R
Richard J.
I have a Toshiba M30X laptop running a non-OEM XP Home SP2. On switching
on yesterday I got the message about \windows\system32\config\system
being missing or corrupt, indicating a corrupted registry. I followed
Part 1 of the Microsoft advice in KB 307545 to recover from the
corrupted registry using the Recovery Console, but on booting up Windows
in safe mode to start part 2 of the advice, I got an lsass.exe system
error: "When trying to update a password, the return status indicates
that the value provided for the current password is not correct."
Further use of the Recovery Console was not possible, as it called for
an Admin password which I had never set up (and blank didn't work).
I therefore tried to do a Repair Installation from the XP CD-ROM, but
this also gives the lsass.exe password error.
I know that lsass.exe can be hijacked by the Sasser worm, but I can't
believe it's that, as the symptoms seem different, and I was running
SP2, Zone Alarm firewall and a fully-updated AVG 7.5.
Can anyone suggest what I can do other than wiping the C: drive and
doing a full reinstallation of Windows XP, and other software on C:?
And if I do that, will any software that I have installed in a second
Program Files folder on the D: drive still work, or will I have to
reinstall it all from the CDs again? This is the second time in 6
months that I've had the config\system file missing problem, and it's a
pain.
on yesterday I got the message about \windows\system32\config\system
being missing or corrupt, indicating a corrupted registry. I followed
Part 1 of the Microsoft advice in KB 307545 to recover from the
corrupted registry using the Recovery Console, but on booting up Windows
in safe mode to start part 2 of the advice, I got an lsass.exe system
error: "When trying to update a password, the return status indicates
that the value provided for the current password is not correct."
Further use of the Recovery Console was not possible, as it called for
an Admin password which I had never set up (and blank didn't work).
I therefore tried to do a Repair Installation from the XP CD-ROM, but
this also gives the lsass.exe password error.
I know that lsass.exe can be hijacked by the Sasser worm, but I can't
believe it's that, as the symptoms seem different, and I was running
SP2, Zone Alarm firewall and a fully-updated AVG 7.5.
Can anyone suggest what I can do other than wiping the C: drive and
doing a full reinstallation of Windows XP, and other software on C:?
And if I do that, will any software that I have installed in a second
Program Files folder on the D: drive still work, or will I have to
reinstall it all from the CDs again? This is the second time in 6
months that I've had the config\system file missing problem, and it's a
pain.