Cannot log on

[jm]

A friend of mine cannot log onto his Windows 2000 sp4 computer. I upgraded
it a few months ago from Win98SE to 2k Pro. At that time he had to supply a
username to logon, but no password. The password was always left blank. He
told me that a couple weeks ago he was prompted that his password was about
to expire. He says he did nothing. Now when the logon screen is presented,
the username is correct, the password is blank, and when you try to log in
it says "applying personal settings," like it's going to load the desktop,
but then it immediately gives a very quick "saving personal settings," and
goes right back to the logon screen.

Does anyone know what's going on here?

jm

 

[Dave Patrick]

This sounds like one of two things; the drive letter has change from
original install, or the drive permissions have changed.

Unable to Log on if the Boot Partition Drive Letter Has Changed
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q249321/


--

Regards,

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

:
|A friend of mine cannot log onto his Windows 2000 sp4 computer. I upgraded
| it a few months ago from Win98SE to 2k Pro. At that time he had to supply
a
| username to logon, but no password. The password was always left blank.
He
| told me that a couple weeks ago he was prompted that his password was
about
| to expire. He says he did nothing. Now when the logon screen is
presented,
| the username is correct, the password is blank, and when you try to log in
| it says "applying personal settings," like it's going to load the desktop,
| but then it immediately gives a very quick "saving personal settings," and
| goes right back to the logon screen.
|
| Does anyone know what's going on here?
|
| jm
|
|
|
|

 

[JM]

Thank you for your answer, and while I'm not disagreeing with you, I have to
say i'm doubtful that either of these options occurred, simply because the
computer worked fine after the upgrade. I cannot imagine what would have
caused a drive letter to change. The use of this computer has been very
basic. Also, what is going on now seems to be related to the password
changing and/or expiring.

Is that consistent with the problem you've observed?

thank you,

jm

 

[JM]

Dave, perhaps disregard my last repy. I copied and pasted your link and
obviously got to the wrong kb article. When I hit the hyperlink and went
right to it, that sounds exactly like what's going on. I will attempt this
fix and report back.

thank you,

jm

 

[Dave Patrick]

You would get incorrect username or password error. (or something to that
effect) It would not logon and then logoff.

--

Regards,

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

:
| Thank you for your answer, and while I'm not disagreeing with you, I have
to
| say i'm doubtful that either of these options occurred, simply because the
| computer worked fine after the upgrade. I cannot imagine what would have
| caused a drive letter to change. The use of this computer has been very
| basic. Also, what is going on now seems to be related to the password
| changing and/or expiring.
|
| Is that consistent with the problem you've observed?
|
| thank you,
|
| jm

 

[JM]

Do you have any idea what would cause something like this?

Also, I'm having a hard time working through the MS fix. This computer was
not networked. It was a singular internet machine.

jm

 

[Dave Patrick]

Sounds like option 5 is for you. It might happen if there was a zip drive
involved.

Also be advised that upgrades from win9x almost always fail for any number
of reasons. Save yourself some time and trouble, given that you'll more than
likely end up with an unstable OS with all the remnants/ corruption left
behind from the upgrade. Best to blow it all away and go for the clean
install.

To do a clean install, either boot the Windows 2000 install CD-Rom or setup
disks. The set of four install disks can be created from your Windows 2000
CD-Rom; change to the \bootdisk directory on the CD-Rom and execute
makeboot.exe (from dos) or makebt32.exe (from 32 bit) and follow the
prompts.

Setup inspects your computer's hardware configuration and then begins to
install the Setup and driver files. When the Windows 2000 Professional
screen appears, press ENTER to set up Windows 2000 Professional.

Read the license agreement, and then press the F8 key to accept the terms of
the license agreement and continue the installation.

When the Windows 2000 Professional Setup screen appears, all the existing
partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard
disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partitions Press D to delete an
existing partition, If you press D to delete an existing partition, you must
then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System
partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition. Repeat this
step for each of the existing partitions When all the partitions are deleted
press F3 to exit setup, (to avoid unexpected drive letter assignments with
your new install) then restart the pc then when you get to this point in
setup again select the unpartitioned space, and then press C to create a new
partition and specify the size (if required). Windows will by default use
all available space.

During Windows 2000 setup, at some point, will want to confirm the previous
operating system for the upgrade; at that point you'll simply insert the
qualified product install CD for it to verify. Then the install will
proceed.

Be sure to apply these to your new install before connecting to any network.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/E/6/A/E6A04295-D2A8-40D0-A0C5-241BFECD095E/W2KSP4_EN.EXE
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-043.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS03-049.mspx

Then

Rollup 1 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...CF-8850-4531-B52B-BF28B324C662&displaylang=en


--

Regards,

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

:
| Do you have any idea what would cause something like this?
|
| Also, I'm having a hard time working through the MS fix. This computer
was
| not networked. It was a singular internet machine.
|
| jm