Suspected virus. Can’t login using previous password. Don’t have password reset disc.

[Amydyay]

Yesterday I made an online purchase and afterwards  my laptop was in operable. There was a black screen and then it was in the recovery mode. Sometime later I was able to get back on the laptop. Now there is a message that reads your pen is no longer available due to a change to the security settings on this device. I didn’t change any security settings on my laptop and now I can’t get in because I don’t know the password it looks like it went back to factory reset status but I can’t be sure. How do I get back into my laptop without knowing the password.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The only suggestion I can offer if you are willing to lose all data stored on the drive, would be to make a bootable USB recovery drive using the HP cloud recovery tool.

You will need access to another working Windows PC, and a 32 GB USB flash drive for this.

Here is an info link for how to use the utility...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c06162205

[Amydyay]

Thank you for that information. Is there not an easier way to factory reset? Something I can do now without several steps? I know nothing about computers. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

You can't factory reset the PC using the internal recovery program without knowing the password.

I suggest you find someone who can help you because the process I gave you, as long as you have the PC and 32 GB flash drive is pretty easy to do.