Logon Problem involving the Registry

[Steve]

My XP Home Ed. has several user accounts for logging on.
One of them has problems pretty regularly (about every
2nd or 3rd logon) where the logon attempt produces a
dialog box which states that the user's logon could not
be performed, and the default logon for the system is
being used.

The XP Event Viewer shows numerous error entries in the
Application section related to these logon events. There
are usually 2 events associated with the problem. The
event IDs are 1505 and 1508. Here is a typical
description from a 1508 entry:

"Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often
caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security
rights.

DETAIL - The system has attempted to load or restore a
file into the registry, but the specified file is not in
a registry file format. for C:\Documents and
Settings\Dayna\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows\\UsrClass.dat"

The userid in trouble ("Dayna") has Adminstrator rights,
and the machine has 256MB of RAM.

Any ideas about what might be wrong and what can be done
to correct the problem?

Thanks....Steve

 

[pauly [MSFT]]

Hi Steve,

Nice concise statement of the problem and supporting information. The
first thing to look at tis the file Usrclass.dat. This file may be corrupt.

1. Boot into safe mode as the administrator.

2. Set your file viewing preferences to show hidden and system files.

3. browse to c:\documents and settings\(user account)\local
settings\application
data\Microsoft\windows

The file you want to find should be here: C:\Documents and
Settings\Dayna\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Windows\UsrClass.dat

4. rename the usrclass.dat file to usrclass.old

<note: this file should be auto-generated on boot up>

If this doesn't resolve the issue, please let us know and we'll get some
next steps to try.

=========

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Windows XP Security Homepage:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/security/default.asp

Windows 2000 Security Homepage:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/security/default.asp

Top 10 Windows Newsgroups Security Questions:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/newsgroups/default.asp?url=/technet/newsgro
ups/nodepages/sectop10.asp

=========
Paul Hayes, MCSE
Product Support Services
Microsoft Corporation
(e-mail address removed)


--------------------
| From: "Steve" <[email protected]>
| Subject: Logon Problem involving the Registry
| Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 09:02:45 -0800
|
| My XP Home Ed. has several user accounts for logging on.
| One of them has problems pretty regularly (about every
| 2nd or 3rd logon) where the logon attempt produces a
| dialog box which states that the user's logon could not
| be performed, and the default logon for the system is
| being used.
|
| The XP Event Viewer shows numerous error entries in the
| Application section related to these logon events. There
| are usually 2 events associated with the problem. The
| event IDs are 1505 and 1508. Here is a typical
| description from a 1508 entry:
|
| "Windows was unable to load the registry. This is often
| caused by insufficient memory or insufficient security
| rights.
|
| DETAIL - The system has attempted to load or restore a
| file into the registry, but the specified file is not in
| a registry file format. for C:\Documents and
| Settings\Dayna\Local Settings\Application
| Data\Microsoft\Windows\\UsrClass.dat"
|
| The userid in trouble ("Dayna") has Adminstrator rights,
| and the machine has 256MB of RAM.
|
| Any ideas about what might be wrong and what can be done
| to correct the problem?
|
| Thanks....Steve

 

[Steve]

Paul,

Your procedure worked great! I've logged on 5 times
since applying the fix, and the problem has not recurred.

---Steve