin, delete your password, restart and just put in a new password or if that doesnt work for some reason and if you have access to another computer, you can take out your hard drive, put it on the IDE drive cabl (the data cable with 80 wires in it, it looks just like a ribbon) and you will have to find out what kind of drive you have (it should say on it when you take it out) then you can go to that companies website and find their jumper settings somewhere or just call them. set your jumpers to cable select and plug it into the slave connector on your data ribbon. plug in the power cord (4 wires) and start up the computer. download this http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?swid=1 - its the data lifeguard tools, run it and you can use it to copy ALL the data from the slave drive onto the master then access your files from there. You can either do all that or pay best buy $90. you could try talking to Windows support too, if you happen to be made of money.

15

daffy,

I read what I could from that website, and I thought my head might explode. He must make enough money to do this for people, but I couldn’t get the file he wanted. I was very confused.

I’m not a moron, but my question has me wondering,

16

ILMS, daffy’s link is probably not what you need. It’s also probably not an expired password, otherwise you would be prompted to change it. Since it gives the prompt that the network is not available, I’d bet that the laptop is configured to log into a domain and the cached account has expired or otherwise been cleared.

Since you appear to have access to another computer, I suggest going to this site to download the bootdisk available there:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/
(Mods, this is a legitimate tool for accessing a SAM offline. I use it regularly to recover servers, workstations, laptops, etc.)

Read the instructions carefully, then image the floppy using the rawrite command in the documentation. It will boot into Linux, and provide you with menus that will eventually get you to the point where you can reset the password of the local administrator account (to blank, preferably).

Once reset, you will want to boot the machine back up, verify that you are logging on locally (as opposed to a domain), and go into control panel to see if your user account is listed. If it is there, reset the password for your user account as well as set the password to not expire. If it’s not, you’ll probably have to create a new account for yourself (add it to the local administrators group), and eventually copy your files to the new profile. You can do this after you log in with the new account.

While you have admin rights, you should take it out of the domain, if it’s in one. Right-Click on My Computer, choose Properties, click on Computer name and then Change. Make it a member of a workgroup (if you are sure you don’t use it at work for anything).

Let us know how it works!

17

Pretty much what Aestivalis posted. There’s a heaping helping of similar boot disks out there and they’re not hard to use.

It wouldn’t surprise me if your laptop does not have a floppy drive in which case you will have to boot from CD (or a USB keychain but that involves a little extra work).

Follow Aestivalis’ link, burn the bootable CD per instructions and fire up your laptop from that (you may have to go into the BIOS and set the boot order so that CD-ROM is first).

18

Before doing anything drastic, make sure that when you enter your username and password, the proper domain is selected. That’s the popup you mentioned which has “a bunch of networks.” Those are domains, and there is a “local” domain that exists on your individual computer, and it’s named after your computer. So if your computer is named “ILMS-PC”, then there should be an entry in the popup that says “ILMS-PC (this computer)”. Choose that and try your password again.

It’s very easy to accidentally choose the wrong domain and not realize it, because not having to select it each time you log in means you tend not to pay attention to it. When the wrong domain is selected, the computer is actually trying to connect to the domain controller (another computer) for the selected domain and verify your username and password.

If you are using this in a corporate environment, you might actually be required to log on to a specific domain other than the “(this computer)” domain. If that’s the case, you need to find out what your domain is from whoever set up the account on the computer.

19

Thanks everyone,

One point. I don’t have a floppy, only a CD.

OK, serious question here. I’ll go and download the bootdisk. How hard is this going to be really? I am no computer wizard and I feel like I’m getting in way over my head.

Why can’t I get to a command line prompt?

I’ll try what Aestivalis said. You guys sound like you do this all of the time. I only do this when it has to be done. Which is **very ** infrequently.

20

Not to be too paranoid, but as I was reading over the FAQ, I ran across this little gem.
**The keyboard does not work! I can’t answer the questions!! **
Sorry, this is at the moment a known problem with the 040116 version.
Reported mostly on some laptops.
The 040818-version may work better? or not?
There may be an older version on some of the mirrors.
Or look at here for some older pre-releases, the newest of them may work. Some of the older **may be dangerous **

Need to panic yet?