Windows login - must type same pwd three or more times before success?

Hi,
First post.

I have an issue lately logging in to my backup laptop. I have to repeat the password three times before I am able to successfully login. It is happening every time now, and I type it slowly and correctly each time. Is this some strange virus? It started happening about two months ago. I don't recall the fail message on the first two login attempts, but it's the usual password incorrect or unable to login or whatever.

I usually hibernate or shutdown this laptop, not sleep. Win7 - 64 bit - lenovo z575, several years old, used to be my main laptop, but now only a few times a week for a half hour or less typically. Everything seems normal after that.

Is this a virus? Why is this happening? I thought it might be a keyboard key issue, but I am not sure. Because the laptop overheats easily now, I use an elevated laptop cooler stand typically when using, so I thought the angle might have something to do with keys not reading perhaps.

Note - I am not fully windows updated. When Win10 came out, I held out to avoid telemetry, and followed advice found on askwoody.com to do so, and chose only windows updates that seemed not to cause people on that website a lot of hassle, plus were private. The point in mentioning this is that I am not fully updated partly because of that, partly because the laptop is now slow, and partly because I just didn't get around to getting updates probably for the last probably seven months or so. I bought a new laptop and use it as my primary.

Megahertz07 said:

As you don't use the laptop very often, it maybe that the keys are dirt and have bouncing.
Open a text editor (notepad) and type your password the same way you do on the login screen. Repeat several times. See if it doesn't repeat or miss any character.

My I suggest you to update your computer using Simplix. It installs all updates but the tracking ones.
Read post #1 and 10 MS releases SP2 for Windows 7

I am sorry for the late reply, but thank you. I feel a bit dumb for not having thought of the editor first. If it is dirt, I would think it would be more intermittent than the pattern i see just at the login. I don't do much but surf lately with that one, so I may not have spotted it typing URLs and search terms compared to editing some document. I will try it.


Thanks for the Simplix suggestion too. That sounds great.

Megahertz07 said:

As you don't use the laptop very often, it maybe that the keys are dirt and have bouncing.
Open a text editor (notepad) and type your password the same way you do on the login screen. Repeat several times. See if it doesn't repeat or miss any character.

My I suggest you to update your computer using Simplix. It installs all updates but the tracking ones.
Read post #1 and 10 MS releases SP2 for Windows 7

Paul Black said:

Hi jeshme,

Welcome to SevenForums!



[1] There are two ways to get WU [Windows Update] current. The first is using DISM++ and the second is using SIMPLIX. Both these exclude any telemetry etc. If you want more information then please let us know!

[2] To give your laptop a bit of a clean you could use the following ...

Disk Cleanup - Extended

I recommend that you run my Disk Cleanup : Extended => Disk Cleanup : Extended.

Check the appropriate boxes for the items you want cleaned and press [OK].

There are also FREEWARE programs that can clean up your laptop as well. If you want more information then please let us know!

I hope this helps!

Thanks for the welcome and sorry for the late reply. I wish I was more timely to you both since I read it the next day after your posts but hadn't logged in yet and got distracted.


Re SIMPLIX and DISM++...I would like more info please, in case it's not easy to figure it out on my own. If Disk Cleanup : Extended is free, I will give that a shot. If not, or if you prefer another, what Freeware would you suggest?


Thank you.

So I tried typing the password in Notepad, and it came up fine. Are the suggestions re Simplix, DISM++ separate suggestions or are you thinking they would fix the original login issue I mentioned?


Yesterday I tried typing six times before I finally got in, so I guess there is no particular pattern with just three, though that seems to be usual number.


Once logged in, I also tried to change my account (it's an administrator user account) password, to a new and retyped new password that used different keys than the old one, but 10 or so attempts kept leading to the same incorrect password (meaning the old one) message. Perhaps the same exact thing happened there as in the login, except I never succeeded there, unlike logging in eventually.


Does this behavior seems supsicious, virus-y? If it is just a keyboard key with dirt or some other flaw, seems odd that I can't reproduce it in notepad, meaning all the typing appears to be fine.

Jeshme
A long time ago my friend came with his wife laptop to find out why she couldn't log in.
It wasn't the wrong password. The message said it couldn't find the profile. Some file with the password got corrupted.
Long story Short, I had to boot from a Linux flash disk, made some modifications on Windows, log in as built in Administrator, create a new profile, move all data to the new profile and delete the old one.

Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts and remove the password.
Reboot
Open Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\User Accounts and create a password (can be the same).