I was considering suggesting a BIOS flash, but I dont see a way to do that with only the HDD acting as a boot device. Of course you could put the drive in another machine, pull the required data off it, wipe it and partition it with a 5GB active primary partition with the win7 installation and any needed drivers on it.
Or even add the BIOS flash utility to boot from it.
Just my 2 cents..
I've only seen this with a computer that was on a domain with the domain account set to expire after a specific date. Usually this is only done at a place that loans out laptops and PC's.
The only other explanation is a serious OS error, virus, or your wife or someone else was playing around with the the computer's properties menu and got down into the computer's name, domain and workgroup settings.
In all the possibilities, without an administrative account to log into.. your only option to get back into the machine without a wipe is finding a Tech service that has a password cracker. Yes.. Reputable tech services have such devices and can find all the accounts and passwords.
The lastest flavour of Linux actually has a windows fix built into it. So you can temporarly install linux, fix it an then unistal linux.
That, apparently only got her access back into her computer. Now it still comes up every once and a while and asks for a new password. I just say I want to change the password. I change it from nothing to nothing. It goes away for another 3 or 4 months and then it's back. Anyone know how to fix it for good?
Right click on Computer, select "Manage" and in the Computer management, open Local Users and Groups, click on Users, select the user you want to use right click and select properties. Here you can place a check mark on "Password never exprires".
Do this for any other user accounts you are using and this will put a stop to the change password prompts in future.
Thanks I'll try that. It actually wasn't checked so hopefully that will do it.
Can you be more specific on this? "The latest flavour of Linux?"
The only thing I'm finding is the Trinity Rescue Kit ( Trinity Rescue Kit | CPR for your computer )
Also, no instructions are given on how he resolved it.
I tried the official Offline NT Password and Registry Editor to Blank out the password of the account in question, but it still gives me the prompt to change the password every time I log in (even though I use the correct "blank" old password).
More specific instructions would be extremely helpful.
I had the same problem and was very tense.
The solution was simple:
1) Go in to the BIOS and set the date to earlier than when the problem occurred
2) The computer should boot normally
3) Adjust the password settings for the user in question
4) Reset the date in windows and reboot
Worked for me. I was thankful to have found the solution
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