Computer Tech Rant o' the Week: "I Forgot My Password."

Iruka Naminori
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Computer Tech Rant o' the Week: "I Forgot My Password."

Well, my "test" PSU finally arrived and the system I was working on booted up just fine. Smiling  I was pretty thrilled until I called the owner of the computer to ask what her admin password is.

"I don't know," she said. "You set it up for me."

WTF?!?!?!

I did it as a favor a few years ago and distinctly remember telling her, "Now write down the password to Windows and the password to your ISP account...and don't lose them!"  Since when is it my responsibility to remember someone else's password?  Especially if I set up the system for free?

Had I built the system I would have kept a copy of the password I entered, fully expecting my client to change the password.  I didn't save any of the info for this woman.  I told her, "Look, it isn't my responsibility to remember your passwords."

To be frank, this woman irritates me because her stupidity and inability to learn from mistakes often cause harm.  At one point I was desperate enough to consider rooming with her.  She did a stupid thing and bought some young lovebirds without quarantining them.  They had polyomavirus and this lady had to put down most of her birds. She killed some of them herself because having a vet euthanize an animal costs money. I was still desperate enough to consider rooming with this woman, so I had my birds vaccinated for polyoma...god, what was I thinking???  

Not long after that, she let a pet lovebird have free rein of the house.  It attacked and killed some baby cockatiels.  Anyone who knows anything about birds knows that lovebirds are extremely territorial and will attack other birds viciously. 

This woman is unable to learn from her mistakes.  I really think she's on the borderline of being mentally retarded.  It isn't her fault, yet catastrophe seems to follow in her wake.  She lives in the same apartment complex I do, but I'm very glad she and her flock of birds are far enough away from me and mine that I don't constantly worry about what bird illness she has recently exposed her pets to.

So, my question is: How much should I charge this woman for retrieving her password?  Does she learn from mistakes when they cost her?  From the past, I'd have to say no.  I think she is just genuinely stupid. Sad  She's also poor.  Still, her inability to remember a password is creating work for me.  I think she should have to pay for it...$20 for password retrieval.

I just thought of something...bird feathers in the chassis.  I hope they aren't infected with a long-lived virus of some kind...gack!

 

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Susan
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To be honest, I think you

To be honest, I think you should charge her according to how much effort it is for you to do the task.  Find out what other folks and companies charge to do this kind of work and charge her the same rate.

As for the birds, I'm horrified that she killed some herself.  Finances are no excuse for something like that unless she is a licensed vet tech with permission to do that at home and does it humanely like a vet would.  If she can't afford to care for them properly (which includes veterinary care), she shouldn't have them.  It almost sounds as if her critters are in an abusive situation... and you know how I feel about that!

Babies getting killed?  Is she breeding without a license?  (Or do you need licenses where you live?)  If she's breeding and the critters aren't getting the proper medical care and being attacked, she should be "outted" and not allowed to breed. 

Heck, she shouldn't be allowed to have animals of any kind if she treats them like that. 

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James Cizuz
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Well myself I charge 20-40$

Well myself I charge 20-40$ extra to get someones password back.

 

Fixing a computer is nothing really, no effort really unless the person had no knowledge what so ever. Everytime I get asked to fix a computer I always bring my notes with me. All my boot disk, by-pass disks, etc. Because always 9 times out of 10 they forgot there password. Most times it goes like. 

 

"I don't know the password, I just clicked ok, or cancel and it let me in, now after it broke it's asking for a password." So whoever set up the password depending on the OS either told them and they forgot because they never had to use it, or they never knew to begin with.  

 

Although even then it's only a extra 5 miniutes.  People would be surprized to know how much people rip them off when fixing a computer. Heck most companies will charge you around 40$ to install a card in your computer.

 

Just charge her 40$ for it, she'll pay it. They all do! 

 

Reason I always bring my stuff for every OS or computer is simple. If they forgot there password I have to go through all the walk arounds (boot disks, simple glitchs, commands etc) to either get it back, or change it. I 

"When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever.... I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it." ~H.L. Mencken

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Iruka Naminori
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Yes, I wholeheartedly agree

Yes, I wholeheartedly agree with you concerning the animals.  If a person can't afford veterinary care, then he/she shouldn't have the animal. 

I bred African greys and Senegals for years.  i never denied any of them veterinary care.  Hell, I recently spent a bundle on a sick snake which I relinquished to the veterinary clinic. The bill was almost $200, some of which I had to borrow.  X-rays showed the snake mostly likely had cancer.  It's possible for a snake to beat cancer because of their slow metabolisms, but I didn't have the money to have the animal treated, so I gave her to the clinic. I would do the same if any of my other animals got sick.  If I couldn't afford treatment, I would relinquish the animal.

At the time the shit with this lady was going on, I wasn't in a very good mental position to see the situation for what it was.  My fundy mother was driving me batshit insane and I needed to get out of the situation in a hurry.  I thought rooming with this woman was my only hope, so my vision wasn't very clear.

I don't know what she's doing now.  Frankly, I've wanted to stay away because wherever she goes disaster follows.  

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Iruka Naminori
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BTW, Susan, you have 666


BTW, Susan, you have 666 posts.  Take a screenshot. Eye-wink


Iruka Naminori
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James Cizuz wrote:   Just

James Cizuz wrote:
 

Just charge her 40$ for it, she'll pay it. They all do!

I'd like to be fair about it.   My ex-fundiness contributes to a colossal amount of guilt, so I have to be fair.   At the same time, the guilt causes me to be a bit of a bitch.  I'd rather not charge someone, but if their stupidity causes a bump in the road, I'd prefer payment.

In a way it's good this happened because it forced me to look up how to hack into WinXP when I don't know the password.  I can add it to my knowledge.  I know a lot, but there's a LOT I don't know.  My main strength is that I know how to troubleshoot and find things out, which is more than half the problem to begin with.

I have a stack of boot diskettes and boot CDs.  Now I'll more stuff to add to the stack. Eye-wink 

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Iruka Naminori wrote: BTW,

Iruka Naminori wrote:

BTW, Susan, you have 666 posts. Take a screenshot. Eye-wink

Horsehockey! I wish I had seen your post before I wrote two more. It would have been fun to post a screenshot of that.

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I just love the mac people.

I just love the mac people. Them and their "security" ffs it's easier to get into mac osx then windows xp... Now thats saying something. Although say that to a mac person and they'll bring bring up the "no virus high security shit" makes me want to send them programs and say you can trust me, mac is impossible to get viruses anyway right? Oh look, your computer is broke now, want me to fix it?

 

Unforunitly there are no work arounds for vista yet. There is one but it pretty much destroies the OS to get around the problem. (In voles non booted hard drive access and deleting certain libaries in system32) 

 

"When I die I shall be content to vanish into nothingness.... No show, however good, could conceivably be good forever.... I do not believe in immortality, and have no desire for it." ~H.L. Mencken

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qbg
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Recover the password? Why

Recover the password? Why not replace it?


Iruka Naminori
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Susan wrote: Iruka

Susan wrote:
Iruka Naminori wrote:

BTW, Susan, you have 666 posts. Take a screenshot. Eye-wink

Horsehockey! I wish I had seen your post before I wrote two more. It would have been fun to post a screenshot of that.

I should have grabbed it for you.  Sorry.  

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Iruka Naminori
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qbg wrote: Recover the

qbg wrote:
Recover the password? Why not replace it?

The thought has crossed my mind. >Smiling  I mean, replacing it and not telling her.  

BUT I usually don't operate that way.  My conscience is like a hot potato in my chest.  There are certain things I cannot do.

Still, my brother owes me money for computer parts and I am very seriously thinking about just taking his hard drives (they're in mobile racks for easy theft) if he doesn't pay me pretty soon.  He's rather flaky unless you can apply some pressure. Sad 

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qbg
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Iruka Naminori wrote: qbg

Iruka Naminori wrote:
qbg wrote:
Recover the password? Why not replace it?
The thought has crossed my mind. >Smiling  I mean, replacing it and not telling her.

BUT I usually don't operate that way.  My conscience is like a hot potato in my chest.  There are certain things I cannot do.


You said that she couldn't remember the password, so why not just give her a new one?

"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought


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Susan wrote: Iruka

Susan wrote:
Iruka Naminori wrote:

BTW, Susan, you have 666 posts. Take a screenshot. Eye-wink

Horsehockey! I wish I had seen your post before I wrote two more. It would have been fun to post a screenshot of that.

 

Here it is: http://lovric.frih.net/Rational-1.jpg Smiling 


Iruka Naminori
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qbg wrote: You said that

qbg wrote:
You said that she couldn't remember the password, so why not just give her a new one?

The problem was I couldn't log onto the computer without the password.  I finally used an exploit (security problem with WinXP) to log on as system admin and changed the user password so I could log on, but the system was FUBAR, anyway.  

I tried the HP recovery discs--even re-formatted--and it didn't work...couldn't create a user partition.  PTHTHTHT.

I fdisked and formatted the HD myself.  I'm going to try the recovery discs again, but if they didn't work the first time, I am wondering if they'll work this time.  Why didn't they work? *shakes head*

Oh well.

Every time I run into something new I learn, so it's no huge deal. 

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LovE-RicH wrote:   Here it

LovE-RicH wrote:
 

Here it is: http://lovric.frih.net/Rational-1.jpg Smiling

Kewl!

Happy Number o' the Beast to You, Susan! 

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Iruka Naminori

Iruka Naminori wrote:
LovE-RicH wrote:

Here it is: http://lovric.frih.net/Rational-1.jpg Smiling

Kewl!

Happy Number o' the Beast to You, Susan!

That's just too cool for words.

Thank You, LovE-Rich!  How the heck did you do that?  Magic? 

Thank you, Iruka, for the well-wishes! 

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By the way, Iruka, may I

By the way, Iruka, may I suggest that when you are fixing someone's PC for free, when you have to purchase something, don't pay for it out of your own pocket. Tell the person to either purchase it themselves and give the item(s) to you so you can fix the PC or give you the money to purchase it.

I suspect that if they really want their PC to work, they'll get the stuff and you won't be caught short trying to get your money back.

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qbg
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Iruka Naminori wrote: qbg

Iruka Naminori wrote:
qbg wrote:
You said that she couldn't remember the password, so why not just give her a new one?
The problem was I couldn't log onto the computer without the password.

I was thinking of something along the lines of ntpasswd

"What right have you to condemn a murderer if you assume him necessary to "God's plan"? What logic can command the return of stolen property, or the branding of a thief, if the Almighty decreed it?"
-- The Economic Tendency of Freethought


Iruka Naminori
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qbg wrote:

qbg wrote:
I was thinking of something along the lines of ntpasswd

Thanks for the link. I found similar tools at this site: http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm , but warnings about losing encrypted data made me look for a safer method. Turns out I didn't have to worry about that since I had to re-format anyway. Smiling

P.S. Yes, I still have a LOT to learn. I should have read that URL more carefully. I only got as far as "the safest way" and left it at that.

I haven't run into any lost password issues before, which is kind of odd. *shrug* I have a feeling this won't be the last time. It will be good to have a range of tools and hacks at my disposal.  Smiling  I also frequent techie forums when I have an issue I can't solve.  Looks like I should maybe have asked here instead of just whined in your general direction.

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LovE-RicH
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Magic? That would be highly

(DOUBLE POST)


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Susan wrote: That's just

Susan wrote:

That's just too cool for words.

Thank You, LovE-Rich! How the heck did you do that? Magic?

Magic? That would be highly improbable, thus irrational to believe in.Eye-wink
I believe in Photoshop. There's evidence that Photoshop can make miracles!Sticking out tongue


Susan
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LovE-RicH wrote: Susan

LovE-RicH wrote:
Susan wrote:

That's just too cool for words.

Thank You, LovE-Rich! How the heck did you do that? Magic?

Magic? That would be highly improbable, thus irrational to believe in.Eye-wink I believe in Photoshop. There's evidence that Photoshop can make miracles!:P

I'm crushed.  I thought surely you were going to say something about time-travel to get an actual screenshot.

Either that, or you value my posts SO much that you take a screenshot every time you see one. Laughing

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