Windows 10 won't accept password

[ChrisJ]

Hey guys,
This is my first time posting on the forum, glad I found it.

I'm trying to fix a laptop for my nephew and the thing is driving me up the wall.

The original complaint was that he couldn't sign into Windows. I tried a few times and then reset the password on MS's website. It still won't accept the new password and is connected to the net. I'm at a loss here because everything I've tried is blocked by the password. I can't recover, I can't even go into safe mode.


He plays a lot of games, and visits a lot of websites and I have no way of knowing what caused this, I just need to get it rectified. Or, worse case scenario pull the HDD out and attempt to save some of his stuff. I'm not even sure of Windows 10 will allow that on a password protected system?


What are my options? I've been running Windows 10 on multiple machines since it's preview days but never really had to do any troubleshooting. Now I'm flat out lost and out of ideas.

 

[Trouble]

The first thing you need to do is regain control of the computer.
You might be able to rescue your computer by enabling the normally hidden / disabled Administrator account and use that to possibly fix the password problem on your local user account.
You'll need to boot from the installation media. If you do not have the installation media on hand you can download the ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD, http://imgburn.com/
or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, http://rufus.akeo.ie/
either of which you can use to boot your computer.

THEN...
Follow the steps outlined here
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/
It takes a bit of effort but works reliably.
With that account enabled you can then attempt to address your user password issue or at least create another local user as a member of the local administrators group and transfer the contents of the problem profile over to the new user profile.

 

[ChrisJ]

The first thing you need to do is regain control of the computer.
You might be able to rescue your computer by enabling the normally hidden / disabled Administrator account and use that to possibly fix the password problem on your local user account.
You'll need to boot from the installation media. If you do not have the installation media on hand you can download the ISO from here
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
Once you have the ISO, you can use ImgBurn to burn it to a DVD, http://imgburn.com/
or Rufus to burn it to a USB ThumbDrive, http://rufus.akeo.ie/
either of which you can use to boot your computer.

THEN...
Follow the steps outlined here
http://pureinfotech.com/2015/11/20/how-reset-windows-10-forgotten-password-regain-access-computer/
It takes a bit of effort but works reliably.
With that account enabled you can then attempt to address your user password issue or at least create another local user as a member of the local administrators group and transfer the contents of the problem profile over to the new user profile.

Awesome, thank you so much.

I'm doing it as we speak. I'll let you know how it turns out.

 

[Lindbo]

Use the on-screen keyboard to type your new password. You can access it by clicking the Ease of Access icon and then select "On-screen Keyboard". This can avoid mistyping.

 

[ChrisJ]

No good,

Created the new account, went to sign in and got a blue screen (not BSOD) with the following error.

"The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded."

 

[ChrisJ]

Use the on-screen keyboard to type your new password. You can access it by clicking the Ease of Access icon and then select "On-screen Keyboard". This can avoid mistyping.

I just click the eye next to the password and read it to confirm it was typed properly.
This problem is way beyond that.

 

[Trouble]

No good,

Created the new account, went to sign in and got a blue screen (not BSOD) with the following error.

"The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded."

I'm confused.....
You got that when you used the link in my post above to enable the hidden administrators account?

 

[ChrisJ]

I'm confused.....
You got that when you used the link in my post above to enable the hidden administrators account?

After I made the account and tried to log in, yep.
It shows the account, but gives that error.

The good news is using your info I went back to the command prompt from the windows disc and am copying all of the stuff he wants to keep. Worse case, I'll do a clean install.

I'd love to know what happened though.

 

[Trouble]

After I made the account and tried to log in, yep.
It shows the account, but gives that error.

Sounds like there may be something else going on.
I assume by "After I made the account" means not while you were using the actual "Administrator" account.
Before you reinvent the wheel try using the hidden "Administrator" account again and when logged in with that account use an Administrative Command prompt to create a new user account as follows

Go to
C:\Windows\System32
Find
Cmd.exe (if you are hiding extensions of known types it might just say cmd only and not cmd.exe)
Right click it and choose run as administrator
At the admin command prompt type
net user JohnSmith /add
hit enter
then type
net localgroup administrators JohnSmith /add
hit enter
type
exit
hit enter
Restart and log in as JohnSmith

Obviously it doesn't have to be "JohnSmith". Any Tom, Dick or Sally should work fine (dealers choice).

See if that new user account displays the same error.

 

[Lindbo]

No good,

Created the new account, went to sign in and got a blue screen (not BSOD) with the following error.

"The User Profile Service service failed the sign-in. User profile cannot be loaded."

Please check out these tips:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...rofile-service-failed-the-logon-error-message

https://www.top-password.com/blog/t...iled-the-logon-user-profile-cannot-be-loaded/