Cant log on to XP

Hi there,

I (stupidly) let a friend try and log on to my XP laptop,
I dont know what they did (and apparently neither do
they) but now I cant log on using my correct user name
and my correct password. The error is 'The system could
not log you on. make sure your user name is correct...
etc'. Apart from changing my password (which they said
they definately didn't do), what could they have done,
just by trying to unsuccessfully log on? I was hoping it
was something silly like they turned NumLock on, but alas
it wasn't that. My laptop is dual boot with Windows
Server 2003.

Thanks in advance for any help!
Nadine

At the Welcome Screen, Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice. This will get you the old Windows 2000 style logon dialog. Enter Administrator and any password that you may have put on this account. If you're unsure of the Administrator password leave it blank.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Nadine" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:2ea8901c46d7b$3155ad40$a601280a@phx.gbl...
> Hi there,
>
> I (stupidly) let a friend try and log on to my XP laptop,
> I dont know what they did (and apparently neither do
> they) but now I cant log on using my correct user name
> and my correct password. The error is 'The system could
> not log you on. make sure your user name is correct...
> etc'. Apart from changing my password (which they said
> they definately didn't do), what could they have done,
> just by trying to unsuccessfully log on? I was hoping it
> was something silly like they turned NumLock on, but alas
> it wasn't that. My laptop is dual boot with Windows
> Server 2003.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help!
> Nadine

Now here is where it gets worse... I renamed the
administrator account, and thats the one I use to log on
with. I tried Guest as well, but of course thats
disabled. It's XP professional and I use the old style
W2K login screen. I cant understand what my mate did,
they were trying to log on to a generic logon that I had
created for her, and it wanted a password change but I
didn't give the account permission to change it itself,
so access denied, they then tried my log on and thats
where the problems started... am I making any sense??


>-----Original Message-----
>At the Welcome Screen, Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice. This
will get you the old Windows 2000 style logon dialog.
Enter Administrator and any password that you may have
put on this account. If you're unsure of the
Administrator password leave it blank.
>
>--
>Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered
Smart Display
>Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
>http://www.dougknox.com
>--------------------------------
>Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
>--------------------------------
>Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
>Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
>
>"Nadine" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:2ea8901c46d7b$3155ad40$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>> Hi there,
>>
>> I (stupidly) let a friend try and log on to my XP
laptop,
>> I dont know what they did (and apparently neither do
>> they) but now I cant log on using my correct user name
>> and my correct password. The error is 'The system
could
>> not log you on. make sure your user name is correct...
>> etc'. Apart from changing my password (which they said
>> they definately didn't do), what could they have done,
>> just by trying to unsuccessfully log on? I was hoping
it
>> was something silly like they turned NumLock on, but
alas
>> it wasn't that. My laptop is dual boot with Windows
>> Server 2003.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help!
>> Nadine
>.
>

Its possible that your account is locked out, due to multiple invalid password attempts. Leave the machine idle for 20 minutes to an hour and try again.

Other than that, you would have to reset the Admin account password.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/editor.html

The above link is just one example of how to do this.

Note: This is the primary reason you should not use the built in Administrator account for every day use. Its your only way in, in case of problems.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Nadine" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:2ff7801c46d94$c229c040$a301280a@phx.gbl...
> Now here is where it gets worse... I renamed the
> administrator account, and thats the one I use to log on
> with. I tried Guest as well, but of course thats
> disabled. It's XP professional and I use the old style
> W2K login screen. I cant understand what my mate did,
> they were trying to log on to a generic logon that I had
> created for her, and it wanted a password change but I
> didn't give the account permission to change it itself,
> so access denied, they then tried my log on and thats
> where the problems started... am I making any sense??
>
>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>At the Welcome Screen, Press CTRL-ALT-DEL twice. This
> will get you the old Windows 2000 style logon dialog.
> Enter Administrator and any password that you may have
> put on this account. If you're unsure of the
> Administrator password leave it blank.
>>
>>--
>>Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered
> Smart Display
>>Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
>>http://www.dougknox.com
>>--------------------------------
>>Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro
>>http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm
>>--------------------------------
>>Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
>>Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.
>>
>>"Nadine" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
> message news:2ea8901c46d7b$3155ad40$a601280a@phx.gbl...
>>> Hi there,
>>>
>>> I (stupidly) let a friend try and log on to my XP
> laptop,
>>> I dont know what they did (and apparently neither do
>>> they) but now I cant log on using my correct user name
>>> and my correct password. The error is 'The system
> could
>>> not log you on. make sure your user name is correct...
>>> etc'. Apart from changing my password (which they said
>>> they definately didn't do), what could they have done,
>>> just by trying to unsuccessfully log on? I was hoping
> it
>>> was something silly like they turned NumLock on, but
> alas
>>> it wasn't that. My laptop is dual boot with Windows
>>> Server 2003.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance for any help!
>>> Nadine
>>.
>>