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17-05-2017, 11:02 PM
11

Re: Locked out of PC

No .. he's intelligent alright.

It's the words of more than one syllabub that fox me.
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17-05-2017, 11:08 PM
12

Re: Locked out of PC

Yes, I know what you mean, I'm just the same.

Too late to educate meself now. I'd only forget before I got home again anyway.
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18-05-2017, 05:18 AM
13

Re: Locked out of PC

Originally Posted by Judd ->
I'll just give everyone a tip while I'm here. Create at least two accounts on your PC one of which should be a passworded Administrator account. This will set up a series of extra folders on your PC which are separate and inaccessible from the other account. Do not use this account until disaster strikes, you can then boot into the Admin account and run Anti-virus/malware from it or access the internet to download anti-hijack and root-kit software.
Good advice, Judd, I'll do that for her when I go across to sort it out. Then I'll come back and do mine!!
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18-05-2017, 09:19 AM
14

Re: Locked out of PC

I Hope that the problem is not just down to "Caps Lock" being on - or Numbers Lock!

Is this a laptop or a desktop?

Is there a recovery disk, or an installation disk, available?

Will it boot into safe mode? (see Judd's advice)

Is it getting as far as asking for the account password? Or, in the case of a laptop, is it stuck at the early boot up stage?
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18-05-2017, 11:34 AM
15

Re: Locked out of PC

This happened to me over a year ago. It seems frightening at first as if someone has taken over your PC, but it's very unlikely to be the case.

If you've checked that CAPS lock and NUM lock are ok then the other very common issue is that one of the keyboard keys is stuck down so is constantly sending a stream of that key to any program

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

etc

So, my advice is to place your hand palm down on the keyboard and vigorously rub it all over the keyboard.

Look for any key that isn't at the right height or that seems wobbly. Usually the user will have suffered the effects of such a dicky key for some time so they will know the prime suspect.

For me it was the backspace key I think. I had to whack it a few times to get it to return to normal position.
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18-05-2017, 04:04 PM
16

Re: Locked out of PC

Originally Posted by Judd ->
I'll just give everyone a tip while I'm here. Create at least two accounts on your PC one of which should be a passworded Administrator account. This will set up a series of extra folders on your PC which are separate and inaccessible from the other account. Do not use this account until disaster strikes, you can then boot into the Admin account and run Anti-virus/malware from it or access the internet to download anti-hijack and root-kit software.
Hi Judd

Do you mean create a partition? Is that possible without losing existing data?
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18-05-2017, 04:47 PM
17

Re: Locked out of PC

Originally Posted by Longdogs ->
Hi Judd

Do you mean create a partition? Is that possible without losing existing data?
Judd May be off line at the mo.

I'm sure he didn't mention doing anything with partitions.

I think he meant create a new user account and log in via that.
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18-05-2017, 05:26 PM
18

Re: Locked out of PC

Judd most certainly meant 2 USER ACCOUNTS.

You should ideally create a low level user account that does NOT have admin rights and that should be the account you use on a day to day basis. You should also have another user account that does have admin rights. This protects you from any virus or malware being able to do too much damage to your PC as whilever you are using the low level account, any virus doesn't have permissions to do anything like install programs, delete critical files and so on.

As it happens, everyone should also have at least 2 partitions on their PC. Most PCs come with just a C: Drive set up.

You should always create a new partition (a D: Drive, E: Drive etc) which is very easy to do. Once set up, that partition is where you should keep any personal documents and photos and other stuff. Leave the C: Drive purely for Windows and installed applications.

To create that extra partition/drive you will first have to shrink the size of the C: Drive to free up the space. The steps are easy and here's one link that explains it all.

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Partition
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18-05-2017, 07:00 PM
19

Re: Locked out of PC

What Realist said.
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19-05-2017, 06:09 PM
20

Re: Locked out of PC

Originally Posted by Tedc ->
I Hope that the problem is not just down to "Caps Lock" being on - or Numbers Lock!

Is this a laptop or a desktop?

Is there a recovery disk, or an installation disk, available?

Will it boot into safe mode? (see Judd's advice)

Is it getting as far as asking for the account password? Or, in the case of a laptop, is it stuck at the early boot up stage?
It is a desk top, Tedc, and she says there were no installation discs with it.

My own diagnosis (sight unseen) is that she must have accidently clicked on 'Lock' instead of 'Shut Down' last time she used it and has panicked this time and messed up her password/s. Not sure how many failed password attempts the beast will allow before it and it's owner go totally insane!

Am going across next week armed with Judd's good advice and a Hiren disc to use if all else fails - not confident about using Hiren though - prefer Judd's method and will try that first.
 
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