HI - as you have guessed im new here. Im not much on computers so please bear with me.
I have a HP LAPTOP and it was working just fine. I went into the HOSPITAL to have knee replacement surgery and when I got home I can no longer log onto the computer. a microsoft window logon screen comes on for your screen name and password, i put them in and it will not regonize any of them. I have never seen this screen before. its just a square box with the microsoft logo and says screen name and password. i know the screen names and passwords are correct. where do i go from here? :-?
thank you Was this a company laptop that you used at work, but now are using from home? If so you might have may have to authenticate against a domain server.

If this is a home computer, and no one has accessed the computer to change your password while you were gone, you might have gotten infected with a password killer virus or hack attack.

Also be sure that the CAPS LOCK key isn't on in which a password would fail due to case sensitivity. Also check the NUMBER LOCK Key, if you use numbers in your password, be sure the Number Lock key is active.

Usually these problems are due to Caps Lock or Number Lock, or if it is a company laptop that is used outside of its Domain in which an Offline Local Profile should load, or you might need to switch to a Local Profile vs the Company Domain name.

Good Luck... Davethis is a personal laptop, and I double checked the cap lock and number keypad (although there are no numbers in passwords)
I believe it has a virus---where do i go now? I can't even sign on to run a virus checkWhat version of Windows? Are you the only user? Can you log on with the Administrator account? How many user accounts are on there? Do you have a real XP CD? Can you GET into safe mode?

2 users on laptop, windows XP with a real disc, tell me how to get into safe mode, i will do that, then what do i do from there?