windows 7 can't boot in normal mode

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dragnandy

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 28, 2008
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198
I'm using an HP laptop that has a finger scanner, and I always use it to log into my account. I recently needed to go into safe mode, but forgot what f key to press (it's f8) . So, I went into msconfig and chose safe mode boot.

The problem here is that when I go into safe mode, the finger scanner does not work and I forgot my password. Is there a way to force it to boot in normal mode so I can use the finger scanner? I tried pressing f8, and going into normal mode, but I think because msconfig is set to safe mode, it always boots it into safe mode.

Without the finger scanner working, I cannot get into my account. Is there a way to force it to boot normally with the finger scanner working?
 
I don't know off the top of my head about changing the scheduled boot mode.
However you can boot from a live cd with various utils such as the Hiren CD. It has a Linux based offline NT password changer. You can let yourself in that way.
I skimmed the rules again and I truly hope this is not illegal ;)
 
hmm i think trying to bypass the user login/password is more work than I'm looking for.

I'm looking for a way to force it into normal windows mode. Thanks for your input though, i appreciate it!

Any other help?
 
If its an HP, with Windows 7, Press F11 on bootup, that should get you to System Recovery Options. You can do a system restore back to prior to your changes that enabled Safe Boot in msconfig.

That should get you back to where you were at to begin with. It won't resolve the fingerprint scanner issue you have, but its a start back to before you were booted to safe mode.

It should be in the first column of options for Microsoft System Restore. You don't want to choose System Recovery, thats HP's reinstallation of Windows, it'll nuke you.

disclaimer: I worked in HP Support, we seen plenty of fingerprint reader software / login issues. This was our recommended and used method in remote support
 
@stiltner, I just tried running the system restore. I really thought it would work and it was a great idea, but when I restore to some point back in November (way before any of this Safe boot in msconfig), it still did not work. After the restore finished, it says something along the lines of "system restore complete. no documents were affected". No documents were affected? That does not sound right after a system restore..It goes straight into safe boot mode, I feel like the system restore idea should work, but it isnt exactly restoring correctly.

edit: oh, i think the documents they are referring to are personal documents and files that aren't changed during a system restore.

@YeuEmMaiMai, I have no experience using ophcrack, but I will definitely give it a try!
 
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@hawk82 , is there a way to go into Windows RE (recovery environment) without the disc?
I'm have to look for it..
 
Boot with a linux live cd and you can edit the boot.ini
 
I'm not 100% sure but i read somewhere that you cant edit the boot.ini file in Windows 7. Apparently there is no boot.ini file?
 
You should be able to open msconfig while you are in safe mode then un-tick the "boot in safe mode" option then restart back in normal mode. Think that was the idea of your original question about forcing Windows to start in normal mode rather than safe mode. The boot files can be edited/repaired using system repair disk, a Windows DVD or probably the HP restore disks that you (hopefully) burned. Try resetting msconfig first and see if that works.

As you, I can never remember what button to push to get into safe mode so just set msconfig to get in then re-set it to get out.
 
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@tordogs, yeah i would go back into msconfig but the thing is that I can't log into my account without the finger scanner. And to get the fingerscanner to work I need to boot in normal mode.. =\
 
I have an HP laptop but not with finger scanner thing. So you're saying you can't do anything when it boots to safe mode without the scanner or your password? Is your BIOS password protected, too? You can try turning off the laptop and then restart and tap F10 to see if it will let you into the BIOS--there might be some settings to disable/reset the security/fingerprint scanner. Saw this video for an HP laptop that worked that way. Looks like maybe a ProBook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqyRmDI2Lk

What laptop do you have? Do you have the repair or recovery disks? Also, what OS? Windows 7 or 8? If you can't access safe mode or BIOS without a password you might have to end up re-installing Windows. If you didn't burn the recovery DVDs for your laptop I think they can be ordered from HP.
 
tordogs said:
I have an HP laptop but not with finger scanner thing. So you're saying you can't do anything when it boots to safe mode without the scanner or your password? Is your BIOS password protected, too? You can try turning off the laptop and then restart and tap F10 to see if it will let you into the BIOS--there might be some settings to disable/reset the security/fingerprint scanner. Saw this video for an HP laptop that worked that way. Looks like maybe a ProBook.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuqyRmDI2Lk

What laptop do you have? Do you have the repair or recovery disks? Also, what OS? Windows 7 or 8? If you can't access safe mode or BIOS without a password you might have to end up re-installing Windows. If you didn't burn the recovery DVDs for your laptop I think they can be ordered from HP.
Click to expand...

The OPs problem is not that the computer can't boot - he just forgot his password because he was using the retarded finger swipe thingy.
 
@b00nie, exactly!...that retarded finger swipe thingy.

but, I'm waiting on a windows 7 disc to try doing that "bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd" that hawk82 suggested. it seems like my best bet. And then if that doesn't work, I'll try Ophcrack

And just incase, I'm using a HP dm4-1160us
 
Another thing to try would be to boot into the recovery menu, hitting F8 right after BIOS screen, and selecting "Repair Your Computer". It will load into the Win PE environment. It may start off by doing an automatic repair. You can press Cancel on that, and see if you can get into the repair menu. I don't recall if it requires a password to do anything other than Automatic Repair, but try anyway. But if it does not ask for a password, then click on Command Prompt and run bootrec command above.
 
So I tried getting the command prompt up and running bootrec.exe and /RebuildBcd

but after it all completed, it said that the # of Windows versions found was 0, so I dont think bootrec saw the installed windows OS and fixed it. Is there something wrong here?
 
Been wondering how your quandry was working out. Not so good it sounds like. Seems either the Rebuild, etc. didn't work or you have begun to corrupt the Windows install. Hope that is not the case. Not certain of the reasons for rebuilding the boot files since nothing is broken--the computer boots--other than an attempt to restore it to a configuration before all this trouble started. The restore operation you tried before should have done that if it worked properly and was going to fix the problem.

Your original problem was not being able to boot out of safe mode back to normal mode so you could regain use of the finger-swiper-thing and forgetting the password also. Appears you have been able to access the command prompt from the Windows DVD. It is possible to turn off Safe Mode from the command line. This website has instructions (option 3, point 6). Looks do-able:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/69585-safe-mode.html


There are also command line instructions for resetting the password but it looks pretty hairy. Note "Forest Brook" post from Jan. 10th.--it is on the second page of the link:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...p/f0bfb7f5-aa07-457f-b2f1-8acb1a493f2d?page=2


By now I would probably have used one of the password recovery tools or one of the password reset tools. They seem probably the easiest thing. Even found YouTube videos on how to do it--funky music warning!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftWsCrc0p1M



Last resort is a complete reinstall if nothing else works but I'd try all other means first. Unless you have the HP recovery DVDs it isn't easy to get all the stuff back to make the laptop work properly. Keep us posted. I love a good detective/mystery story. Also found a post from some guy in April who was trying to clean up his wife's HP laptop, went into Safe Mode, disabled the finger-scanner and his wife had forgotten the password! Sound familiar? He had no replies to his questions.
 
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@tordogs, thank you so much! That method from sevenforums.com did exactly what i needed!

Whew i thought I wouldnt beable to fix this and had to end up restoring but thanks guys for all helping me out
 
Glad you were able to get out of the endless safe mode! I wasn't sure I understood the instructions in the sevenforums but was hoping you could figure it out. Now, did you reset your password and write it down in several locations! Or just disable the finger-swiper? Don't need to go here again. Great mystery story and happy ending. Any thanks should go to Shawn in the sevenforums.

Just a caution--have you burned the recovery DVDs for the laptop? Good to have them on hand in case you need them since they have all the HP drivers and software that make the machine work correctly. A beast to find them all should you need to reinstall Windows down the line. I found that out the hard way.
 
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I used HP's Windows 7 Repair image and i stuck it on a usb and booted it from there rather than CD. But it's all the same.

Now that I can finally access the account, first thing I'll do is reset the REMEMBER that password (lol!)
 
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