LSASS.EXE - SYSTEM ERROR

[Brian]

One of our employees' Windows XP Dell notebooks will no
longer boot into Windows. It loads to the point where it
displays an error box titled: LSASS.EXE - SYSTEM ERROR
The text in the error box is: "When trying to update a
password, this return status indicates that the value of
the current password is not correct." This error box
displays for about 10 seconds.
The system then reboots and continues to the same error
box.
The same situation applies to all choices on the F8
advanced booting menu, including Safe Mode and Last Known
Good Configuration.
If I try to use Recovery Console, I am told the
Administrator password is incorrect even though I have it
thoroughly documented.
Unfortunately, I do not have an ASR floppy.
Any ideas? Punt?

 

[Roger Abell [MVP]]

Punt.

I have tried a number of times to illicit from MS guidance on
this one with on nibbles to my fishing.
This is a deep issue with an inner system secret used when
the next layer out "logs" into the inner layer in order to initialize
the security subsystem that lays under all of the upper layer.
This seems to happen if the system is shut down rudely, has
power problem, crashes, at just the wrong time, leaving the
needed secrets in an intermediate state.

The only solution I know of is a fresh install.
If you find another, do please post back, but you may spend
much time trying various things with no success.

Roger

 

[Guest]

Thanks, Roger
However, I did find and implement the solution
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];30754
This is KB307545
It was tedious, but it worked a miracle. The article steps you through replacing the Hive, then dig down into System Restore Points and selecting a restore point that Recovery Console normally cannot access
The whole process took me about 90 minutes.