Issue
A while back I bought a Dell Optiplex 210L on ebay. It's been great till recently when the system crashed and it will not boot. I tried to use thr XP recovery console but it wants an admin password which I do not have. Is there any way to access the recovery console with out the password? I see that there are fixes to this if you have access to the computer, which of course I do not.
Solution
This problem can be solved! Please follow these instructions below:
- Reboot your machine.
- Press F8 before the Windows boot screen appears.
- Do not press F5 as used on the NT/9x series of Windows.
- You will be be prompted with a boot options menu.
- Select the Start Windows in Safe Mode option.
- Click through several self-explanatory screens until your reach the familiar 'Welcome' screen.
Note that this welcome screen is limited to 256 colors and 640x480 resolution because the primary graphics will have been set to the Windows Safe Mode software VGA adapter. You will not be able to change this mode even in Display options, while Windows is running in Safe Mode.
Find the icon for the Administrator user. If the default settings of your system haven't been changed, there should be no password for this account.
The Safe Mode Welcome screen might display some of the other users on your system.
- Login as the admin.
- Press Yes at the prompt asking if you would like to continue using Safe Mode.
- Continue on to the User Settings control panel. Here you can change any of the other passwords for user on the machine. Make any changes you want.
- Reboot your computer. As long as you don't press any keys (i.e. F8) during the boot-up the computer will startup normally.
- Login as the user for which you set the password.
Note
Thanks to Computer wiz for this tip on the forum
Can't access xp recovery console administrator password