Remove password

[alanh01]

I have a HP dc7700 cmt base unit with Windows 10. I have not used this computer in a long time. And now, I want to use it, but I forgot the system password. How do I get back into my computer to delete the system password? System BIOS 786E1 v01.15.

[DaveLembke]

If there is nothing important on the computer you can wipe the drive clean and perform a clean install and then set it up the way you want.

If there is important data you will need to boot the computer with a Live Linux distro on a USB stick or a DVD and use the Linux environment to copy important data off the hard drive to an external drive. Then perform clean install once the data has been backed up to an external drive.

[alanh01]

Forgive me for not understanding what BOINC STATS is. In laments term, what is it?

[DaveLembke]

BOINC is a project where you donate idle CPU time to various causes such as for solving complex projects that require lots of processing power or projects that have lots of data that need to be gone through in search for things such as cures for diseases, solutions to complex mathematics formula's that search for a needle in a hay stack answer that "might be out there" and shows a proof to a mathematical theory when dealing with extremely large numbers, as well as the one that I donate to which is mapping asteroids to determine if any of them are at risk of striking earth in the future and given their movement in space, trajectory, and gravitational tugging from planets and other larger asteroids a projection can be made into any that aren't suspended in the belt but have a motion that has them leaving the asteroid belt and hopefully the math adds up to them harmlessly drifting off into space and not an impact with earth.

Some friends of mine are donating their computers processor idle time to cures for cancer and other diseases. However, I decided the go with the asteroid project because I have worries that my help for a cure is just giving free processing power into the hands of the biggest of the drug companies who if there was a cure for cancer they wouldn't release one because there is not as much money in a cure as there is money in a drug that slows cancer or keeps it in check for as long as your on that drug, so they constantly have their hands in your pockets for money.

No Greedy Money can be really made from Asteroid data like there is in the medical field! So the medical field can afford their own server farms to run data against at a cost vs free is how I see it. And astronomers and others involved with asteroid data have tight budgets that cant really afford a server farm to get answers to collected data, so I donate to them.

More about it can be found at the links below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Open_Infrastructure_for_Network_Computing

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/

[BC_Programmer]

Forgive me for not understanding what BOINC STATS is. In laments term, what is it?

Also to clarify in case there is confusion, the boinc stats stuff is not part of what Dave posted (And isn't related to your question or the answer), but is part of his signature- it appears underneath all his posts. My signature is a silly phrase, for example- I didn't type it in when posting but have it set up in my forum profile in the same way.

[alanh01]

Thanks guys. Iv'e put in a new HD and re-loaded Windows 10. But it did nothing. The system password still showed up. The password has to be in the BIOS.

[BC_Programmer]

This CH article may apply.

[DaveLembke]

I have a HP dc7700 cmt base unit with Windows 10. I have not used this computer in a long time. And now, I want to use it, but I forgot the system password.

Odd to forget that a BIOS password was set.   


This happens usually when someone came across a computer that was once part of a corporate network or owned by someone else who didn't want the computer to be usable in the hands of others. Sometimes the BIOS splash screen will even give you a hint as to where the computer came from such as a guy I know bought a used for "parts only" laptop computer off of ebay cheap and it had the Nike logo on the BIOS splash screen with a BIOS password set.

One would hope that Nike decommissioned this new looking and otherwise healthy looking Core i5 laptop, but there was suspicion that it could have been a stolen laptop from a Nike employee that someone who stole it realized it was worthless without the password and so they unloaded it cheap on ebay.

Newer computers and some older ones aren't cleared as easily as a battery reset... Cant discuss the work around fixes for newer computers because while they exist, Computer Hope is not a website that allows sharing that sort of hardware hackery. The subject matter is about as risky to share information about as an automobile forum with someone stating they lost the key to their BMW and are looking for how to hot wire their own car to run.

As is in the case of this analogy of a BMW without keys to start it, both Auto Manufacturers as well as Computer Manufacturers provide services at a cost to being able to use your Car or Computer again when your able to prove the Car or Computer is legally yours to operate. 

Thanks guys. Iv'e put in a new HD and re-loaded Windows 10. But it did nothing.

Curious how your installing Windows 10 with a locked BIOS password? 

If a system has a BIOS password lock it will stop right at the BIOS password needing to be satisfied before it will allow you to do anything with it. Even bootable USB sticks and CD or DVD's are non functional to a BIOS password locked.

***You might find that the CMOS Battery is weak and prompting for a Password when none was ever set. The CMOS Battery should be 3 Volts or slightly greater. If it measures less than 3 VDC with a digital voltmeter/multimeter then replace it and see if the problem goes away.