Logon problems with networked laptop

[Guest]

I networked my daughter's laptop to the house PC and joined her in our
Microsoft workgroup. When I restarted the laptop, the I can not get past the
logon screen: "System cannot log you on. Make sure your username and domain
are correct, then type password again." I did not change the username or
password and I cannot get past this screen to do anything even in safe mode.
Any suggestions or do I have to find the CD and reinstall Windows XP Pro??
Thanks for any help....

 

[Guest]

You could try this guided help.

How to Recover from a Corrupted Registry :
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q307545

 

[John John]

The laptop was previously joined to a domain (at work or at her
school/university) By joining the laptop to your workgroup you have
broken the trust to the domain. The only way to now logon to the laptop
is by way of the built-in local administrator account. If you do not
know the password to the account you are done for unless you want to use
a password cracking utility. If this is a work laptop you should not
use a password cracking utility! She will have to ask her IT person to
rejoin the laptop to the domain, you cannot do that by yourself at your
end, it has to be done by the domain administrator. This is a common
error that many laptop user make, it's no big deal for the domain
administrator, he/she has surely dealt with this minor problem before.
Your daughter can use your workgroup resources without joining it, the
IT guys at work can help her set this up.

If this is not a company laptop then crack the administrator password to
logon to the laptop.

John

 

[Guest]

This was a laptop computer from work, but is not associated with that work
anymore. I would presume I could use a password cracking utility on this
then? If so, recommendations?

I am the administrator of my workgroup, but I do not know the administrator
passwords for the domain associated with work, I am thinking this is the one
I would need.

Thanks,

 

[John John]

You don't need the domain administrator password to leave the domain.
The password that you now need to access the laptop is the password for
the Local Administrator account. If the laptop was given to your
daughter and is no loger needed for work then you can use a password
reset utility:

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

To access the built-in Administrator account press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice
and the logon screen.

Or reinstall Windows if you can't logon.

John

 

[Guest]

John John,

Thanks for the password cracking utility, it worked like a charm! I was
able to get into the computer again, but now I presume I need to change that
domain/workgroup setting or no? Obviously, the laptop screen/wallpaper has
changed and my daughter's personal settings are not there. Would it be
easier to just creat a new user account for her and reapply her personal
settings?

Thanks,
Sandy

 

[John John]

No, you don't want or need to change the domain/workgroup settings
again. You couldn't even if you wanted to, the laptop would have to be
physically connected to the domain controller and you would need domain
administrator credentials to do it. The domain is forever disjoined,
leave the laptop in the workgroup.

As for her account you have no choice but to create a new local account,
the accounts with domain credentials are also forever lost when you
disjoin from a domain, they can never be reused or recreated. That
would also be the case if the laptop were to be rejoined to the domain,
the domain administrator would have to create a new account for her.
Create a new local account for her and copy her documents and data files
from her old profile to the new one. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151

John

 

[Guest]

John John,

I really appreciate all your support. I created a username for my daughter.
It shows up in the control panel users accounts, but when I tried to copy
the old settings to the new following the directions in the link, her new
username is not shown. Also, when I tried to log on to as that user, I got
the same message as the original "System cannot log you on.... check
username...." I'm sure I am just missing one or two little tweaks! Any
suggestions?

Thanks,

 

[John John]

Before you can copy stuff to her profile you have to logon to her
account then log back out. On NT systems new user accounts are really
only created when you log on to the new account. I don't know why it is
that you cannot logon locally to the new account that you created.
Don't try to log on with an @DomainName, just try to log on locally.
Give her a slightly different username and a different password than her
old account and see if you can log on and have her account properly created.

John