[Hollie]

My husband and I aside from our main desktop, recently acquired an HP Mini as well for the lighter activities we do away from our big computer. My husband is learning Russian, and decided to change the system password to Cyrillic...I know, don't ask me why he did this...I still don't know for sure.

Anyways, this was all fine and dandy the first few days as everytime he turned on the laptop the Cyrillic keyboard would appear for him to enter his Cyrillic password...until one fatal day when that all changed. We've been locked out of the laptop for a month. We went to Geek Squad but they couldn't help us since the Mini was a gift and we didn't have a receipt. I've scoured the internet for solutions and can't find a thing, nor a computer tech who will help us without a receipt.

So with that being said, any Computer geniuses out there willing to help us computer ruh-tards? Either by telling us how to bring up the cyrillic alphabet back to the start up menu, or resetting the password altogether (no, he didn't have any back up measures...)

Thanks
Hollie

[BrussleSprouts]

Welcome to G2G Hollie

Unfortunately we can not help you bypass/reset your password, as our ToU states here:

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Due to the nature of online help we are not able to verify ownership, and will not be able to help bypass or recover any user passwords, cd keys, license codes, serial numbers, etc.

Though I do have a question about your statement here:

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Anyways, this was all fine and dandy the first few days as everytime he turned on the laptop the Cyrillic keyboard would appear for him to enter his Cyrillic password...until one fatal day when that all changed.

When you say that it appeared I am assuming your talking about a virtual keyboard popping up on screen. So is the problem that the keyboard does not appear, or that it appears but has reverted to the default version?

[Hollie]

The problem is that the keyboard is not appearing at all. He hadn't fully set all language functions to Russian Cyrillic on the Mini, but had a keyboard function in order to enter Cyrillic characters. If we can find a way to bring back that Cyrillic keyboard at the screen where we enter the admin password, we would be able to get back in. I've tried using the input keyboard but it's always in English characters (obviously) and can't find any way to bring back the Cyrillic keyboard.

Thanks for the reply!

[BrussleSprouts]

Well we can try to bring the Virtual Keyboard back up. First, once you arrive at the login screen you should see a small icon at the bottom left (kinda looks like a small wheel). Please click that icon.

A new window will open up listing several different options. You will want to check off the 4th one down. The one that says "Type Without The Keyboard"

After you check that, hit apply, and you should see the virtual keyboard on screen, and with luck it will still be the appropriate language

[Hollie]

BrussleSprouts, on 22 February 2011 - 04:15 PM, said:

Well we can try to bring the Virtual Keyboard back up. First, once you arrive at the login screen you should see a small icon at the bottom left (kinda looks like a small wheel). Please click that icon.

A new window will open up listing several different options. You will want to check off the 4th one down. The one that says "Type Without The Keyboard"

After you check that, hit apply, and you should see the virtual keyboard on screen, and with luck it will still be the appropriate language

I tried that tonight...It was English characters. Thanks very much for your help.

And to ease your presumptuous rude comments (the other fella), it was a Christmas present. From my mother. Unfortunately, she didn't keep the receipts after we left. So yea...And just because I said we haven't found one yet doesn't prove anything of the sorts. We have only been to Best Buy Geek Squad, but they didn't know any solutions to the Cyrillic problem. I thought I would try to solve it this way first, by bringing back up the Cyrillic keyboard before I have to reset the entire system (oh surprise! We have the original disks to do that) so that I don't lose all of my photos and schoolwork that I've saved and very stupidly did not back up on a flash drive.

I guess I could ask her which store she purchased it from, do they usually keep those kinds of things on file? Maybe we can find a way to trace it back without the receipt to prove ownership? I'm going to kill him for this! If it wasn't so hilarious I might be a lot madder. Thanks Sprouts you've been wonderful.

[BrussleSprouts]

Well I am sorry that we were not able to help you further.

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I guess I could ask her which store she purchased it from, do they usually keep those kinds of things on file?

Most larger retailers will be able to track down receipts (especially if you have access to the original form of payment: CC, Check, etc.) if pressed hard enough .

I would suggest you look into a local shop to find someone that can back up your data (ie, pictures, word documents and the like) for a nominal fee. A data backup can usually be done for around $100, depending on who performs the service (less if you shop around/haggle). So you can have your data saved before rewriting the system.

I wish you luck in your endeavors,

BrussleSprouts