Windows asking me for password

[almightyobo]

Ok so this past month I have been experiencing some really weird things going on with my windows. Its been having random crashes and weird bugs happening. It wont update itself any more, it just acts like it is when it shuts down but then cant and just shuts down normally.

Now I left it on all night last night, which I havent done in a few weeks, and when I woke up it was asking me for the pw to load windows. I tried restarting but now it asks me for the pw everytime.

The problem is, I dont remember ever even setting a password, and if I did I have no clue what it is bc I tried all the pws I would have normally used.


So I guess I have 2 main questions:

1. Is there a way I can fix this?

2. How would I go about just wiping my pc clean and just reinstalling the os and everything, bc I really wouldnt mind and it wouldnt take more than an aftertnoon. I think it would fix alot of my problems as well.


Any help advice is appreciated!

 

[Kharn]

XP or Vista?

 

[almightyobo]

XP sorry forgot to specify

 

[Kharn]

Have you tried safe mode?

 

[Lexluethar]

Spyware or virus IMO.

Try booting in safemode like saxon suggested. But safemode I believe would still ask you for an admin password - just w/ the minimum hardware enabled.

I would wipe your OS and start over if you are willing to lose everything you have and spend 3 or so hours loading it. To go about this you need a bootable CD Rom w/ your OS. Place it into the CD drive and boot the system, if your system boots automatically you will ahve the change the boot priority in the bios. Once the post recognizes that there are bootable files on the CD it will ask you to to 'press any key to boot from cd'.

At this point just follow the instructions and delete the partition w/ your original OS and reformat it w/ NTFS. Then install the new OS on the newly formatted partition.

HOpe this helps. If you aren't willing to 'start over' let me know and we can work w/ what you have at this point.

 

[KSoD]

Hello,

There is a whole topic about password recovery tools in the index. Check that to find a tool to reset your password. Then scan your system for spyware with Osiris's guide and post your log in our analyze area.

Cheers,
Mak

 

[carnageX]

Spyware or virus IMO.

Try booting in safemode like saxon suggested. But safemode I believe would still ask you for an admin password - just w/ the minimum hardware enabled.
.

Not if you boot into the hidden Administrator account and remove the password on the regular account.

 

[Lexluethar]

Not if you boot into the hidden Administrator account and remove the password on the regular account.

Hidden admin account? How do you do that?

 

[carnageX]

If your account is passworded, the user selection screen should come up automatically, and when you boot into safe mode (F8 on bootup), the account 'Administrator' comes up.

 

[Kharn]

90% of the time the Administrator account hasn't got a password unless you set one up but nobody i know has done that apart from a public of managed machine, like in a office.