Logon screen won't load on startup (XP Home)

[Yong Huang]

Dell Inspiron 1150, XP Home

When I power up, I'm stuck on the screen showing Windows logo but it's
missing the logon prompt. Usually I would see my username, and a
textbox for me to type in password. Since I can't login, I can't view
hotfixes, event viewer, or turn off antivirus etc.

All hardware tests using the Diagnostics CD are passed. Tried booting
into Safe Mode which shows the same screen (apparently with lower
color depth). Using the last known good configuration shows the same
screen. Short of reinstalling OS, what should I do? Thanks for help.

Yong Huang

 

[Guest]

Hi,

Maybe It helps you, I had the same problem.
I used the recovery option from the cd.
Put the cd XP in and install Xp and it asks you if you
want to repair it.

Try it... let me know

 

[Guest]

I have the exact same thing happening to me. I hope someone knows whats going on. If you let it run though it will eventually go through to the login/desktop. Mine sits for 5 mins before carrying on.

Even after a reformat

 

[Yong Huang]

It worked. Thanks. Basically, I selected R (for repair) when I booted
from the OS CD, copied all the five backup registry files
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SAM
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE
_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SYSTEM
_REGISTRY_USER_.DEFAULT
from c:\System Volume Information\_restore\{<cryptic
string>}\rp<number>\snapshot to c:\windows\system32\config (filenames
changed to sam, security, etc). The <cryptic string> seems to be
MachineGuid (global unique ID) and <number> should be the date of the
last known good configuration.

Yong Huang