Startup Password

[ConnorBu]

My friend gave me her laptop to figure out what's wrong with it and when I try to boot it up it goes to the hp startup screen and it asks for a startup password. I have tried multiple times with no luck and she never set one up. How do I remove this password to access the laptop?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

If this is a power on password, at the password screen, hit enter 3 times and you should receive a 'halt code' - post back with this code.

Regards,

DP-K

[ConnorBu]

I'm able to power on. I set up a power on password myself and know what that is it's when it gets past that that I'm having trouble with.

[ConnorBu]

Would it help if I took a picture of it? Or can you not post pictures on he forum?

[DavidPK]

Hi,

A picture would be great.

Regards,

DP-K

[ConnorBu]

I'm having trouble uploading the pictures because it only allows 1 MB.

[ConnorBu]

Here is the first picture which is the administrator password that I set up and know the password to.

[ConnorBu]

This is the one that I am having problems with as displayed below.

[DavidPK]

Hi,

That's a SysKey prompt - it may have been activated if someone remote accessed your friends notebook as part of a scam.

The two main choices would be to simply reinstall the OS, or if Windows restore points were not deleted, you may be able to get passed this as follows.

First of all, use another PC to create a bootable Windows 10 DVD or USB Flash Drive via the following link.  Under the section 'Need to create a USB, DVD or ISO', download the Media Creation Tool.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Once you have this, run the tool, select 'Create installation media for another PC', then select the language, edition of Windows 10, and 64bit.

Follow the rest of the prompts to create this and then click Finish when completed.

Insert the Windows 10 Installation Media and Shutdown the notebook by holding down the power button for 10 seconds.

Tap away at the esc key as soon as you press the power button to enter the Start-up Menu and then select the Boot Options Menu ( f9 ).

Use the arrow keys to highlight the CDROM (uefi) or USB Flash Driver ( uefi ) option, depending on which type of media you created, then hit enter - if prompted to 'Press any key to continue....' - do so.

Boot to the Advanced Start-up Options Menu - see Option 5 on the link below for details on accessing this.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2294-advanced-startup-options-boot-windows-10-a.html#option5

Then try running Windows System Restore to return the notebook to a point in time before this issue first occurred ( I'd suggest picking a point that you now is well before the Syskey prompt was activated ) - See Option 1 on the link below for details on this procedure.

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/4588-system-restore-windows-10-a.html

Regards,

DP-K

[ConnorBu]

Is there any way to save the personal data on the laptop before doing this?