Dementia, so password forgotten, most attempts to repair failed.

Trapper · 07 Dec 2016

Megahertz07 said:

lets do another approach:
lets activate the administrator account. Type:
net user administrator /active:yes

Reboot and you will see the administrator icon to log in. Log in (no password required)
Go to control panel - Accounts and delete your brother log in password.

When you finish, reboot and see if you can log in as your brother account.
If successful, open a command prompt as administrator and type:
net user administrator /active:no

Sir, you deserve all the praise you get

Using above I have at last accessed his PC !!!!

My most humble thanks. I would never have done this without your help.
But; I can either carry on here or start a new thread as I cannot boot from his HDD.
As said earlier in this thread at some point when trying to boot from the HDD the Boot Manager was reported as missing, so all boot ups after that were completed using his original installation disc with only that boot option selected in the BIOS.

Now I have tried to use his System Repair Disc but that was reported as either incorrect or corrupted, or something similar. I dug out my W7 64bit System Repair Disc, and that booted straight to his desktop, which it seems, according to the boot repair tutorials should have booted to various repair and startup repair programs.
I also tried using the HDD as boot 1 and the CD drive as boot 2, never got to option 2 as it stuck on Boot Manager is missing.

The W7 Troubleshooter has no options for boot up repair.
The HDD will not boot
The System Repair Disc does not give any repair options but goes straight to booting to desktop.

I did see a tutorial using the CMD prompt, is this the best route I should be looking at? If so, that is why I have not as yet finished your instructions as indicated in BOLD text.

Another 2 steps forward and followed by another 1 step backward.

Barman58 · 07 Dec 2016

whilst booting, from the disk you got to load, but before you see the windows logo, tap F8 repeatedly, about once a second is normally about right.

This should bring up the advanced options screen, choose repair and start-up repair, and let this run, it's best to repeat this up to 3 or 4 times as each run can then repair more than the previous

If this fails then you may be able to do a repair install Repair Install

Any issues with this next stage can be posted here or in a new thread as you choose, also if you go the repair install route then you can also post a question on the tutorial thread itself :)

Trapper · 07 Dec 2016

I have connected the PC to our internet connection, now W7 is updating itself and it seems there is a lot of updating going on, so I will leave it to its own devices for a while.

The F8 button could prove a problem, the keyboard (USB) plugged into the MB rear connectors seems to lose connection during the start up. As mentioned I am using a W7 Disc to boot.
In the startup when it says: 'Press any key to load from CD', the keyboard remains dead, luckily the start up continues anyway. The keyboard remains dead until the login screen appears. I have tried the Num Lock & Caps Lock buttons to see if there are any lights showing to denote the keyboard is functioning during the load, but nothing until the login screen.

Trapper · 07 Dec 2016

No go with F8, keyboard just does not work for the short period of time needed to press the button.

Megahertz07 · 07 Dec 2016

See if the keyboard is connected to the usb at the rear near the PS2 (green / purple) connector.
You're not booting from the disk. I guess that you have an installation disk on the case and the boot order (on BIOS) is set to CD/DVD first an HDD second.
Enter bios and set HDD as first and / or remove the dDVD from the case.

Barman58 · 07 Dec 2016

If you can get into the bios, (difficult if the keyboard is not working), look for a setting called "Legacy USB support" and make sure this is "on" or "Enabled". this should then allow use of USB keyboard at all stages of the Boot sequence and allow the use of F8 to get to the repair options - Also try other keys such as F10, F11, F12 as these are sometimes programmed also

Trapper · 08 Dec 2016

I can access the BIOS with the keyboard and have set 1st boot to HDD, but Boot stops at
'BOOTMGR is missing'
'Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart'

During the boot, and until the message above appears, the keyboard seems to remain active as during the boot and quickly pressing the keyboard buttons I have got the Num Lock or Scroll Lock keyboard LED to light, but as soon as I press Ctrl the led lights stop working and the keyboard is non responsive, so I am then stuck.

I have been through all the pages of the Award BIOS looking for any reference to Legacy USB or any reference to USB - on/off/enabled/disabled and did not find one. I did not open the load defaults pages.

The only way to access the PC is with either the original DVD or my Repair disc but I cannot get the Repair disc to the option to actually do a Repair, a little frustrating, I can see BOOTMGR on the disc but I need it on the HDD.

AddRAM · 08 Dec 2016

'BOOTMGR is missing'

Hmmm, can you see the hard drive connected in the bios ???

What do you mean the keyboard looses connection ? Is it connected to a black usb port ? You have to fix that issue right now.

If you can indeed get into the bios then go ahead and set it to defaults, believe me it can`t hurt.

Trapper · 08 Dec 2016

I can access the BIOS with the keyboard and have set 1st boot to HDD, but Boot stops at
'BOOTMGR is missing'
'Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart'

Hmmm, can you see the hard drive connected in the bios ???

Me: Well it is listed in the drive section of the BIOS and I have selected this drive and saved with F10.

What do you mean the keyboard looses connection ? Is it connected to a black USB port ? You have to fix that issue right now.

Me:It is Physically connected to the M/Bd to the USB connectors, not on a hub or anywhere else. But as stated at a certain point in the HDD boot:
'the keyboard seems to remain active as during the HDD boot and by quickly pressing the keyboard buttons I have got the Num Lock or Scroll Lock keyboard LED to light, but as soon as I press Ctrl, as in Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart, the led lights for Num Lock and Scroll Lock stop working and the keyboard is then non responsive.

Just when the boot screen asks to press the Ctrl+Alt+Del button the keyboard does not work, like the PC/Boot/Power option controlling the keyboard has been turned off, so I cannot restart the HDD boot procedure. The keyboard becomes active again -when started from a disc- at the point just before the W7 'Welcome' screen appears.

So, the keyboard works in BIOS.
Once the HDD Boot procedure starts, the keyboard does not respond at the point where it reports the BOOTMGR is missing. Before that point I can see LED lights, after that point they go out.

When Booting from a DISC at the point where it states 'Press any key to boot from CD' again the Keyboard does not respond UNTIL just before the W7 Welcome screen appears. Luckily at the point where it states 'Press any key to boot from CD' it does this automatically with no input from me.

Thanks for staying with me on this, very much appreciated.

Trapper · 08 Dec 2016

Well, I'm not sure what's going on here but, fingers crossed, the problem seems to be corrected

This afternoon, no matter what I tried only the disc would allow the PC to boot. HDD didn't want to play at all. Then I tried loading the failsafe BIOS, started up with disc and neither the USB Mouse or Keyboard would work at all. Good job I do not have a cat!
Hit the on button then hit Del so I could get at the BIOS, succeeded on the 6th attempt and loaded the 'Optimized BIOS' this booted to login and mouse and keyboard were again working. :)

Shut down and unplugged and left for 10 min. Started up and removed the Disc, got back into the BIOS and made the HDD 1st boot and SATA CD 2nd boot. Saved and exited, fully expecting the BOOTMGR message to appear, it didn't, it booted to the login screen, but took a lot longer than before, when I get to the desktop the icons were all on the left and the shortcuts on the tool bar were missing. I rearranged the desktop icons and noticed the tool bar shortcuts were back. Took a few minutes though.

Looks like I just need to reverse the Utilman and CMD changes I made to make it back to standard.

I will give it a day or so to make sure its all working fine and then mark it as solved.

Gentlemen, my grateful thanks to you all who have enabled me to get his PC up and running.