at ease password

[mod40]

picked up a powermac 5400/200. I can not get past the at ease log in because I do not know the user name or password. Is there a way to turn this off or reset the needed info. Thanks for any help.

[Dani]

Sorry I have no experience with anything lower than OS X on a G4/G5. What's an at ease login? Is it something like the equivalent of a BIOS password?

[Big Max]

picked up a powermac 5400/200. I can not get past the at ease log in because I do not know the user name or password. Is there a way to turn this off or reset the needed info. Thanks for any help.

If you are referring to the boot up password (as in bios, like CSCGAL indicated), then you would have to disassemble the unit, remove the CMOS battery for about five minutes, put it back in, and the boot password will not be needed, but this isn't a procedure I recommend to you if you are not a highly skilled hardware technician. If you are referring to a login password in Mac OS, if you have a Mac OS CD available to you, you could boot it from the CD and just Reinstall the Mac OS on it. I believe the version that shipped with that particular model was system 7.6.1, but if you can get hold of Mac OS 8.1, that should work on it.

[Gustavo Cruz]

If you are referring to the boot up password (as in bios, like CSCGAL indicated), then you would have to disassemble the unit, remove the CMOS battery for about five minutes, put it back in, and the boot password will not be needed, but this isn't a procedure I recommend to you if you are not a highly skilled hardware technician. If you are referring to a login password in Mac OS, if you have a Mac OS CD available to you, you could boot it from the CD and just Reinstall the Mac OS on it. I believe the version that shipped with that particular model was system 7.6.1, but if you can get hold of Mac OS 8.1, that should work on it.

Wait a little bit, if you have a MacOS disk, any version < X, all you have to do is boot from the cd, and move the at ease control panel and extension in they respective disabled folders, also you can delete the at ease preference file's, you could do the same booting with extension's off, simple press shift at start or restart, it's a MAC no a PC to reinstall the system for everything.

[erunyon]

Wait a little bit, if you have a MacOS disk, any version < X, all you have to do is boot from the cd, and move the at ease control panel and extension in they respective disabled folders, also you can delete the at ease preference file's, you could do the same booting with extension's off, simple press shift at start or restart, it's a MAC no a PC to reinstall the system for everything.

I see you've never run across At Ease before. At Ease WILL NOT allow you to boot from ANYTHING other than the hard disk drive it was installed on. It turns off alternative boot devices such as CD Drives, external hard drives, or any other normally bootable device.
The ONLY way to get around At Ease without a password is to physically remove the hard drive from the computer and attach it to a different computer, set the drive to a different SCSI ID (if SCSI) or set as slave (if IDE) and reformat the drive. Then put it back in original computer and boot from OS CD and run HD Setup and initialize it.
Simply removing the control panels, extensions and preference files does NOT work. If you don't have an administrator's password, this is your ONLY choice.

[erunyon]

I might add that you CAN remove the extensions, control panels and preference files of AT Ease *IF* you can boot the hard drive in a different computer as a slave device and drag them to the trash, but you will not be able to empty the trash as they are locked. To delete locked items in the trash, hold down OPTION key while emptying trash. Once all the associated AT EASE components and software are deleted you may be able to put the disk back in your system and have all the software, with the exception of At Ease, still intact.

[kc0arf]

Hello,

I would do a re-install of the OS. Why? because you do not know what the initial owner may have installed, or left behind on it. There could be some personal data on there, or some wierd control panel, or some software you are not properly licensed to have.

I do this for all computers that come new into my possession... either direct from Apple, or from eBay.

Christian