HELP PLEASE!!!!!!! XP Pro log in/immediate logoff

[Guest]

I've got a Dell Dimension 4550 running XP Pro. The power went out last night
and when it came back on, all of a sudden we couldn't log on. We had the same
log-on screen, but when we pressed "enter" (we had NO password), it almost
immediately logs us off again. The desktop screen comes up briefly, but then
it's "logging off/saving settings" and right back to logon/password entry
screen.

I've tried: 1 -- logging on as administrator -- at first this looked
successful, because it wasn't an immediate logoff, but after several seconds
during which I thought I'd made it in, it did the same thing.

2 -- booting in safe mode. no good - same password screen/immediate logout

3 -- reverting to last known good config. again, same password/logout problem

4 -- booting into safe mode with command prompt -- no good


I can get into Bios/boot and I've checked the security section and all
passwords are NOT enabled, so that's not it.

We weren't doing anything on the computer when this happened -- no Ad-aware
Blazefind (sp?) removal or software updates that we're aware of. We weren't
even sitting near it!

If anyone can suggest a fix for this that doesn't involve reinstall, I'd be
ECSTATIC!

If not, I'm willing to do a repair reinstall of XP Pro, but before that, I
HAVE TO rescue some Word files/PDFs that my husband has used/created in the
past two weeks. He needs them for his job.

Any ideas on how to rescue those files before initiating reinstall?

thanks, Kren

 

[glee]

Is Service Pack 2 installed?

Insert your Windows XP CD and start the computer. Make sure your computer is
configured in BIOS setup to boot from the CD-ROM drive.

When the Windows XP Setup has started, press "R" to "repair the Windows XP
installation using Recovery Console".

Select the Windows installation to repair (usually C:\Windows) by typing its number
and then pressing ENTER.

Type the Administrator password and press ENTER (The password may be blank....that
is the default).

Type the following commands:
D: [ENTER]
(This assumes your CD-ROM drive is assigned the letter D: Use whatever the actual
assigned letter is).

CD I386 [ENTER]

EXPAND USERINIT.EX_ C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 [ENTER]


After entering "EXPAND USERINIT.EX_ C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32" you should see the text "1
file(s) copied", if it was successful.

Remove the Windows XP CD, type "EXIT" and press ENTER to restart your computer.

If that was the problem, you should now be able to log on normally.

 

[WTC]

I've got a Dell Dimension 4550 running XP Pro. The power went out
last night and when it came back on, all of a sudden we couldn't log
on. We had the same log-on screen, but when we pressed "enter" (we
had NO password), it almost immediately logs us off again. The
desktop screen comes up briefly, but then it's "logging off/saving
settings" and right back to logon/password entry screen.

Hi Kren,

Hi A Johnston,

If the following solutions do not work for you then please let me know.

Try using system restore in Safe using Command Prompt.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

--or--

You cannot log on to Windows XP after you remove Wsaupdater.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892893

--or--

The problem may be an incorrect system drive letter. With a networked
machine, open the registry and connect to the problematic machine and
navigate to:

[MACHINE_NAME\HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

and delete all values that look like this:

\DosDevices\C
\DosDevices\D
\DosDevices\E
and so on

When finished, make sure you disconnect the machine from the registry.
There are other ways to gain access to the registry if you cannot
connect to the problematic machine via networked Registry. Please let
me know if you need more information on how to gain access to the
Registry if you cannot by a networked registry.

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188

 

[Guest]

Glen and William -- thank you very much for your replies -- I really, really
appreciate your help.

I tried what I could -- I can't boot to safe mode with command prompt, so I
couldn't try system restore.

And the last one from William, editing the registry on a networked
computer, I can't try because although the machine is networked when it's
properly logged on, I can't access it when it's not.


Yes, if there's any more information on how to gain access to the registry,
please let me know, although I'm not hopeful (I didn't have this computer set
up to be completely accessible from another computer)

I am not completely positive I have service pack 2 -- we bought this
computer used about six months ago, and I don't believe the woman we bought
it from was particularly computer-literate. But I had been running update and
all the Microsoft tools automatically since then; updater has not indicated
that I needed to install it, so I assume it's in there.

At any rate, I tried Glen's suggestion of expanding userinit.ex_ -- got one
unexpected prompt of "file already exists - overwrite?" -- which I answered
yes to.

And I tried William's suggestion of the wsaupdater fix.

Both were completed successfully, but I rebooted and still get the password
prompt/login/logoff loop.

It was very frustrating to be in DOS and not be able to access these crucial
files -- is there any way I can navigate to them and just copy them to a
floppy diskette??? Then I'll just reinstall XP and not worry about this.

Thanks again for all your help!

I've got a Dell Dimension 4550 running XP Pro. The power went out
last night and when it came back on, all of a sudden we couldn't log
on. We had the same log-on screen, but when we pressed "enter" (we
had NO password), it almost immediately logs us off again. The
desktop screen comes up briefly, but then it's "logging off/saving
settings" and right back to logon/password entry screen.

Hi Kren,

Hi A Johnston,

If the following solutions do not work for you then please let me know.

Try using system restore in Safe using Command Prompt.

How to start the System Restore tool at a command prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

--or--

You cannot log on to Windows XP after you remove Wsaupdater.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892893

--or--

The problem may be an incorrect system drive letter. With a networked
machine, open the registry and connect to the problematic machine and
navigate to:

[MACHINE_NAME\HKLM\SYSTEM\MountedDevices]

and delete all values that look like this:

\DosDevices\C
\DosDevices\D
\DosDevices\E
and so on

When finished, make sure you disconnect the machine from the registry.
There are other ways to gain access to the registry if you cannot
connect to the problematic machine via networked Registry. Please let
me know if you need more information on how to gain access to the
Registry if you cannot by a networked registry.

How to restore the system/boot drive letter in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=223188

 

[WTC]

Glen and William -- thank you very much for your replies -- I really,
really appreciate your help.

I tried what I could -- I can't boot to safe mode with command
prompt, so I couldn't try system restore.

And the last one from William, editing the registry on a networked
computer, I can't try because although the machine is networked when
it's properly logged on, I can't access it when it's not.

Hi Kren,

If you cannot access the machine via networked registry then please try
this method using a BartPE Bootable CD.

1. Make a BartPE Bootable CD
Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows
CD/DVD
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
Follow the directions on their webpage to create this CD/DVD.

2. Boot the Computer with the BartPE CD/DVD.

3. Open the Run dialog box from the Start Menu and type "regedit.exe"
without the quotes.

4. Highlight the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" hive.

5. From the File menu select "Load Hive".

6. Navigate to the following location on your hard drive.

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\config"

and select the file "SYSTEM". (Has no file extension)

7. Name the Hive "MyPC".

8. Navigate to this location in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC\MountedDevices]

9. Delete all values that look like this:

DosDevices\C
DosDevices\D
DosDevices\E
and so on

10. Highlight this registration key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC]

11. From the File menu select "Unload Hive"

12. Reboot and remove BartPE CD/DVD.

13. Try logging into Windows.

NOTE: You could also remove the hard drive and attched the drive as a
slaved hard drive to a working Windows XP/2003 machine to perform these
steps.

 

[Guest]

Thanks William, but that didn't work either. I burned the CD, got in to boot,
changed the registry, but still get logon/logg. I also tried to move the
elusive files that I could SEE RIGHT THERE, but I couldn't copy them to a
floppy or print or get Explorer to run so I could e-mail them somewhere or
connect to my other networked computers.

I'm giving up at this point. Thanks again.

Glen and William -- thank you very much for your replies -- I really,
really appreciate your help.

I tried what I could -- I can't boot to safe mode with command
prompt, so I couldn't try system restore.

And the last one from William, editing the registry on a networked
computer, I can't try because although the machine is networked when
it's properly logged on, I can't access it when it's not.

Hi Kren,

If you cannot access the machine via networked registry then please try
this method using a BartPE Bootable CD.

1. Make a BartPE Bootable CD
Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows
CD/DVD
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
Follow the directions on their webpage to create this CD/DVD.

2. Boot the Computer with the BartPE CD/DVD.

3. Open the Run dialog box from the Start Menu and type "regedit.exe"
without the quotes.

4. Highlight the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" hive.

5. From the File menu select "Load Hive".

6. Navigate to the following location on your hard drive.

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\config"

and select the file "SYSTEM". (Has no file extension)

7. Name the Hive "MyPC".

8. Navigate to this location in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC\MountedDevices]

9. Delete all values that look like this:

DosDevices\C
DosDevices\D
DosDevices\E
and so on

10. Highlight this registration key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC]

11. From the File menu select "Unload Hive"

12. Reboot and remove BartPE CD/DVD.

13. Try logging into Windows.

NOTE: You could also remove the hard drive and attched the drive as a
slaved hard drive to a working Windows XP/2003 machine to perform these
steps.

 

[glee]

Glen and William -- thank you very much for your replies -- I really,
really appreciate your help.

I tried what I could -- I can't boot to safe mode with command
prompt, so I couldn't try system restore.

And the last one from William, editing the registry on a networked
computer, I can't try because although the machine is networked when
it's properly logged on, I can't access it when it's not.

Hi Kren,

If you cannot access the machine via networked registry then please try
this method using a BartPE Bootable CD.

1. Make a BartPE Bootable CD
Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) bootable live windows
CD/DVD
http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/
Follow the directions on their webpage to create this CD/DVD.

2. Boot the Computer with the BartPE CD/DVD.

3. Open the Run dialog box from the Start Menu and type "regedit.exe"
without the quotes.

4. Highlight the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE" hive.

5. From the File menu select "Load Hive".

6. Navigate to the following location on your hard drive.

"C:\WINDOWS\system32\config"

and select the file "SYSTEM". (Has no file extension)

7. Name the Hive "MyPC".

8. Navigate to this location in the registry:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC\MountedDevices]

9. Delete all values that look like this:

DosDevices\C
DosDevices\D
DosDevices\E
and so on

10. Highlight this registration key

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\MyPC]

11. From the File menu select "Unload Hive"

12. Reboot and remove BartPE CD/DVD.

13. Try logging into Windows.

NOTE: You could also remove the hard drive and attched the drive as a
slaved hard drive to a working Windows XP/2003 machine to perform these
steps.

Hi William,

What about having Kren run the procedure in the article you cited, from a BartPE CD
boot?
You cannot log on to Windows XP after you remove Wsaupdater.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892893

I'm not sure she has actually been able to try that procedure yet, due to not being
able to log on to use regedit.

In Registry Editor, expand
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
In the right pane, right-click userinit, and then click Modify.
Replace wsaupdater.exe with userinit.exe, (make sure to include the comma, as
shown), and then click OK.

 

[WTC]

Thanks William, but that didn't work either. I burned the CD, got in
to boot, changed the registry, but still get logon/logg. I also tried
to move the elusive files that I could SEE RIGHT THERE, but I
couldn't copy them to a floppy or print or get Explorer to run so I
could e-mail them somewhere or connect to my other networked
computers.

I'm giving up at this point. Thanks again.

Hi Kren,

Try Ramesh's article, his article describes how to edit Windows XP
registry with a BartPE environment using MS KB 892893 ("Edit the
Registry" section): You cannot log on to Windows XP after you remove
Wsaupdater.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=892893

How to edit the registry offline using BartPE boot CD ?
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/peboot.htm

[Courtesy of Ramesh Srinivasan, MVP]

 

[FeMaster]

Thanks William, but that didn't work either. I burned the CD, got in to
boot,
changed the registry, but still get logon/logg. I also tried to move the
elusive files that I could SEE RIGHT THERE, but I couldn't copy them to a
floppy or print or get Explorer to run so I could e-mail them somewhere or
connect to my other networked computers.

I'm giving up at this point. Thanks again.

I didn't read any of the other "fixes", but this seems to have a pretty good
solution, and sounds nearly identical to the issue you are having...

http://www.opentechsupport.net/forums/archive/topic/20552-1.html

Hope it works, if you haven't already given up and formatted the drive.