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iMac wont accept my password

K

KeegoSupremo

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 28, 2006
56
0
Hey
I restarted my computer and it asks for my password. (that parts normal) I enter it in and it wont accept it. I try it several more times making sure I am entering it right. I tried booting from my leopard cd by holding down c but it wont boot from the cd. So now I can not get on my iMac. I don't have a warranty left on it so I would rather not have to take it to apple if it can be avoided.
Thanks for the help
 
KeegoSupremo said:
Hey
I restarted my computer and it asks for my password. (that parts normal) I enter it in and it wont accept it. I try it several more times making sure I am entering it right. I tried booting from my leopard cd by holding down c but it wont boot from the cd. So now I can not get on my iMac. I don't have a warranty left on it so I would rather not have to take it to apple if it can be avoided.
Thanks for the help
Click to expand...

Have you tried to boot into Single User Mode?
Startup the computer and immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and "S"

You might be able to do a password recovery from there.
 
Still no luck

Detektiv-Pinky said:
Have you tried to boot into Single User Mode?
Startup the computer and immediately press and hold the Command (Apple) key and "S"

You might be able to do a password recovery from there.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, I just tried and it will not boot into Single User Mode. It boots and goes to my login. I know the keyboard is working because I can type my password it just will not accept it. And I do not have another wired keyboard to test on it anyways.
Only thing I can think of would be removing the Hard Drive and putting it back???
 
well I can't get the screws out there in there tight and I don't have the proper tool to get the screws out.

So now I have no idea what to do
 
another possibility (albeit small) is that there is a firmware password on it.

with the firmware password, you can not boot from the target drive, you can not boot from a cd.

it is the ultimate in keeping someone from using your laptop.

you can't get around it, as far as i know
 
uicandrew said:
another possibility (albeit small) is that there is a firmware password on it.

with the firmware password, you can not boot from the target drive, you can not boot from a cd.

it is the ultimate in keeping someone from using your laptop.

you can't get around it, as far as i know
Click to expand...

It might be possible to reset physically, however apple does not tell us how...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1352

Warning: The Open Firmware Password can be reset and changed by any one of the following (except MacBook Air):

- By any administrator user, as designated in the Accounts preferences (or in Server Admin).
- Via physical access to the inside of the computer.
- When the computer is started up in Mac OS 9.
 
I had the same iMac at work and occasionally it would do the same thing. Sadly I left my job before finding a fix.

What I would do it just keep pressing/and holding the power off button on the back to shut it down and then restart - this usually took three attempts.

I would use IceClean to repair permissions etc and the problem might go away for a while. Then it would come back - I'd do a few hard restarts and we'd be OK again.

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/31818

I never knew why because I never asked our Macophobic IT idiots.
I did ask the Mac section of the computer labs we had, but I left before they answered.

Hope I have been some help.
 
Update

Thanks for the help

I do not have any warranty on the computer anymore.

I tried booting from the c (by pressing c on startup)---wouldn't work it would just take me to the login screen where i would type in my correct password and it would tell me it is incorrect.

I also tried booting into Single User Mode-- did not work

So after many many attempts of the above I decided to just replace the hard drive, which I have never done. I looked up some guides and I am not in the process of re installing the OS

So all should be good when it is done installing but I loose all my files that were on there (I still have the original hd so I should be able to put that in a enclosure and get any files I might need right?) also still know clue how this happend

thanks for the help again
 
Good job an changing the hard drive - let me know how it went.

Only can only say ask at a genius bar at an Apple store if you want an answer. Or an Apple expert/engineer type person.

It felt like a log on preferences corruption but you couldn't boot at all - strange.
 
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