Cannot input admin password into UAC pop-up

[jonnyD]

My daughter has a laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium OS. If we try to download a program or even change a setting where there is the UAC shield icon, a pop-up says:

Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to your computer?
To continue, type an administrator password, and then click yes

There is nowhere to type a password, and the "YES" button is greyed out, leaving only the "NO" button - which of course does not allow a chnage to be made. How do I get access to make changes?

 

[Maguscreed]

It sounds as if her user account is limited on the machine.
Have you tried creating a new user account with admin rights, and seeing if the problem persist?
It's hard to say with a prebuilt sometimes security software they add at the point of sale can cause weird problem like this.
The easiest check I can think of is to try creating the new account to verify it's not just a setting gone wrong with the user account in question.

 

[jonnyD]

I can't make any changes to the user accounts because the same pop-up appears.

 

[Maguscreed]

So you are basically locked out of admin on your machine?

 

[jonnyD]

I guess that's what it means. But why would it ask for an admin password to proceed, and then not allow me to type one in?

 

[Borg 386]

It's possible that your daughter may have inadvertently changed something in the settings.

There's always the possibility that you have a virus/malware, although I would tend to think it would do more then just disable the admin pasword.

Have a look at these links, they may help remedy the problem :

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/56864-user-account-password-change-winre.html

12 ways how to reset the Windows administrator password – Windows 7, Vista, Windows XP

http://4sysops.com/archives/three-ways-to-reset-a-windows-vista-admin-password/

 

[jonnyD]

I see that most of the soultions for a lost admin password requires a Windows 7 disc. This laptop (Acer Aspire 5532) came pre-installed with Windows 7 Home Premium. I do not have a disc. I have a vague recollection of getting help for something from a helpdesk person before the warranty expired and that's when I learned that there's a hidden compartment on the hard drive where repairs etc are done from. Is there a way to reset the system with this?

And once again, it's not so much that there is a lost Admin password, I'm not even allowed access to put a password in at all, even if I knew one.

 

[Maguscreed]

Yes, it sounds as if the original admin account was deleted.

 

[jonnyD]

That beig the case, what is my recourse here?

 

[Maguscreed]

hmm if I knew more about the exact installation they used when win 7 was installed we might have been able to work something out.
Since I have no idea what oem/retail package was used I don't know what the key you have will activate.

 

[Borg 386]

Probably your best bet would be to do a Google search or to go to the Acer site and look around there. Generally it's the F2 key...but I would double check that.

I did manage to find this for you

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5532

 

[jonnyD]

I'm not suere what you're saying, am I totally up the river without a paddle here? Isn't there some internal diagnostic or something to let me know what's installed on the laptop? I'm not a computer wizard, unfortunately.

 

[Borg 386]

When you look at the contents of your Hard Drive, is there a recovery partition installed?

To find out, click the start, in the search box type in "Manage", click on "Computer Management", then click on "Disk Management". You will see your HD listed and if there is a section that says "Recovery Partition" or something similar, then you have the option to reset it back to factory default settings.

What the procedure is to access and initiate that is what you need to find out. This setting is usually accessed by pushing one of the F keys while you boot up. Here is the link to download the User Guide, which should give you that information:

Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 5532

Before you do this, back up any important/personal files since this will erase all your files and reset it to the way it was when you got it out of the box.

Make sure these files are backed up on either an external hard drive or on a CD, not on your present hard drive, the one you will be restoring to factory presets

 

[jonnyD]

I downloaded the user guide and went to the Acer Recovery Management. Since I don't have Admin rights, I can't do squat. It seems anything that's going to make changes in the system of any kind is going to be pre-empted by the pop-up I've been getting.

 

[jonnyD]

Based on help I got in another forum, I booted up in safe mode. When I did so, I had a choice of logging on as an Administrator account or a user account. I logged on in the Admin account (it was password protected and I know the password). I was then able to turn off the UAC pop-up and, voila, no more problem.

My question, which was never answered to my satisfaction, still exists: why, especially if I know the correct Admin password, was I not able to even type in the password when the UAC pop-up appeared? My understanding is that the pop-up is looking for the Admin password to allow the action to take place if I should so desire, and yet the field where the password should be able to be typed didn't allow anything to be typed there. And since I was able to log into the Admin account in Safe Mode, it was not a function of the Admin password being co-opted, lost or changed in any way.

 

[Maguscreed]

This is incredibly odd behavior to be honest I'm glad it was such a simple solution but...
It indicates that the admin account has not in fact been removed...
I still think there is an issue with the admin account on that machine.
If this gets you through I guess we'll settle though since you don't have a installation disc.

 

[Borg 386]

Glad you got it sorted.

Yes I did see that solution offered at some sites, but from what you'd written I was under the assumption the admin account had been deleted.

I agree with Maguscreed, that is odd behavior and it merits further investigation into how it got that way.