I have a fairly old HP laptop that I upgraded to Win-7 (from XP) several months ago. I've never had a serious problem with it before or since the upgrade. I was using the machine this morning, and when I was finished I closed the lid, putting the machine in standby. The last thing I did before shutting it down was to run a quick scan with MSE, which came up clean.
About ten minutes later, I returned to the machine and attempted to log back in from standby mode, only to discover that it wouldn't accept the account password. Tried several times, and checked the obvious "maybe it's the caps lock", to no avail.
The machine also has Ubuntu installed, and fortunately I used the same password for both operating systems. So, I tried logging into Ubuntu. Lo and behold, Ubuntu refused the password too. Tried a couple of more times, and suddenly Ubuntu gave in and logged me in.
So my best and only theory is that the keyboard may be getting flaky, but I've never once noticed any sort of problem since I bought the machine. And while in Ubuntu, I brought up a text editor and repeatedly typed the password. It was echoed to the screen correctly every time. So, I'm thinking maybe some sort of crud was fouling up one of the keys and finally worked itself out?
So, back to Windows and again it refuses the password! Tried a couple of more times, and after several refusals, it finally relented and let me log in. Opened a text editor in Windows and repeatedly typed my password until my hand got tired, and it displayed correctly every time.
So, it seems like the keyboard is ok, but if that isn't the explanation, what is?
Along the way, I discovered that Win-7 provides for the creation of a password recovery tool on removable media. After a couple of refusals, it started showing a clickable option for "Recover your password", which was useless to me because I hadn't created recovery tool. Didn't know the feature existed. Windows suggested options for the tool were only USB sticks or floppies(!). What about a CD? My laptop is old enough that it doesn't boot from a USB stick. Does the recovery tool require the machine to boot from media that contains it?
At this point, I've made a recovery tool on a USB stick, and will try to make one on a CD. But until I understand what the heck is going on, I'm reluctant to so much as close the lid on the machine for fear it won't let me back in.
About ten minutes later, I returned to the machine and attempted to log back in from standby mode, only to discover that it wouldn't accept the account password. Tried several times, and checked the obvious "maybe it's the caps lock", to no avail.
The machine also has Ubuntu installed, and fortunately I used the same password for both operating systems. So, I tried logging into Ubuntu. Lo and behold, Ubuntu refused the password too. Tried a couple of more times, and suddenly Ubuntu gave in and logged me in.
So my best and only theory is that the keyboard may be getting flaky, but I've never once noticed any sort of problem since I bought the machine. And while in Ubuntu, I brought up a text editor and repeatedly typed the password. It was echoed to the screen correctly every time. So, I'm thinking maybe some sort of crud was fouling up one of the keys and finally worked itself out?
So, back to Windows and again it refuses the password! Tried a couple of more times, and after several refusals, it finally relented and let me log in. Opened a text editor in Windows and repeatedly typed my password until my hand got tired, and it displayed correctly every time.
So, it seems like the keyboard is ok, but if that isn't the explanation, what is?
Along the way, I discovered that Win-7 provides for the creation of a password recovery tool on removable media. After a couple of refusals, it started showing a clickable option for "Recover your password", which was useless to me because I hadn't created recovery tool. Didn't know the feature existed. Windows suggested options for the tool were only USB sticks or floppies(!). What about a CD? My laptop is old enough that it doesn't boot from a USB stick. Does the recovery tool require the machine to boot from media that contains it?
At this point, I've made a recovery tool on a USB stick, and will try to make one on a CD. But until I understand what the heck is going on, I'm reluctant to so much as close the lid on the machine for fear it won't let me back in.