Forgot Admin Password Please Help!

so network boot works (well, it tries to, but there is nothing for it to boot from on the network), yet it doesn't even consider booting from USB and DVD after it.

When you go in the BIOS screen about boot devices, do you see the actual device names or just generic names when the device is plugged in (for USB anyway, the CD drive is always in)?

The last try, most bioses do have a manual-ish available boot device selection option that you bring up by pressing a button while it is starting up, if you are fast enough you should see it listed in the initial screen, otherwise it's usually F10 or F12 or del or some other F-something key.

How many accounts are on this computer? If more than one what are they?

frankly, this seems like a BIOS issue of some kind (i.e. an issue of the machine, not of the software), as Win 7 has nothing to do with preventing boot of CDs or USB drives before it's even loaded.

Ask the customer support, since I think it's well into warranty and they should fix it for free.


If it's not under warranty, keep reading.

Another trick you can try (or maybe not as I suspect that its HDD isn't easily removable) is removing the hdd and placing it in another computer where the BIOS is more cooperative (disconnect all other hdds from it while doing this). Resetting passwords is just hacking a file without booting the Win7 in that disk, so it should run fine.
This won't fix the no-boot-from-CD-or-USB issues though.

The very very last thing I'd try to do is update the BIOS if possible without booting into win 7. If the BIOS was broken or buggy (the fact it does not boot from USB or CD could indicate that) this should fix it. Updating BIOS is pretty dangerous to do though, as if it goes wrong the machine is completely ruined (and someone has to desolder and replace a physical motherboard component to make it go again).

as a sidenote, there is some strong evidence that the BIOS may be crappy.
from their BIOS update utility I linked:

This utility updates the BIOS to resolve the following issues:
The computer intermittently does not charge the battery.
The computer may shutdown at random.
The computer may not resume from standby or hibernation
The computer may hang, freeze, (stop responding) or is unable to start Windows® after POST
Reduces fan noise
The computer may hang or freeze, (stop responding) during playback of a High Definition video while using battery power
The computer may display No Boot / No OS Found errors due to a failure in communication between the BIOS and the Hard Drive
Unable to login to the computer due to a critical battery message when starting Windows using battery power
Battery status shows as "Not present" when the battery is fully charged

I mean, did they code the BIOS overnight and forgot to test it before use? I could understand an e-machines or an Acer or some random foxconn, but an ultrabook with a BIOS like this? Really?

For anyone reading this in the future:

Alex999 repped post 5 saying

I looked back and used YUMI and it got the job done through ubunta.