h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Panic. I was ironing last night and watching a DVD on my laptop in the cellar, where there is no wifi. This morning I brought my laptop upstairs to charge it but didn't switch it on. This evening I went to use it and it won't accept my password. I feel quite ill with all the stuff I've got on it, and things I need to do before I go to the UK at the weekend.

I am certain I used the right password - I surely can't have got it wrong the 20-30 times I tried to boot the thing. I feel quite .

Now I can't even boot it and use it offline to watch a DVD or anything. It's frustrating and worrying. Going into the setup menu while booting didn't help - I set up a password there, but that's only for the OS isn't it?

I'm writing this from my husband's computer where I went to check that my bank account etc hadn't been tampered with.

Ah, that is scary... I remember when my tablet computer nearly broke after I had been watching Eurovision all evening, and I was very worried about it, but I just managed to do a "hard refresh" (aka holding the on/off button for a long time) and it switched on again - phew, the relief.

Sorry I can't really help you, as I don't know much about OS and things, but I'm thinking of you...

Well, I can boot it, so the operating system is running, it's not a hardware error, but I can't get it to accept the Windows password.

It's a Lenovo and has a "one key recovery system" but that would erase all the programs I've installed (OK - that wouldn't be terribly serious, I can recover them) but I've read that it could also erase files.

Just a random thought before I log off... Is your keyboard working OK?

[Amy P]

My first guess would be the keyboard too. When you type the password, does something appear on the screen to show that the key has been pressed?

Is there any mode you can boot into where you can type characters and see the characters you have typed on the screen? Do this and make sure that it isn't doing something like typing with the caps lock on. Press the caps lock key and make sure it is working (the key could be stuck) - the little caps lock light should go on and off. Make sure it is off before proceeding.

Can't think of anything else. There may be a "system password" depending on the make and model of computer, but I wouldn't know it.

Oh what a worry! I do hope it gets sorted

I've definitely been hacked. I got an e-mail from Amazon at 3.45 this morning telling me that my account had been hacked. I phoned the credit card people first thing this morning, but didn't have the card blocked because I need it at the weekend for the car I've hired. Perhaps that was the wrong decision. I was out and about this morning because I had a dentist appointment, and I dashed into the bank as soon as it was open and had online banking de-activated.

I calmed down a bit when I realised that my credit limits would mean that this can't quite ruin me, but I still feel very queasy und uneasy.

It's time to make another call to the credit card people to see if anything has happened on my account. Perhaps I ought not to be writing this - but I expect that (a) the hackers are German and won't be keen on reading lots of waffle in English and (b) they might not find it anyway, despite the cookies on my laptop. And (c) they're probably still in bed.

My son did also suggest that the keyboard might have switched itself to French, but I re-booted so many times that it can't have done it every time. In my experience, that sort of thing rights itself if you re-start. Anyway, that was before I got the e-mail from Amazon.

Oh no, that's scary indeed...

Good luck with getting it all sorted

[Amy P]