Win2K Pro hangs on "Loading your personal settings"

[linolil]

I have one windows 2000 pro system that hangs
whenever you try to log in with a domain account.
I've seen many discussions on the net about this
type of problem, but none exactly match my symptoms
and none of the recommended solutions seem to help.

The domain server is an old, samba/solaris box that has
worked for years.

[1] Over forty client systems work without any problems
[2] This system worked until yesterday. One change is
the fact that all patches were brought up to date
the day before this problem developed.
[3] Local administrator can log in as normal.
[4] Domain accounts hang on login at the "Loading your
personal settings" box.
[4a] This is a complete hang. The mouse works, but the
system does not respond to CNT-ALT-DEL or anything
else, other than the reset button.
[4b] The domain administration account does not have
a profile on the server. I get the normal missing
profile messages, followed by the loading box.
[5] I have used the administration account to delete
all remote user profiles, but no change.
[5a] Attempting to log in the same remote user ends
with exactly the same size profile on the system,
which is within a dozen KB of what was left on
another system.
[5b] The domain account always ends up with a local
profile of 401KB.

Other than reinstall the entire system, which could be
a real problem (I don't have the needed SCSI drivers),
what other things might I try?

Linolil

 

[Dave Patrick]

Is it only for one user? If so try viewing the key for the user at;
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

If you get "Error opening key" then the registry is corrupt. Failing a
backup the machine needs recut.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[linolil]

Thank you for responding.

I'm testing with two accounts. The domain administrator, who
doesn't have a remote profile, and a normal domain user. Both
hang, whereas local accounts can log into the machine without
problems.

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
has an entry for each of the users and the various values appear to
make sense. I verified, while I was at it, that I could access
the remote profile for the normal user as defined in the key,
using his username & password.
\\servername\username\profile.

I did discover that network neighborhood contained entries for some
non-existant machines, but deleting them did not change the symptoms.

Linolil

 

[linolil]

One quick clarification;

The system is obviously somewhat alive during the time
it appears to be hung on "Loading". The color bar in the
splash logo is still moving and the mouse is still able to
move the arrow around. But, all keyboard entries, such
as CNT-ALT-DEL are completely ignored.

The original user let it run overnight, thinking he had a large
profile, but it never completed whatever it is doing.

Linolil

 

[Dave Patrick]

As a test you might try adding 'Domain Users' to the local administrators
group on the machine.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[linolil]

Just to let you know, I ended up doing a complete system
reinstall.... which "cured" the problem. Troubleshooting
was simply taking too much time -- making it more expensive
than it was worth.

 

[Dave Patrick]

Yep, sometimes this is the case.

--

Regards,

Dave Patrick ....Please no email replies - reply in newsgroup.
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft MVP [Windows]
http://www.microsoft.com/protect