My computer is possessed - a real story

[bill]

I have a laptop - actually 2 and a desktop, but this story is about
Averatec.

I decided to replace my 60GB drive with a 160GB drive.
Since there were a few wierd things happening with the old system I
chose to clean install the new one. --- XP SP3

Everything went fine, system is installed, let me test this sleep
function. It would not go to sleep.

Well, that was a simple solution, it can't go to sleep if the video
driver is not installed. So I installed it and the rest of the
drivers. Great, now it sleeps -- IT JUST DOESN'T WAKE UP.

After MANY DAYS of reinstalls and searching, and running Seagate's
tools, I ran SpinRite. Seems like the new drive has a seek problem
which isn't a result of bad data. It is continuous across the drive
but there is only one ECC correction.

OK, the new drive goes back. In the meantime, I will reinstall
everything on the old drive so I can just Ghost it to the replacement
drive when I get it. So far so good. Most of the s/w that was on the
old system is installed. It has gone to MS and retrieved all the
updates necessary. OK, let's try this sleep thing.

Yep, goes to sleep just fine, wakes up too. WAIT!!!!! What is this?
All the desktop is different. Apparently it has booted up in the admin
account and not my account. What is going on???

System restore shows a SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION SERVICE restore point
after it went bad. OK restore back to when it was good. YES, got my
account back. Let me try that sleep again.

OH MY, back to the admin account. AND everytime I go thru the above
process it creates a NEW admin account. It is not just booting up in
the standard admin account, it creates a new one =
"Administration-computername-00x". So after redoing it again I had to
delete 6 admin account folders.

More research. OK, I can totally disarm the SDS thing. I am not
connected to the internet, temp files are cleaned out, recycle bin is
clean, I'll even remove all the updates and delete all the associated
folders.

Set a new System Restore point.

OK, it all looks good. I'll just shut it down and go to bed.

AH, let's see where I am this AM. WHAT! it is back in a new admin
account!!!!!!!!!!!! --- OH NO, now it is reinstalling all the updates
I got rid of. STOP, I SAY, STOP!!! Where is that damn hammer, I'll fix
it good.

This computer is POSSESSED by MS.
I am VERY technical, but this has me totally pulling my hair out - OH,
I guess Windows 98 already got most of my hair.

ANYONE ----HHHEEEELLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[John John (MVP)]

Extensive snipping...

OH MY, back to the admin account. AND everytime I go thru the above
process it creates a NEW admin account. It is not just booting up in
the standard admin account, it creates a new one =
"Administration-computername-00x". So after redoing it again I had to
delete 6 admin account folders.

More snipping...

AH, let's see where I am this AM. WHAT! it is back in a new admin
account!

It sounds like a permission issue on the profile folder in the
%SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings folder, make sure that the user has
full control on his profile folder.

John

 

[bill]

once it boots into the new admin account my profile folder is
accessible but I can't switch users because I no longer exist as a
user. I am an admin user when I restore it to my account.

 

[John John (MVP)]

You need to look at the NTFS permissions on the profile folder and make
sure that the user has full control on it. Get the real profile folder
path from HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.

This article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314045 is written for
Windows 2000 but the same applies to Windows XP.

John

 

[bill]

OK- that reference describes exactly what is happening re creating new
accounts.

I restored back to a good time where my account comes up.
Since my account is an admin account I tried it. No security tab.
I switched to admin account. No security tab.

All I have is General-Sharing-Customize and an Advanced button -- no
Security.

I have seen that window before but I cannot remember how I got to it.
Do I have something set that negates that function?

 

[HeyBub]

I have a laptop - actually 2 and a desktop, but this story is about
Averatec.

I decided to replace my 60GB drive with a 160GB drive.
Since there were a few wierd things happening with the old system I
chose to clean install the new one. --- XP SP3

Everything went fine, system is installed, let me test this sleep
function. It would not go to sleep.

Well, that was a simple solution, it can't go to sleep if the video
driver is not installed. So I installed it and the rest of the
drivers. Great, now it sleeps -- IT JUST DOESN'T WAKE UP.

After MANY DAYS of reinstalls and searching, and running Seagate's
tools, I ran SpinRite. Seems like the new drive has a seek problem
which isn't a result of bad data. It is continuous across the drive
but there is only one ECC correction.

OK, the new drive goes back. In the meantime, I will reinstall
everything on the old drive so I can just Ghost it to the replacement
drive when I get it. So far so good. Most of the s/w that was on the
old system is installed. It has gone to MS and retrieved all the
updates necessary. OK, let's try this sleep thing.

Yep, goes to sleep just fine, wakes up too. WAIT!!!!! What is this?
All the desktop is different. Apparently it has booted up in the admin
account and not my account. What is going on???

System restore shows a SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION SERVICE restore point
after it went bad. OK restore back to when it was good. YES, got my
account back. Let me try that sleep again.

OH MY, back to the admin account. AND everytime I go thru the above
process it creates a NEW admin account. It is not just booting up in
the standard admin account, it creates a new one =
"Administration-computername-00x". So after redoing it again I had to
delete 6 admin account folders.

More research. OK, I can totally disarm the SDS thing. I am not
connected to the internet, temp files are cleaned out, recycle bin is
clean, I'll even remove all the updates and delete all the associated
folders.

Set a new System Restore point.

OK, it all looks good. I'll just shut it down and go to bed.

AH, let's see where I am this AM. WHAT! it is back in a new admin
account!!!!!!!!!!!! --- OH NO, now it is reinstalling all the updates
I got rid of. STOP, I SAY, STOP!!! Where is that damn hammer, I'll fix
it good.

This computer is POSSESSED by MS.
I am VERY technical, but this has me totally pulling my hair out - OH,
I guess Windows 98 already got most of my hair.

ANYONE ----HHHEEEELLLLLPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds like Invasion of the Body Snatchers - the pods germinate while you
sleep.

 

[bill]

BTW

The PROFILEIMAGEPATH in the reg for my profile is correct.

The one for the admin is the first new one created - not the original
admin.

 

[John John (MVP)]

If you are running on XP Pro turn off Simple File Sharing, if you are
running on XP Home boot to Safe Mode, you will then have access the
security settings when you right click on the folder.

How to disable simplified sharing and set permissions on a shared folder
in Windows XP (Pro)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307874

You can also use the CACLS command to grant full permissions to the user:

cacls C:"\Documents and Settings\username" /t /e /g username:f

John

 

[John John (MVP)]

If the permissions are found to be correct (make sure that there are no
Special or explicit denies, in the Advances security settings) then the
user profile may be corrupt.

How to copy data from a corrupted user profile to a new profile in
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811151/

John