I'm having troubles changing my password via the confreg method (level 5 password) as explained by cisco. I know it is getting changed because if I load the default config and do a show startup I see the encrypted password was properly changed and saved. After the reboot however into the startup config the password I used doesn't work at all. (Done by: enable secret 'password')

Is there any other method to gain access to the router, or am I possibly doing something wrong?

If not and I have to start fresh and clear everything that is ok, but does doing such a thing interfere with the IOS software? Our licensing and everything is expired and I don't want to lose any functionality by clearing the config. (We'd like to use this router instead of our cheap dlink for our LAN)