My friend's brother has fallen victim to a scam and the computer is now locked with a password that he doesn't know. The scammers have said they'll unlock it if he buys them $3000 worth of iTunes gift cards but he's not foolish enough to do that.
I was wondering if there is anything I can do to get into the computer again? It's a Gateway laptop and he still has the original Windows 8 disk for it. He says there's nothing of any value on the computer itself so if we were to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows, everything would be good.
It occurred to me that if I could get into the BIOS and change the settings so that the laptop booted from the DVD drive and the Windows 8 disk was in the drive, perhaps it would reinstall Windows. I googled and found that F1 is supposed to make it boot to the BIOS if you press it when the Gateway logo comes up but I can't get it to go into the BIOS; it just keeps going until it gets to the password dialog.
I'd really like to help these people. They're two long-retired seniors; the husband is disabled and can only walk a few steps without his powered chair and his wife is just out of the hospital after major surgery. They can't afford to replace the computer right now.
Does anyone know any techniques I could use to get control of this computer again so that I can reinstall Windows on this laptop?
I was wondering if there is anything I can do to get into the computer again? It's a Gateway laptop and he still has the original Windows 8 disk for it. He says there's nothing of any value on the computer itself so if we were to reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows, everything would be good.
It occurred to me that if I could get into the BIOS and change the settings so that the laptop booted from the DVD drive and the Windows 8 disk was in the drive, perhaps it would reinstall Windows. I googled and found that F1 is supposed to make it boot to the BIOS if you press it when the Gateway logo comes up but I can't get it to go into the BIOS; it just keeps going until it gets to the password dialog.
I'd really like to help these people. They're two long-retired seniors; the husband is disabled and can only walk a few steps without his powered chair and his wife is just out of the hospital after major surgery. They can't afford to replace the computer right now.
Does anyone know any techniques I could use to get control of this computer again so that I can reinstall Windows on this laptop?
My Computer
System One
-
- OS
- Windows 8.1
- Computer type
- Laptop
- System Manufacturer/Model
- ASUS K55N
- CPU
- AMD A8-4500 APU with Radeon HD Graphics 1.90 GHz
- Motherboard
- not sure
- Memory
- 8.00 GB installed, 7.46 GB usuable
- Graphics Card(s)
- Radeon
- Sound Card
- not sure
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Built-in laptop screen
- Screen Resolution
- 1366x768
- Hard Drives
- one 750 GB
- PSU
- Not sure
- Case
- Not sure
- Cooling
- Not sure
- Keyboard
- Built in to laptop
- Mouse
- None; I use the touchpad
- Internet Speed
- 6 Mbps down, 0.25 Mbps up
- Browser
- current versions of Firefox, Chrome and IE
- Antivirus
- Avast Free
- Other Info
- I *think* many of the questions to which I've answered "not sure" are irrelevant because it is a laptop but if you need to know specifically what model of cooling fans or keyboard or whatever where built in to the laptop, I can try to find that out if you tell me where to look. I don't see this information in the Windows/System display but maybe it is elsewhere. I'm not sure what a "PSU" is: Powe