I have a very serious problem. I have two computers on my wireless network. One is a three-year-old Dell Dimension E510 with Windows XP Media Edition. The second is a nine-month-old HP Pavillion dv6700 laptop with Vista Home Edition.
I keep security tight on both computers, running Norton’s System Works and Internet Security Suite at all times. In addition, I run A-Squared Free (anti-spyware), C-Cleaner (registry and temporary file cleaner), and Ad-Aware (anti malicious software) once per week.
My 10-year-old son and I both use the Dell as a gaming computer, and the wife and I use the HP for web surfing. My son downloads a lot of games onto the Dell while I download files for CFS2 onto the laptop. I often collect and modify these files before transferring them to the Dell.
The problem started a week ago when I was working with my files on the laptop. I tried to connect to the Dell to transfer files and it did not show up on my list of network places. At this point, the Dell was turned on and was working fine.
Now, we have never used a password to log onto windows on the Dell and have always used a single account. But, when I began investigating my network connectivity problem on the Dell I found that my son had started a new account in the name of our pet cat. I reprimanded my son for starting the account and then deleted it. I restarted the computer and was surprised to find out that I had to press a button (administrator’s account) in order for Windows to continue to load. I DID NOT have to give a password, just press the button associated with the administrator’s account. I was surprised because we never had to do anything previously besides just waiting for it to load.
I thought this might have something to do with my connectivity problem. Maybe my son had inadvertently locked me out when he set up the new account. So I started looking around on the Dell. I do not think I changed anything else until I opened up Norton System Works/Optimize your PC/System optimizer. I am not positively sure what I changed, but I think I ticked or unticked something under system & security/log-on settings. Maybe I also changed something that had to do with using the classic log-on screen. The next thing I did was restart the computer. Before Windows would load, a screen popped up that looked like the log-on screen on my old Windows 2000 operating system asking me for a user name and password. I did not think this would be a problem. Since no password had ever been created for this computer I simply left them blank and clicked OK. It did not work. My son is very bright. He says he did not set up a password for the computer and I believe him. Sadly, I am locked out of my Dell and have no idea how to get in. Certainly, if my ten-year-old, raised on technology son can’t get in, I know I’m gonna need some serious help.
Please help or point me to someone who can!
I keep security tight on both computers, running Norton’s System Works and Internet Security Suite at all times. In addition, I run A-Squared Free (anti-spyware), C-Cleaner (registry and temporary file cleaner), and Ad-Aware (anti malicious software) once per week.
My 10-year-old son and I both use the Dell as a gaming computer, and the wife and I use the HP for web surfing. My son downloads a lot of games onto the Dell while I download files for CFS2 onto the laptop. I often collect and modify these files before transferring them to the Dell.
The problem started a week ago when I was working with my files on the laptop. I tried to connect to the Dell to transfer files and it did not show up on my list of network places. At this point, the Dell was turned on and was working fine.
Now, we have never used a password to log onto windows on the Dell and have always used a single account. But, when I began investigating my network connectivity problem on the Dell I found that my son had started a new account in the name of our pet cat. I reprimanded my son for starting the account and then deleted it. I restarted the computer and was surprised to find out that I had to press a button (administrator’s account) in order for Windows to continue to load. I DID NOT have to give a password, just press the button associated with the administrator’s account. I was surprised because we never had to do anything previously besides just waiting for it to load.
I thought this might have something to do with my connectivity problem. Maybe my son had inadvertently locked me out when he set up the new account. So I started looking around on the Dell. I do not think I changed anything else until I opened up Norton System Works/Optimize your PC/System optimizer. I am not positively sure what I changed, but I think I ticked or unticked something under system & security/log-on settings. Maybe I also changed something that had to do with using the classic log-on screen. The next thing I did was restart the computer. Before Windows would load, a screen popped up that looked like the log-on screen on my old Windows 2000 operating system asking me for a user name and password. I did not think this would be a problem. Since no password had ever been created for this computer I simply left them blank and clicked OK. It did not work. My son is very bright. He says he did not set up a password for the computer and I believe him. Sadly, I am locked out of my Dell and have no idea how to get in. Certainly, if my ten-year-old, raised on technology son can’t get in, I know I’m gonna need some serious help.
Please help or point me to someone who can!
:d
