Need admin password for Vista / bluescreen problems

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 9:59 pm

Does Windows Vista comes with a built in default administrator user?

I'm trying to get a friends Vista based Fujitsu-Siemens up and running - it blue screens a few minutes after boot. It's at least two different errors, which appear in random order.

It runs fine in protected mode, and I'd like to run a chkdsk + defrag for a start, but this requires, da da, admin rights. And he dont know the password....

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tehfire · Post by **tehfire** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:46 pm

By default, Vista has an Administrator account, but it is disabled. This means that in order to use it, it must be enabled either using the Users snap-in or from the command console.

Though IIRC, whenever booting into safe mode, any account that has admin rights opens things by default in elevated mode. Could you elaborate on the problem?

Michael Sandstrom · Post by **Michael Sandstrom** » Fri Sep 11, 2009 10:52 pm

I have had succes cracking Vista passwords using the free Ophcrack Live for Vista CD. The program uses rainbow tables to quickly reveal all alpha-numeric passwords of 14 characters or less. You simply download the ISO and burn to disk.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 8:21 am

I'll elaboeate later, hopefully tommorrow

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:03 pm

What does IIRC mean? If I ReCall? And what do you men by "elevated mode"?

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:27 pm

About the problem:

3-4 weeks ago, this machine started having problems with connecting to the wired LAN. It took very long time before it connected. It got more and more worse, and it started bluescreening some minutes after boot up.

Now it wotn connect to the LAN at all, and it consequently blue screen after some minutes. Max. 10 min., manybe even shorter.

When it boot, it's obvious it's working with something on the HDD, untill it bluescreens.

When it bluescreen, it'll restart a few seconds later, and I havent been able to write down the codes before it shots down. But I'm sure there's at least two different kinds of bluescreens, one is about the displaydriver.

I've tried disabling as much as possible of the programs etc., which start automatically. Didnt make a difference.

I've also tried disabling the built in LAN in the BIOS, didnt help.

When started in safe mode, it works fine.

Nothing have been installed by the user, neither hardware or software, when the problems started.

The good thing is it dont contain important data, so I tend to simply format the drive and install it over. But sadly, they dont got a Vista media, nor a productcode.

So I would like to try a chkdsk + defrag, maybe it could make things better. And create a new swap-file + cleaning up all the temp files etc. But when I try stuff like that, it asks for a password, which they dont know...

To me it seems like a blind road, and I hope some of you guys have suggestions. That Ophcrack Live for Vista CD sounds like the best option.

But if those bluescreen errors can be found in a log-file somewhere, it'd probably be the right place to start

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 12:38 pm

A little google, gave this:

"HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\CrashControl" /v AutoReboot

I'll try disabling the autoreboot, and find out what those codes are

nova · Post by **nova** » Sat Sep 12, 2009 3:38 pm

To temporarily disable automatic restart on blue screen you can press f8 at startup and select disable automatic restart.

Regarding the password, I've always used NT Password by P Nordahl available here http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/cd080802.zip

With that program you can clear passwords and enable accounts (admin account is disabled by default in vista) be aware that if you clear the password for an account, it does remove saved passwords for that user, for example in ie or outlook and so on.

It's very easy to use and I've used it lots of times at work when clients don't have passwords.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:35 am

Super, thanks.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:04 pm

Okay, I've had some progress:

The blue screen codes, come sin two flavours, and one is definately dominating, the other apperas like 1 out of 10 times...

The dominant one: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/137539

Because the above lean toward a hardware failure, I've ran a BIOS-mem test, no problems occured.

I've also removed the LAN- and VGA-drivers, and reinstalled the Fujitsu Siemens drivers. No change.

I've checked the BIOS for overclocking, and it seems it's not even possible to OC.

The system had two antivirus systems, and I've removed one. The other cant be removed, because it requires non-safe-mode, and it still bluescreens at normal start up.

I've noticed a ton of errors in the eventlog, and a lot of them is about the user database is corrupted due to abnormal shutdown.

I've found out that one of the users got admin rights, and I can log on with this user. But when I try defra or chkdsk, the programs simply dont start.

I dont want to spend much more time on this - so my last try will probably reinstalling Vista - the machine have the product key on a label

I've installed XP a lot of times, but never tried Vista - how long do that take compared to XP?

And now the main question: Do you believe this is a hardware failure? Because if it is, I dont want to spend time on a reinstall...

Persoanally, I got a feeling this OS is so screwed up, that it gotta be software... But it's just a feeling, I dont have prove of SW nor HW...

Thanks for reading

Trav1s · Post by **Trav1s** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 12:31 pm

Have you tired booting off a Linux LiveCD (I use Ubuntu)? If it will run without glitch that would lead me to be a problem with the OS.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 10:58 pm

Never tried Linux.... But you reminded me that I got a XP boot CD

Need admin password for Vista / bluescreen problems

Need admin password for Vista / bluescreen problems

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