Computer is Locked

[Guest]

I am trying to help a friend whose computer is locked. The blue desktop has
no icons showing. There is a message box that says the computer is locked.
There is also a box with user name and password, but we are unable to type
anything in for the user name or password. She is not aware of any password
to unlock her computer. She is using Windows XP Home.

 

[Guest]

Have you been able to go in to Safe Mode to check things out? Press F8 when
booting up and select Safe Mode......

 

[Rob]

It happened to another user I know he rebooted his laptop & it hasn't
happened again since.

 

[Guest]

Haven't been able to do anything. Only blue screen with message that
computer is locked. Message box for user name and password, but unable to
enter any data. Should I just turn computer off, not using shutdown>

 

[Rob]

Correct.

 

[Guest]

I've also seen this, and like Rob, the solution seems to be a cold restart
(turn the power off).

For the benefit of any experts who might care to jump in with an explanation
of the cause, I've seen this on the following system:

--WinXP Pro, sp2
--2 user profiles, with fast user switching turned on
--no password set for user account
--system wakes from standby (not hibernation, which has been disabled) with
"system is locked; only admin or <username> can unlock" dialog box with
userid correctly filled in and one character (dot) filled in in the
"password" box
--no responsxe to any keyboard input (can't make any changes to "password"
and can't use control-alt-delete)

 

[Guest]

I rebooted also, and the message box disappears. Then it happened again, and
I pressed "OK" and was back on line.