Windows 7: Damaged Laptop need to access without being able to type my password

Hi all,

I recently spilled coffee on the key board of my Dell Inspiron 1545 Laptop and believe it shorted the keyboard. I have a new laptop I would like to migrate over the docs and pics I have on that laptop to, but I can't get past the Windows 7 password stage because my keys that I need to use to type it don't work.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can reset my password or log in without a password? My mouse still works, so if I can get in, I will have no problems. Also, I tried connecting a USB keyboard and for some reason the keys don't work on that either. IE) both the laptop and the usb keyboard only have the backspace, and space bar that work.

Any help anyone can give me would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

Mike

Welcome to the Seven Forums.

Find a geek friend that already owns one of these:
DriveWire - Universal Hard Drive Adapter

Then pull the drive out:


And connect it to your new computer as a temporary external drive.

Edit: and once your data is safely on the new computer - buy a $40 replacement keyboard and try your hand at putting it on.

You can rescue your files using the Windows 7 installation or System Repair Disk following these steps: Copy & Paste - in Windows Recovery Console

You can also use free Paragon rescue disk to recover data

If the keyboard is the only problem, try using a USB keyboard from a desktop computer.

The OP tried that:
"Also, I tried connecting a USB keyboard and for some reason the keys don't work on that either. IE) both the laptop and the usb keyboard only have the backspace, and space bar that work."
Which makes me wonder if external keyboard are somehow processed thru the built in one... Hmmm.

Anyway, I don't know why I did not think of this before - but you might want to try the onscreen keyboard. Hopefully, it will not suffer from the same issues as the built in and external one.

Use the On Screen Keyboard

...scary how easy that is.