cant log in. pin lost.

[farmer10]

cant log in. bought a laptop gave to my mother she put a pin on but passed away suddenly.

[itsmyname]

@farmer10 -- the Rules of Participation for this discussion forum do not allow any contributor to help you to bypass a password. 

Is your goal to access her personal files, or to use the computer for yourself?

If it is a 4-digit PIN, you have 10,000 combinations to try. At 10 seconds per try, that is 100,000 seconds.

Statistically speaking, on the average, you will succeed after 50,000 seconds --> almost 1000 minutes --> a long time.

Or, if you reinstall Windows, wiping-out everything currently on the disk-drive, you can "reset" the computer -- without needing to know the PIN.

If you remove the disk-drive, and insert a new disk-drive, you can install Windows onto the new disk-drive, thus "resetting" the computer -- without needing to know the PIN. It might be possible to copy her personal files from the old disk-drive. Maybe. Good luck.

[praveenbv]

Hi@farmer10

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

Request you to follow the below-troubleshooting steps Reset or forgot password t:-

 Once you forget or lost your Windows 10 PIN then you may have to log in to your Windows 10 machine with the Microsoft account password option as highlighted in the following picture. By default Windows 10 doesn’t provide you the following screen, you need to press on Sign-in Options to get this screen.

There is no option to retrieve the lost PIN via mail or something. The main reason for this is because Windows PIN is “so local”:) The only way is to reset the Windows 10 PIN is to set up a NEW pin. To reset the Windows Pin for Windows 10 machine, go to Setting –> Accounts –> Sign-in Options and click on I forgot my PIN.

Once you click on “I forgot my PIN”, the new page “Are you sure you forgot your PIN” will get opened and you need to click on continue button to proceed further. 

On the next page of Windows 10 reset PIN, it will ask to enter a Microsoft Account password to proceed further. This is just another layer of security before resetting the Windows 10 PIN for the machine. Enter the Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail, etc..) password and click on the Sign-in button.

You need to validate and verify your identity using a security code as you can see in the following screen capture. When accessing sensitive info from your account or device, or if Microsoft detects suspicious account activity, they may ask for a security code to verify your identity. If you sign in frequently on this device, Microsoft won’t ask you to verify after this. Click on the NEXT button to proceed to the next page of the Windows 10 reset PIN wizard.

Check the mail which you have entered in the above step (check the spam folder :)). Copy the security code from the mail and paste it as you can see in the following screen. Click the NEXT button !!

In the next screen “Set up a NEW PIN” – Create a PIN to use in place of passwords. Having a PIN makes it easier to sign in to your device, apps, and services. Enter your new PIN and remember it.

Keep me posted. Happy to help!

Please click “Accept as Solution” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.

[farmer10]

cant log in to new pc. was told to log in and get a new pin sent to email but cannot log in to do that

was also told to reinstall windows however cannot do that as the pc does not have a disk to do as i was told. 

looks like hp cant understand their own equiptment either?

would be good if can just reinstall and start again but the pc does not allow even that with no disk in new pc's

[itsmyname]

@farmer10 -- The Rules of Participation of this discussion forum do not allow contributors to "bypass a password".

But, if you physically remove the disk-drive from the computer, and connect it as a "secondary" disk-drive in some other computer, you might be able to copy the deceased's personal files. Maybe.

Or, are you willing to "abandon" those files? If you have access to another computer, see: Download Windows 10 (microsoft.com)

For free, you can download the 32-bit version (supports up to 4 GB of RAM) or the 64-bit version of Windows 10.

Have a blank DVD-recordable disk, or an empty 8 GB (or larger) USB memory-stick. 

Then, boot the computer from this media, and reinstall Windows 10, to get a "usable" computer.

[praveenbv]

Hi@farmer10,

I recommend you follow the below steps and check if it helps.

1. Turn off your HP laptop.
2. Disconnect all external devices (printers, USB drives, etc.) from your computer.
3. Remove all recently added internal hardware.
4. Press the Power button to switch your HP laptop on.
5. Once your unit starts booting, immediately press the F11 key. Repeatedly press it until you see the Choose an Option screen.
6. Select Troubleshoot.
7. Choose Reset this PC.
8. You can either opt to keep your files or to remove everything.
9. Select Keep My Files when you want to retain your data. Once you click Reset, your operating system will be reinstalled. The process may take a while.
10. Choose Remove Everything when you want to remove all your personal files.
11. You can opt to remove everything solely on the drive where your operating system is installed. On the other hand, you can click All Drives when you do not want to retain any data.
12. You can also fully clean the drive you selected or just remove your files.
13. Click Reset.

Hope this helps! Keep me posted.