can't log in to XP

[Guest]

After restarting my computer I see the following sequence repeat forever...
Windows is starting up
Welcome
my wallpapeer flashes momentarily
welcome screen with message that owner has 9 messages
click on owner
loading your persoanl settings
my wallpaper flashs momentarily
logging off
saving your settings

this repeats wheter I restart, shut down safe mode normal mode anything.
can't get past login screen, which I never even had to get to before the last
reboot tonight.

HELP

 

[WTC]

After restarting my computer I see the following sequence repeat
forever...
Windows is starting up
Welcome
my wallpapeer flashes momentarily
welcome screen with message that owner has 9 messages
click on owner
loading your persoanl settings
my wallpaper flashs momentarily
logging off
saving your settings

this repeats wheter I restart, shut down safe mode normal mode anything.
can't get past login screen, which I never even had to get to before the
last
reboot tonight.

HELP

Fix:
1. Boot using your winxp cd.
2. Enter recovery console.
3. at the command prompt go to

C:/windows/system32

4. next type:

copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe

5. exit and reboot normally. You should now be able to logon. But you're not
done yet!

6. run regedit

7. find the Userinit key in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

8. modify the entry:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsaupdater.exe,

so that it reads:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\userinit.exe,

 

[Guest]

William you are a life saver.
I didn't have a Disc handy, so I F8 keyed during reboot
Did a Safe Mode with Recovery Console
and did the copy via DOS prompts.
Booted up like it used to and I fixed the registry.

Tanks a million.
Any idea how it got into that state ?
There was a non-responsive program the last time I shut down,
but I didn't bother to write down what it was.

 

[WTC]

William you are a life saver.
I didn't have a Disc handy, so I F8 keyed during reboot
Did a Safe Mode with Recovery Console
and did the copy via DOS prompts.
Booted up like it used to and I fixed the registry.

Tanks a million.
Any idea how it got into that state ?
There was a non-responsive program the last time I shut down,
but I didn't bother to write down what it was.

You're welcome and thank for the feedback. It may have been caused by
malware. Have you scanned your system for spyware and/or malware. Virus
scanners are not very good at detecting these files/programs. There are
plenty of Free scanners to perform this for you. Here are a couple,

Adaware SE
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/support/download

Spybot - search and destroy

http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html



Microsoft® Windows AntiSpyware (Beta)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...a2-6a57-4c57-a8bd-dbf62eda9671&displaylang=en

http://tinyurl.com/6fuq4 (shortened URL)

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

This is usually caused after a malware / virus cleanup (may be BlazeFind).
See section "Unable to logon to Windows after removing BlazeFind using a
spyware removal utility?"
http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm

Unable to Log On To Windows XP After Removing wsaupdater.exe:
http://www.lavahelp.com/articles/v6/04/06/0901.html

Incorrect Userinit value in the registry is known to be the cause:
http://www.lavasoftsupport.com/index.php?showtopic=29752

BlazeFind:
http://rickrogers.org/fixes.htm#Blazefind

 

[Guest]

William, you were very helpful, so I hope you can help with this.

It's a similar issue, WinXP gets to the WinXP logo screen, right before one
would normally select which user to logon as. At this point it just sits
there, and does not continue, no matter what I do. I attempted to follow
these directions on the chance that it would help, but upon rebooting (step
5) there was no joy, and it was still at the prompt.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

[WTC]

William, you were very helpful, so I hope you can help with this.

It's a similar issue, WinXP gets to the WinXP logo screen, right before
one
would normally select which user to logon as. At this point it just sits
there, and does not continue, no matter what I do. I attempted to follow
these directions on the chance that it would help, but upon rebooting
(step
5) there was no joy, and it was still at the prompt.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

You are probably missing the userinit registry entry which is preventing you
from logging in.

Can you make a BartPE bootable disc? You can obtain the software and
directions on how to create the BartPE CD here,
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/.

When you have finished the BartPE CD, then boot from this CD and follow
these directions.

1. Boot from the BartPE CD.
2. Type the following in the run command dialog box.

regedit

3. Highlight "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE".
4. Then go File > Load Hive on the Toolbar.
5. Locate "windows\system32\config" on *your computer hard drive* and select
the file
"software".
6. Called this "Loaded Hive" "MyRegistry",.
7. Navigate to

HKLM\MyRegistry\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

8. Find Userinit in the right hand pans and verify the following
information. This would be the information for the userint value. If this
info is not there, then create the key.

Name: Userinit
Type: REG_SZ
Date: C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,

Note: Make sure there is a comma at the end of userinit.exe.

9. Hightlight HKLM\MyRegistry and unload the hive.
10. Shutdown the BartPE Enviroment and see if you can log on now.

Note: You can also perform all these steps if you *slave* your hard drive to
another XP machine.

 

[Guest]

Hello again!

I am not able to make a BartPE disk because... well, I can't log on to my
WinXP machine. ^^ (This machine that I am on is not capable of making
anything like a BartPE boot disk.) I do not know when or if I can get hold
of one. Do you have any other suggestions?

 

[WTC]

Hello again!

I am not able to make a BartPE disk because... well, I can't log on to my
WinXP machine. ^^ (This machine that I am on is not capable of making
anything like a BartPE boot disk.) I do not know when or if I can get
hold
of one. Do you have any other suggestions?

Do you have a friend that is running an XP system? If so, you can take your
hard drive out and install into your friend's machine as a *Slave*.

Then basically just follow my prior instructions. If you need more help,
please let me know.

 

[Guest]

Unfortunately, I did not have that option.

I ended up doing a repair-reinstall after booting from the WinXP CD. A bit
inelegant, but that SEEMED to work.

One thing I noticed while doing that was that the drive letters got shuffled
around. My Windows installation had been on the E: drive, after a previous
foulup, now it was back on the C: drive.

Anyway, thank you very much for your help!