W10 guys (Page 1/2) MidEngineManiac NOV 30, 08:12 PM OK, I just got an HP Stream for 50 bucks. Used. I got the past owners password and am into the machine/w10 itself. Problem is it wants to keep hooking up to somebody's (damned if I know who) outlook account and gives an error that too many bad passwords and its locked out. I'm not interested and dont care, I just need to factory reset this thing. (No it's not stolen, it's been passed around a bunch of teenage girls 1/2 mile away and when they fr**cked it up so bad nobody could fix it reasonably, it ended up in my lap) I've tried everything I can think of to go to factory reset on it, and every option spits back a "couldnt do it" error...from inside windows, from the log-in screen and from the boot. Hell, I cant even get this thing to go into "erase, trash, and recycle" mode.... any ideas on how to do a reset ? IMSA GT NOV 30, 08:30 PM I'd be more interested in slaving the drive and looking for some good party pics...THEN erase the laptop Have you tried the reset function by actually typing in "reset" in the search bar at the bottom? 82-T/A [At Work] NOV 30, 08:45 PM quote Originally posted by MidEngineManiac: OK, I just got an HP Stream for 50 bucks. Used. I got the past owners password and am into the machine/w10 itself. Problem is it wants to keep hooking up to somebody's (damned if I know who) outlook account and gives an error that too many bad passwords and its locked out. I'm not interested and dont care, I just need to factory reset this thing. (No it's not stolen, it's been passed around a bunch of teenage girls 1/2 mile away and when they fr**cked it up so bad nobody could fix it reasonably, it ended up in my lap) I've tried everything I can think of to go to factory reset on it, and every option spits back a "couldnt do it" error...from inside windows, from the log-in screen and from the boot. Hell, I cant even get this thing to go into "erase, trash, and recycle" mode.... any ideas on how to do a reset ? You may have to completely re-load the OS. The HP Stream is a pretty cool laptop. I have one, the 13" model, and the battery lasts for 7 hours, no fan... runs perfectly. You have to set it to Legacy mode in the bios, and boot with a USB flash drive with a Windows 10 installer on it. :/ Jake_Dragon NOV 30, 08:54 PM See if you can download the recovery USB and just wipe it. Save the hassle trying to mess with a broken recovery partition. williegoat NOV 30, 10:41 PM You could just install an OS designed for grownups... (I still haven't figured out how a Gnu is supposed to play a recorder without any fingers) 82-T/A [At Work] DEC 01, 11:20 AM Only thing worth mentioning too is that the storage on those things is ridiculous. I haven't turned mine on in almost 8 months, so it's assuredly dead. But if I remember correctly, it was only 32 gigs. Which... growing up with a 20mb HD in an 8088, is absolutely massive. But 32gb is barely usable. Install the Windows OS, and a few odds and ends, and the storage is full. If you get bored, may want to upgrade to a 128gb and be done with it. To be sure though, I kind of agree with Willie. You're maybe a couple years away from W10 being end of life, and then you'll be forced to upgrade to Windows 11, which may not take it. SO consider that. Something like Ubuntu or whatever might be good. I have dual boot with GRUB, Kali Linux / Windows 7. williegoat DEC 01, 02:25 PM quote Originally posted by 82-T/A [At Work]: Only thing worth mentioning too is that the storage on those things is ridiculous. I haven't turned mine on in almost 8 months, so it's assuredly dead. But if I remember correctly, it was only 32 gigs. Which... growing up with a 20mb HD in an 8088, is absolutely massive. But 32gb is barely usable. Install the Windows OS, and a few odds and ends, and the storage is full. If you get bored, may want to upgrade to a 128gb and be done with it. To be sure though, I kind of agree with Willie. You're maybe a couple years away from W10 being end of life, and then you'll be forced to upgrade to Windows 11, which may not take it. SO consider that. Something like Ubuntu or whatever might be good. I have dual boot with GRUB, Kali Linux / Windows 7. I don't know anything about the HP Stream, but it sounds kind of like my MS Surface. It has a 64gig SSD that is soldered in. You can't even open the case, there are no screws. Even though the machine is only about three or four years old, it will not take Win11, so when Win10 expires, I will install Debian and will probably get more use out of it. It sounded like a cool piece of hardware, kind of like a tablet with a removable keyboard, and I wanted a Win10 machine just to run Quicken and TurboTax. It just sits on top of my desktop case and I remote in from my desktop machine. I turn it on, do my financial stuff, check for the constant Win10 updates, then shut it back down. 82-T/A [At Work] DEC 01, 02:54 PM quote Originally posted by williegoat: I don't know anything about the HP Stream, but it sounds kind of like my MS Surface. It has a 64gig SSD that is soldered in. Yep! Except /2 on the storage! Hahah... and then you have the HP Stream. MidEngineManiac DEC 01, 03:32 PM LOL, OK so its not exactly a cutting-edge machine. It's also 50 bucks, I can give it to kim for her facebook chats and streaming movies which frees up the Roku box for me williegoat DEC 01, 07:26 PM quote Originally posted by MidEngineManiac: I can give it to kim for her facebook chats and streaming movies which frees up the Roku box for me That would be perfect for Linux, whichever flavor you choose. You can install Chrome and/or Firefox and there are plenty of other apps, all free of charge to accomplish just about anything you want. You would most likely even see improved performance and a more secure environment. If you choose Debian and a KDE desktop, a Windoze user should feel right at home almost instantly.