Well I solved this: I just had to change the admin password to blank.
Rather a simple solution-one so simple I didn't bother to try before posting.

"Joe" wrote:

> I've finally got everything working perfectly for sysprep. We are using the
> mini-setup wizard because we roll out new pcs every month. The only problem
> I'm having is that the administrator password doesn't change even though
> we're prompted and then make a change. It always stays with the password
> that was used during the sysprep setup steps. Is there anyway to apply the
> prompted password as the new password instead of using the old password?