Password not recognised - try another keyboard

I tried to set up a user account yesterday which required me to set a password
for the administrator account I normally use.
Did this, (entered twice as required) and wrote in offline diary.
Entered a hint as required.

Did not make a password backup disk!! - what could go wrong?

Proceeded to add another user account along with program permissions
then saved and logged off.

Tried to log back on, only one account logo (my admin account) shown (don't know if this is normal?).

Vista wouldn't accept the password. Tried dozens of times and with various letters omitted
or added (in case I fumbled the keyboard (twice??)).
It showed the password hint ok.

Successfully logged in this morning immediately by using the on-screen keyboard available in the 'User assistance' options in the login window instead of the standard keyboard.
Using the password as it was intended to be.

Don't know why, but suspect it's something to do with the standard keyboard being a wireless type.
(Which is why I tried various letter combinations as sometime a keypress doesn't get through).

The password was correct so not a 'lost' keypress.

I can do without all that hassle so now back to admin account only and no password.

Hope this saves someone else a few hours of frustration.

Hello Peterj,

In order to isolate the issue further, I would suggest couple of steps:

1. Check in Command Prompt if all the keys are working fine.

• Click Start.
• In Search program and files tab type in cmd.
• Press Enter.
• Check in the Window if the keys are working fine.

2. Try connecting a different keyboard to the computer and check the functionality.

Hope this helps!

Allan D said:

Hello Peterj,

In order to isolate the issue further, I would suggest couple of steps:

1. Check in Command Prompt if all the keys are working fine.

• Click Start.
• In Search program and files tab type in cmd.
• Press Enter.
• Check in the Window if the keys are working fine.

2. Try connecting a different keyboard to the computer and check the functionality.

Hope this helps!

Click to expand...

Hi Allan D,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Tried testing the letters using the Command Prompt - All ok.

Tried a different (hardware) keyboard - also works fine (though I was nervous about
re-activating password access).

Conclusion:
'Something' is weird about the combination of the wireless keyboard and the
password software.

It's not a missing letter as the number of 'dots' in the password window is correct,
It's not some unknown key as the password is strictly alphabetic and only nine letters long.

Looks like I need to use the on-screen keyboard, which is ok I guess.
(Funny that it is made available at login - never seen it before.
Maybe Microsoft knew it would be needed??)

Thanks, Regards, Peterj

Being a wireless keyboard shouldn't matter. Do you by chance have caps lock enabled? While logged in have you tried typing your password into notepad to make sure that it is correct?