Lsass.exe-System Error

[Ushnell]

A while after utilizing a computer I just bought from a neighbor that had
Windows XP installed on it, I came to realize that it was infected with
spy-ware and the sort and I decided to go to war by looking through the
registry to see their unfamiliar key names and using Spybot to find their
exact storage locations such as their CLSID-Inproc Server .

This really kept me busy and I enjoyed it but it led me to do something I
totally regret:I decided to look into the unexpanded SAM (Security Accounts
Manager) key in Regedit by setting up permissions to get Full control of it
so I can read its contents; which I have never done since using Windows.

I was doing this for learning how the system stores secured information and
how it relates to the user accounts stored in it. but after I was done I
decided to let the System have control back by deleting my permissions,
closing regedit, doing some work and restarted the computer.

That's when I realized I made a mistake because now a dialog box pops up
before Windows Logon stating:

Security Accounts Manager initialization failed because of the fallowing
error: Access is Denied. Error Status:0xc0000022. Please click OK to shutdown
this system and reboot into Safe Mode, check the event log for more
information.

I have tried that especially Last Known Good Configuration but it seems that
lsass.exe is not letting Windows Logon go any further then where it starts.


Is there anyway I can reverse this and fix this problem? please help.

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

System Restore?

 

[Ushnell]

System Restore?

Well you happen to be right my friend but look at it this way: How can I
run System Restore if I can't log on to Windows?

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

Safe Mode?

Well you happen to be right my friend but look at it this way: How can I
run System Restore if I can't log on to Windows?

 

[Ushnell]

Safe Mode?

Please click OK to

 

[Malke]

Please click OK to

At this point you need to do a clean install of Windows.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke

 

[Ushnell]

At this point you need to do a clean install of Windows.

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows - What
you will need on-hand

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

Thank you for that resource Malke but I beleive I can't go that route
because the truth is that I found this computer in front of a neihbors house
so I can't re-instal XP because he/she didn't throw it out with boxes
containing the manuals and the CD and such as you would expect.

What I decied to do is plug in the hard drive as a slave into my Windows
2000 computer and used Regedit to load and replace the affected SAM with the
one from the C:\winnt\repair folder and saved it to the config folder but
that created another problem. After I made the registry change I restarted
the pc and Windows loaded up nicely but it seems that the original user
account was replaced with a fresh new one. Other problems I have seen are: I
can't go to the Control Panel, Explorer.exe restarts when I right click and
click on the File menu and User Accounts doesn't seem to save settings to
allow Windows Logon to offer the choice of logging on a the Guest.

I have many times used System Restore to go back to a previous state but it
always comes up saying "System Restore Incomplete" no changes were made to
your system. now that I've updated this post, I hope responses now relate to
this exact problem. Thank You in advance whomever will provide some help.