XP- Com ports

[thedecentmale]

XP is BAAAADDDD !!!
2 Weird problems with windows XP --

1. NO .. absolutely none ! of the COM ports are listed in Device manager ... not even in safe mode !! Heeellllpppp !!!!

2. Recovery Console asks for a password which is not there .. spookey ????

Reply fast... !!!!!!

[Big Booger]

first thing
com ports

open device manager
click view
click show all hidden devices.

That might work, then again it might not.


Second thing.
The recovery console password is your adminstrator password, AFAIK.

Welcome to TZ.

BB

[thedecentmale]

thanks for the prompt reply...
Well... the COM ports part I will try as soon as I get my hands back on my machine... but as far as recovery console is concerned.. i never had a password for admin... my friend had a similar problem a week back and he had a password for admin which he tried... and which (as expected frm MS) did not work... he had to format and resinstall .. i have 30 gigs of info on this baby which I cant give up !!!

[Big Booger]

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7822

could try that.

Also, why are you needing to access the recovery console? Care to share, we might be able to help.
BB

[thedecentmale]

to run chkdsk/r ... problem with XP hives... thought this might help...

[Big Booger]

I like using run, type scandisk /now

Make sure you have your XP CD. Fixes alot of common problems with your XP installation.
BB

[thedecentmale]

i wish ( sigh !!!! ) i was as lucky.... cant get the darn thing up .. safe mode does not ring a bell and LKGC is a big NO-No... in short been there... tried that... last resort was recovery console before repair-reinstall or ... worse still... :( Format and Reinstall

[Big Booger]

good luck.
BB

[egghead]

hello,

you should try this if your running out of options

Forgot your NT admin password?
Reinstall? Oh no... But not any more...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



This is a utility to (re)set the password of any user that has a valid (local) account on your NT system, by modifying the crypted password in the registrys SAM file.
You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.
It works offline, that is, you have to shutdown your computer and boot off a floppydisk or CD. The bootdisk includes stuff to access NTFS partitions and scripts to glue the whole thing together.
Works with syskey (no need to turn it off, but you can if you have lost the key)
Will detect and offer to unlock locked or disabled out user accounts!

Your best bet is just to download a windows2000 boot disk and you will be able to fix whatever problems you are having
www.bootdisk.com


egghead




http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

[Reverend]

When the recovery asks for a password,have you tried leaving it blank and hitting enter ?

There's an MS knowledge base article which may help.Q308402 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q308402)

[thedecentmale]

Hi... major problems with some of my clients. Using Dell Inspiron Series... No COM ports listed under device manager... looked under safe mode and LKGC .. no go... Tried viewing hidden devices and devices by connection... still not able to view the com ports... not even 1 of them... tried to attach a mouse to the laptop but it is asking a port to be assigned to it... other than adding a new COM port ... is there any other way of solving it ?

[Big Booger]

Check to see if they are listed in the BIOS. You might try setting the BIOS settings back to default.

You might have great success with resetting the BIOS to defaults.

try that and let me know how it goes.

BB

[Dehcbad25]

I just checked in my systems and I can see COM1 and COM2. Not sure why you wouldn't be able to see them.
I have some Dell in the network, but all of them run 2K
About the passwords, if you didn't set them is blank by default, so just hit enter (I encounter that before)

[thedecentmale]

Well.. Checked with BIOS defaults... did not work.. however a friend of mine suggested something else which did.. he told me to just add COM ports manually using Add New HW Wizard.. well.. all's well that ends well..

About the other problem.. well that problem still exists.. but since time was running out all I did was to reformat all those systems... it seems that problem happened as they were factory installed images from Dell.. so probably those people have put in a password.. Thanks to all you people for your help... I have another question which I will post in a new thread !!!

[Stripe]

worse comes to worse...

before you reformat...

Change you boot to boot to cd...insert XP cd...XP Install will start and ask you if you want to reinstall. You can reinstall XP clean without having to reformat.

Problem: Gotta reinstall all your programs again...