End of the road for the Laptop?

[Bullett]

I had an old work laptop knocking about, company went into administration and everyone got dumped mostly without pay. They never asked for the laptop back.

It's been in my loft for a while but recently I've been using it to control DMX lights for my band. All good, stripped any junk off it and just had a few lighting and music related programs. I had admin access.

Tonight while working on a show it started dropping me back to lock screen like I'd left it idle. In an attempt to resolve the problem I rebooted and now can't get back in. The sticking point seems to be the Macafee endpoint security (safeboot 5.2.11) I have the right password but it's telling me unknown user name.

It's stuffed isn't it?

I'm thinking even if I could usb boot it any useful files will be encrypted and useless.
It has a weird Dell BIOS with no options for recovering the windows key otherwise I'd just format and rebuild what I need and be annoyed I hadn't saved my files off-line.

[Doofus]

Presumably the McAfee subscription paid for by your company has now expired, and they, obviously, haven't renewed it.

Fresh install, or talk to McAfee.

[stuartmmcfc]

Have you tried switching it off and then back on again?

[Bullett]

I would have expected any expiry to have a more obvious error message but I know what computers are like so won't discount it. The company folded 4+ years ago so I would have expected it to kick in earlier if that was the case.

MS not letting me d/l an image - see your supplier, Dell telling me support expired so do one.

[paulrockliffe]

I've been putting ChromeOS onto older laptops with more success than I thought possible. Don't know if that'll do what you need from the laptop, but might be worth a look.

[Bullett]

Unfortunately not, I probably won't have net access when it's in use and the programs I want to use are quite specialised, one in particular that I've spent ages learning (as it works with my interface) is Windows only. Others run on Linux but I'd have to start from scratch on the program.

[maccas99]

Bullett said:

Unfortunately not, I probably won't have net access when it's in use and the programs I want to use are quite specialised, one in particular that I've spent ages learning (as it works with my interface) is Windows only. Others run on Linux but I'd have to start from scratch on the program.

How about using this version:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/wind...

[LordGrover]

Bullett said:

I would have expected any expiry to have a more obvious error message but I know what computers are like so won't discount it. The company folded 4+ years ago so I would have expected it to kick in earlier if that was the case.

MS not letting me d/l an image - see your supplier, Dell telling me support expired so do one.

XP, Vista or Windows 7? 32 or 64-bit?
I'm sure I can find you a Dell OEM disk somewhere.

[alfaben]

I remember using a version of that in my previous job. I'd be surprised if simply you'd get locked out due to a lack of subscription.

Your release looks like it was subject to an end of sale end of life announcement in 2013 then subsequently 2014.

https://community.mcafee.com/docs/DOC-4848

Reading around I think your a bit stuffed sadly with any recovery of data from the drive..

http://digital-forums.com/showthread.php/859334-an...

Sounds to me like you'd need access to bits at your former workplace which probably are in the great recycling bin in the sky.

[Otispunkmeyer]

Bullett said:

I had an old work laptop knocking about, company went into administration and everyone got dumped mostly without pay. They never asked for the laptop back.

It's been in my loft for a while but recently I've been using it to control DMX lights for my band. All good, stripped any junk off it and just had a few lighting and music related programs. I had admin access.

Tonight while working on a show it started dropping me back to lock screen like I'd left it idle. In an attempt to resolve the problem I rebooted and now can't get back in. The sticking point seems to be the Macafee endpoint security (safeboot 5.2.11) I have the right password but it's telling me unknown user name.

It's stuffed isn't it?

I'm thinking even if I could usb boot it any useful files will be encrypted and useless.
It has a weird Dell BIOS with no options for recovering the windows key otherwise I'd just format and rebuild what I need and be annoyed I hadn't saved my files off-line.

My old Dell work laptops always had the Windows Key in the battery bay. Take the batt out and have a look.

[Bullett]

Maccas - Thanks, that downloads an exe which is no good as it won't boot. Might try it on another laptop though.

LordGrover - Cheers, it's Win7 I assume it's 64bit.

alfaben - Thanks, pretty much the conclusion I'd come to. I might try a boot from usb and see if anything is readable but it's not a major loss if it isn't just a pita.

[Neilsfirst]

You will have to rebuild the laptop. Safeboot encrypts the drive and getting the data off is very expensive. It can be done with a safeboot floppy disk to remove safeboot, but the database on your system has become corrupted if it can't find your username.

[LordGrover]

Bullett said:

Maccas - Thanks, that downloads an exe which is no good as it won't boot. Might try it on another laptop though.

LordGrover - Cheers, it's Win7 I assume it's 64bit.

alfaben - Thanks, pretty much the conclusion I'd come to. I might try a boot from usb and see if anything is readable but it's not a major loss if it isn't just a pita.

If you'd like a W7 Pro x64 Dell Reinstallation DVD PM me your address and I'll pop a copy in the post.

[Bullett]

LordGrover said:

If you'd like a W7 Pro x64 Dell Reinstallation DVD PM me your address and I'll pop a copy in the post.

Thanks, PM sent.

[Monty Python]

Long shot, but you could try using an external keyboard - it may be an issue with the laptop keyboard that's causing the password to fail.

[sgrimshaw]

Another long shot ....

If the keyboard doesn't have a separate numeric keypad, the num lock key isn't on is it?

[Bullett]

Worth a try but new keyboard was no go and the password had no numerics.

[sgrimshaw]

Bullett said:

Worth a try but new keyboard was no go and the password had no numerics.

If num lock is "on" with no numeric keypad, then alphas become numbers.

[Bullett]

Lord Grover - Many thanks, disc arrived and worked first time.
I've lost my work but it's all working well again now.

Now, do I upgrade to W10?
It's not a powerful machine, Intel U7300 @ 1.3ghz 4gb ram

[LordGrover]

Depending on what you plan to run on it, 4GB is on the low side. If it's just browsing and email then you'd probably be okay. If Windows 7 works well enough I'd leave well alone - don't try fixing what ain't broke.