Make sure to "Reply to List", not to myself.
On 10/17/25 13:28, Maureen L Thomas wrote:
On 10/17/25 2:33 PM, David Christensen wrote:
On 10/15/25 19:35, Maureen L Thomas wrote:
Product Image <https://www.amazon.com/gp/r.html?
C=83GV7WG09RVL&K=HP043NH824CG&M=urn:rtn:msg:202510160225592a7d108c370c48e3aea60e98f4f0p0na&R=HVKX807PDJCP&T=C&U=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB07GRKQKJ9%3Fref_%3Dpe_127665860_1053960000&H=RVDUQPUMYOP0ZBA7ZCWVNP0NREKA&ref_=pe_127665860_1053960000>
Lenovo ThinkCentre M93Z 23in FHD All-in-One AIO Premium Flagship Desktop Computer, Intel Quad Core
i5-4570S up to 3.6 GHz, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, DVD, WiFi, Windows 10 Professional (Renewed) (New)
On 10/16/25 17:54, Maureen L Thomas wrote:
On 10/16/25 5:12 PM, David Christensen wrote:
On 10/16/25 13:04, Maureen L Thomas wrote:
It has windows 10 on it. But he has to find the code in his email.
He found it but no books or papers were with it. I cannot get to
anything on this computer except the CMOS.
Please tell us what message(s) appear on the console screen when you
try to boot Windows.
It asked for the code sent to his email. He could not get to his
email since the damn computer would do nothing but
Please enter the code _______
So, when you power up the computer, it goes through the power-on self
test (POST) and displays a challenge page with the following prompt:
Please enter the code
And, there is no way to bypass the challenge page.
Is there anything else displayed on the screen? Logos? Pictures?
Copyright notices? Any clues?
Is this how the computer arrived from Amazon? If not, who produced
the software that implements the challenge page? AOL? What is the
software support web page URL?
So, your friend obtained the code from AOL by some other means. What
happens after you enter the code?
Has the data on the computer been backed up by some means that it can
be restored using Debian GNU/Linux?
David
It came from Amazon like that. The code was sent by the computer after
he gave his email addy and phone number. The page that came up had
nothing on it for me to click on, just in the middle asking for the code
they sent to his email. With no computer for him to use, and yes I
tried to do it for him but aol was being idiots. They want money for
everything. Any way he finally tried to use his phone and that worked
and he was able to get the code and put it in. Then it proceeded to
load winbloows. I am going to try and get a picture of the CMOS to
make it easier.
It sounds like the Amazon seller/ refurbisher put software on the
computer that intercepts the Windows installer/
out-of-the-box-experience until you enter their code (?).
Once the code was entered, were you able to install/ configure Windows?
Once Windows was installed and configured, have you seen the challenge/
code prompt again?
Before you install Debian:
1. Have your friend create a Microsoft account.
2. Activate Windows on the computer. Log in to the Microsoft account.
Link the Windows license to the Microsoft account and verify that you
can see the Device and license in the Microsoft account.
3. Create a Windows Recovery Drive using a USB flash drive. Put the
USB flash drive in a safe location.
4. Run Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Backup all data and drives, and
create a system image, to an external HDD. Put the external HDD in a
safe location.
5. Check if the TPM chip is enabled in Setup. If so, Bit Locker may
have encrypted all internal disks without asking permission or notifying
you (!). Use Windows Bit Locker Manager to check. If Bit Locker is
enabled on any volumes, save the Bit Locker keys to his Microsoft
account. Save the keys on the external HDD. Print the keys on paper.
6. For an extra layer of safety, run Windows Disk Cleanup and Windows
Disk Optimizer on the OS disk. Then take an image using Linux tools --
Clonezilla, dd(1) and gzip(1), etc. -- to the external HDD.
Document the details of every system administration step you take.
David
