G3 iBook won't recognize admin password

R

RoyIbra

Registered
iBook is 800mhz, 512m with a 20g hd.

The iBook boots to the login screen but won't accept the password. I have even tried older passwords just in case.
I tried holding down the c while booting from the cd; sounds like the cdrom spins but again it boots to the login screen.
I tried holding the Apple & S key to get to single user but it goes to the login screen.
I tried holding the option key which brings up the start-up drives, but can't change to the fire wire drive because the password is unaccepted.
 
Is it booting to the Mac OS X login screen, where it asks for a username and password, or is it booting into the open-firmware password screen (picture of a padlock, asking for a password)?

If the latter, then there are steps you can take to reset and/or remove the open-firmware password. Do this:

1) Significantly change the amount of RAM in the system -- either add more RAM chips or remove one of the already present RAM chips.
2) Boot the system, and immediately zap the PRAM three times (hold down and keep held down the command-option-p-r keys until the system reboots three times)

After that, the open-firmware password should be gone.

If it's booting to the Mac OS X login screen and is not accepting your user account's password (or the administrator's user account password), then try zapping the PRAM as described above (only step 2), then try booting from the CD again so that you can reset the administrator password.
 
It was booting to the osX login screen so I tried the zap the pram thing first, went right to the login screen again. So I took out the stick, tried again and was able to boot with the cd to reset the password.
Saved me a bunch of retyping.
Thanks again!
 
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