General Question

Bigfish's avatar

My laptop is asking for a password in order to boot up. it has never done this before.

Asked by Bigfish (110points) February 17th, 2007
Help!!!!!!!! I just turned on my Toshiba laptop and the screen stayed black, and a blue box came up asking for a password. I have never set a password, nor have I ever had to enter a password. How do I get around this?
Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

7 Answers

ben's avatar
Just to be sure, make sure there are no disks or cds in it... that could be causing trouble.
ben (9085points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
ben's avatar
It also conceivably could be malware (like a virus), so I wouldn't type in any of your real passwords
ben (9085points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
ben's avatar
How quickly did the password window come up... did it feel more like the initial BIOS (hardware setup), or later, as part of Windows?
ben (9085points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
sarahsugs's avatar
This used to happen to me and I always just pushed "Ok" or "cancel" without entering any ID or password and the computer went ahead and booted up just like normal.
sarahsugs (2906points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
Bigfish's avatar
It is the BIOS password. I called Toshiba and they gave me a local tech that could reset it. Unfortunately they are clased until Tuesday. I took it to the Computer Geeks and they told me my motherboard was probably shot. Fortunately its still under warranty. I saw the link to the Bios PW Reset Key. Do you think this is worth doing?
Bigfish (110points)“Great Answer” (1points) Flag as…
ben's avatar
Yeah, I would give it a try... shouldn't be dangerous and might save you the trouble of tech support. There are a number of Toshiba-specific options at this page, which also has good info in general: http://www.tech-faq.com/reset-bios-password.shtml
ben (9085points)“Great Answer” (0points) Flag as…
Response moderated (Spam)

Answer this question

Login

or

Join

to answer.

This question is in the General Section. Responses must be helpful and on-topic.

Your answer will be saved while you login or join.

Have a question? Ask Fluther!

What do you know more about?
or
Knowledge Networking @ Fluther