Okay, so I'm trying to fix this guy's vista laptop. First off, one day he just can't seem to boot it up. eventually, he gets it to the login screen, but it won't go pas it. I get it from there and notice the same thing. I run vista's own system checking doohickeys - recovers from some severe filesystem errors. Basically, now, the laptop SEEMS to be fixed. It loads up really fast, no glitches anywhere, BUT... the password he used to use doesn't work anymore... no password works.

there's no other users. I can't just over-install vista to get a new password because you can't do that unless you've already logged in. Desperate, I downloaded OPHCrack or whatever, to crack what the password is... error.

Is he fucked? The only thing I can think of is to download a live-dvd linux, and try and save his files that way before he wipes it. either that, or just send it back to Dell. thoughts?