Password stopped working after upgrade to 11.10

We have been using ubuntu for over two years. Every time we download an upgrade, our password has always kept working. After downloading 11.10, The password quit working. We went to the community to get answers to retrieve. We followed the prompting to reset password and ran into problems. We made it to where it says to change the RW to RO. It gave us four lines for 11.10. All four did not have a RW at the end of the line. Then we got a message stating daemon had died. We can use the computer but cannot update or change anything without the password. Can anyone help us? We have a Compaq Presario SR2170NX with a new hard drive. We had Vista on the old hard drive and it died. When we bought new, we went with ubuntu and it works great for our needs except for iTunes and this problem.