user login disappeared; so did workgroup connectivity

[Tito John]

Not sure if these are related, but...

Windows XP Pro thought it found some problems on my system drive at startup
and ran checkdisk; the results showed no bad sectors, but there are three
..CHK files on the drive dating from about the time the problem occurred.

At about the same time, one of my two administrator logins ("administrator,"
and yeah, I know I shouldn't...) disappeared from the login screen. I can
get to it with a couple of three-finger salutes, and everything is still
there. The log in event viewer shows a few warnings, saying that Win could
not unload the administrator profile because some service had it in use. "No
action necessary," the warning concludes.

A few days later, I found that the computer won't find other computers on
the workgroup and can't be found. My Internet connectivity is fine, and I am
still connected to the print server and printer on the network.

My googling was not very productive; it appears to me, perhaps incorrectly,
that I could recreate the "administrator" login manually, but it doesn't
seem like the old settings would transfer to that new account. There were
also references to using TweakUI (for XP) to restore the account to the
login screen, but I can't find the names of the tabs those references say to
use to do the job.

I'm also stalled on how to restore file sharing on this computer. Shutting
down the firewall has no effect.

Appreciate any links to troubleshooting tips and comments about whether I'm
looking at two problems that came up together by coincidence or something
with a common cause.

 

[Bernd]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------

Not sure if these are related, but...

Windows XP Pro thought it found some problems on my system drive at startup
and ran checkdisk; the results showed no bad sectors, but there are three
.CHK files on the drive dating from about the time the problem occurred.

At about the same time, one of my two administrator logins ("administrator,"
and yeah, I know I shouldn't...) disappeared from the login screen. I can
get to it with a couple of three-finger salutes, and everything is still
there. The log in event viewer shows a few warnings, saying that Win could
not unload the administrator profile because some service had it in use. "No
action necessary," the warning concludes.

A few days later, I found that the computer won't find other computers on
the workgroup and can't be found. My Internet connectivity is fine, and I am
still connected to the print server and printer on the network.

My googling was not very productive; it appears to me, perhaps incorrectly,
that I could recreate the "administrator" login manually, but it doesn't
seem like the old settings would transfer to that new account. There were
also references to using TweakUI (for XP) to restore the account to the
login screen, but I can't find the names of the tabs those references say to
use to do the job.

I'm also stalled on how to restore file sharing on this computer. Shutting
down the firewall has no effect.

Appreciate any links to troubleshooting tips and comments about whether I'm
looking at two problems that came up together by coincidence or something
with a common cause.

TweakUI:

Logon -> Settings
Check "Show "Administrator" on Welcome screen"

Bernd

 

[Tito John]

Is there more than one current version of TweakUI? I downloaded ver.
2.10.0.0 from the MS Web site; it says it's for Win XP (SP1 and higher) and
Win Server 2003.

There's nothing about "show administrator on the welcome screen" under the
logon/settings tab. All that's there is a check box to copy settings
(animations, colors, font smoothing, etc.), a confirmation "Copy Now" box
and a description box that says what I'll be copying if I check and click.

There's a "repair" choice on the menu on the left side, but nothing
concerning displaying logins.

Thanks

 

[Bernd]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------

Is there more than one current version of TweakUI? I downloaded ver.
2.10.0.0 from the MS Web site; it says it's for Win XP (SP1 and higher) and
Win Server 2003.

There's nothing about "show administrator on the welcome screen" under the
logon/settings tab. All that's there is a check box to copy settings
(animations, colors, font smoothing, etc.), a confirmation "Copy Now" box
and a description box that says what I'll be copying if I check and click.

There's a "repair" choice on the menu on the left side, but nothing
concerning displaying logins.

Thanks

Sorry, there is a misunderstanding.
I meant
1. Clicking on "Logon" at first (NOT clicking on the + to open Logon
subtree)
2. Now at the right you should see a box named "Settings" in its border,
which contains "show administrator on the welcome screen".

Bernd

 

[Tito John]

Aha! Thanks very much.

So I guess there's no connection between losing the login icon and the loss
of workgroup connectivity.

Any good links you know of to troubleshoot the latter? All the references
I've found are just "how to" guides and assume that everything will go
correctly.

 

[Bernd]

-------- Original-Nachricht --------

Aha! Thanks very much.

So I guess there's no connection between losing the login icon and the loss
of workgroup connectivity.

Any good links you know of to troubleshoot the latter? All the references
I've found are just "how to" guides and assume that everything will go
correctly.

Look here:

http://networking.nitecruzr.net/2005/05/using-network-setup-wizard-in-windows.html
http://winhlp.com/wxnet.htm
http://www.chicagotech.net/

Bernd

 

[Anteaus]

I would also suggest you take a look in the event viewer for 'winlogon'
items, under one of which you might find a description of what chkdsk (the
startup scan) actually did.

An issue with chkdsk is that if it finds a damaged file, it chops-out the
damaged section and attempts to splice the remaining parts back together. It
then flags the file as OK, when in fact it's most definitely NOT OK. This
kind of action might be acceptable on a textfile (or maybe not, especially if
it's a legal document!) but when done to a binary file such as Windows DLL,
that could cause all sorts of problems. In principle it would be better if
the file were left alone, since then it would at least be identifiable as
being faulty.

If this is what's happened then replacing the damaged file with a good copy
is the best solution.