MAR K PARVIN
What happens when your PC won’t let you in because you’ve forgotten the password? Regular guest columnist Mark shares some hard-won advice
What happens when your PC won’t let you in because you’ve forgotten the password? Regular guest columnist Mark shares some hard-won advice.
As technology changes, so does my work. Much of it’s the same, but the issues I see vary or mutate as the years roll by. The one area I seem to deal with more than ever these days is passwords. I often see customers who have the impressive ability to forget their details and lock themselves out of their online accounts. However, it now goes even further than that: password problems are seeping into nearly every part of my job.
A classic example of this came from Linda. She got in touch because her laptop was displaying the Black Screen of Death. BSOD – not to be confused with its blue cousin – nearly always happens while Windows is loading. Along with the black screen, it usually comes with a movable mouse pointer and very little else. There are many varieties of BSOD and a similar number of potential solutions to cure it. Linda’s version occurred after login and this offered me access to Windows Security via Ctrl+Alt+Delete. It made my life a little easier as I could attempt some fixes without messing about with
USB boot drives and their ilk.
The first thing I tried was a standard restart. It’s always worth a shot and I’ll explain why in more detail later. That didn’t work, so my next step was a System Restore. With the usual route unavailable, I had to access the Recovery Environment to use it. In these situations, getting there isn’t as straightforward as it should be: it requires the “around the houses” approach of entering Windows Security, clicking the power icon, and selecting Restart while holding down the Shift key.
After choosing System Restore, I hit a brick wall. Windows wanted Linda’s password, and I only had her PIN. I was still no further forward after a frantic exchange of texts: Linda didn’t know her password, so it was time for a reset. Unfortunately, she also didn’t know the email address used for this account. After a bit of digging, I found out it was a Tesco email. That was great, except Tesco closed its mail service a couple of years ago. With no mobile number registered with Microsoft either, her recovery options were now pretty much defunct.
As I had no way of rescuing the account, my next step was to remove it. My go-to program at times like this is PCUnlocker ( pcunlocker.com). Not only can I use the app to reset account passwords, but I can also change a Microsoft account to a local one. And I can do it all via a bootable memory stick.
Once I no longer had to worry about passwords, I completed the System Restore and the BSOD disappeared. I then updated to the latest Windows 10 to ensure the problem didn’t come back to bite me. As all continued to work without a hitch, I smugly retired to the smoking room for brandy and cigars.
Okay, so I don’t smoke or like brandy, and my work for Linda was not yet complete. Along with the laptop, she had also given me an iPad to look at. Someone in the family had reset it and it was now stuck on the activation lockscreen. I’m a great fan of the idea behind this lock as it prevents others from nicking and selling your iPad or iPhone. The problem is that few people are aware of it, or the hassle it can cause.
In Linda’s case, no one in the family knew the password or had access to the email address offered. It was an old, hardly used iPad, so these details had simply been forgotten. In these scenarios, I suggest two potential solutions. The first is to use the many software options on offer that supposedly jailbreak the device and allow you to remove the lock. Saying that, I’ve never tried them because I’m not comfortable doing so. As Lee recently mentioned ( see issue 317, p116), the legality of unlocking a customer’s device – by whatever means – is a grey area, and I have to be careful where I tread.
My second suggestion is much more straightforward: contact Apple and ask it to sort the problem. In the end, Linda did neither. The iPad had passed its sell-by date, so she was happy to retire it and buy another.
The Apple variant
My next encounter with Activation Lock came a couple of days later when Val rang me with a similar tale of woe. She had bought a secondhand iPad from eBay and used it mainly to store knitting patterns. For reasons unknown, she had reset it but couldn’t continue with the setup as
the Apple ID details needed weren’t hers. At this point, it’s easy to shout “stolen!” but there are many legitimate sellers on eBay departing with their old devices. Some of these sellers are unaware of the need to disable Find My iPad before resetting. Or, worse still, they don’t reset and just delete their personal data. If the new owner isn’t tech-savvy, they will use it as they find it – until a similar fate to Val’s befalls them.
To be fair to Val, she had done all she could. She had contacted the seller to see if he would part with his password. She had also contacted Apple, which was happy to help as long as she had the original proof of purchase. Her eBay receipt wasn’t enough; it had to be the one when bought from new. I don’t know if the seller had the proof or the password as Val hasn’t been back in touch. If she didn’t get them, I assume she would have gone the same route as Linda and bought another iPad – much to Apple’s delight.
Out of iTunes
Apart from the Activation Lock, there’s another call for help I often receive with Apple devices, and Mary was the latest to get in touch. Her iPhone 6 had gone for a swim in the toilet, with the usual unhappy results. One of her sons ordered a pre-owned iPhone 7 for her as a replacement and attempted to set it up. In a rush to get through the process, he had entered a six-digit passcode and promptly forgotten it. After many failed login attempts, the phone went into disabled mode, and he didn’t know what to do next.
If you’re unfamiliar with the process, the answer is to stick the device into recovery mode and then restore it via iTunes ( pcpro. link/321iphone ). The procedure is usually enough to put the average customer off doing it, and that’s why I get the call. Either that or they don’t own a computer. It seems that the demise of the PC, especially among the older generation, is happening rapidly. Still, that doesn’t surprise me: tablets and phones can now cover most home users’ computing needs.
With no computer at hand, Mary and her son had neither the ability nor the means to get it sorted. That turned out not to be a bad thing as I also struggled to get things working. While the restore started without a hitch on my PC, it eventually fell over with an unknown error. I tried another Windows computer, but it produced the same result. As I’m not a big fan of iTunes on Microsoft’s platform, the next step was to fire up my MacBook. This time it all went to plan and the restore completed. Read into that what you will, but I was just glad it worked. I finished the setup and Mary had a functioning phone once more. Oh, and I wrote the passcode down.
“In a rush, he had entered a six-digit passcode and promptly forgotten it”
Have you tried…
I’m a big fan of the sitcom The IT Crowd, and I always laugh whenever they answer the phone with the line: “Hello, IT, have you tried turning it off and on?” It’s funny because it’s so close to the truth: many IT issues are sorted by merely turning things off and back on again. This rule of thumb doesn’t quite sit true for Windows 10 or Windows 8 before it, though; solving problems on these operating systems requires a restart.
It’s the most common thing I do with a PC and is the best piece of advice I can offer anyone with a Windows 10 problem. If I had a pound for every time I’ve solved an issue over the phone by recommending a restart, I’d certainly be able to keep myself in beers.
So why a restart and not a shutdown? It’s all to do with Fast Start-up. In simple terms, this Windows feature keeps hold of information when shutting down, which means that it doesn’t need to go looking for it again at boot up.
The result is a faster startup, and it works well. The downside is that any problems often stay with the saved data, reappearing again when the computer comes back on. In contrast, a restart clears the decks and – hopefully – removes the issue.
Of course, it doesn’t always work, but it’s worth trying as a first resort. It’s also possible to disable Fast Startup by delving into the old Control Panel and looking under Power Options. I don’t bother as I believe its positives outweigh the negatives, and the quicker startup is worth having. As long as you remember to try a restart in times of trouble, you will always have a potentially quick and easy solution to countless Windows issues. mark@mittas.co.uk