password prompt problem

[Guest]

I have been running WinXP Pro with Service Pack 2 for about a year and have
now developed a minor annoyance. I have three users on the system. When I
logoff the system as any user I get the usual login screen with three users
listed. If I choose any one of the three to login I get the password
"whitespace" but no blinking black bar to enter my password. The only way I
can login to any account is to press "ctrl, alt, del" twice where I then get
a login window that allows me to enter a user and password. Rebooting the
computer temporarily helps but then the problem pops up again. To get around
this mess I just deleted the passwords for the three users and now login
without passwords. Does anyone know what is causing the problem or a way to
properly fix it?

Thanks,
Richard

 

[JS]

Can't say that this will fix it but its worth a try.
Try Power Toy's Tweak UI from Microsoft:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx
Install, run and under Logon you will find check boxes to select the
accounts you want displayed and in the Autologon you can choose to
disable/enable it by un-checking/checking the 'Logon automatically' option.

Once you have disabled the auto-logon option I'm hoping that Tweak-UI will
fix the problem by correcting any registry entries that are munged.

JS

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the suggestion JS though it didn't help. I have 3 accounts, one
for myself, one for my wife and one set up as an Administrator account called
Root. I deleted my wife's account as it wasn't being used, created another
Administrator account and then deleted the original Root. The new Root was
left without a password and then I added the password back to my personal
account, set the option in Tweak-UI to automatically login my personal
account on reboot, then rebooted. After it successfully rebooted to my
account I then ran Tweak-UI as Administrator and removed the auto-logon for
my personal account. The login screen worked for a few logoff and logons
but then reverted to the old behavior as indicated in my first post.

Richard

 

[JS]

I've seen a lot of post with problems associated with installing Internet
Explorer 7, buy any chance have you recently installed?

JS

 

[Guest]

Yes, I just installed it a couple of days ago though I had the problem before
that. For now, I've just disabled the Welcome Screen and went back to the
Win2000 classic login.

Richard

 

[Galen]

In RichardL had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

I have been running WinXP Pro with Service Pack 2 for about a year
and have now developed a minor annoyance. I have three users on the
system. When I logoff the system as any user I get the usual login
screen with three users listed. If I choose any one of the three to
login I get the password "whitespace" but no blinking black bar to
enter my password. The only way I can login to any account is to
press "ctrl, alt, del" twice where I then get a login window that
allows me to enter a user and password. Rebooting the computer
temporarily helps but then the problem pops up again. To get around
this mess I just deleted the passwords for the three users and now
login without passwords. Does anyone know what is causing the
problem or a way to properly fix it?

Thanks,
Richard

Not much help but I've been quasi-monitoring this... Contact support, let
them know it's been happening since you updated your PC (if that's the case)
to IE7 and that there are a number of other posts in the newsgroup that
confirm the same thing. Ask if there's a hotfix (I haven't done so yet -
long story but I'll make it brief at the end of this) and if there is apply
it. There's no charge for support associated with updates.

My findings aren't quite the same as your own. I've found that it made me do
it just once - after that it reverted to working normally again. However -
it has made me do it that one time on multiple systems here as well as at
least one other newsgroup poster and some rather unhappy admin who's got a
bunch of "end users" (the unwashed masses *grins*) to support who aren't
technologically adept and thus must be guided through the CTRL + ALT + DEL
method. Thus I've not yet made the effort to contact support as I can't
replicate it, grab a fix, and test the fix...

What I will do is, if need be, poke at another box. I have just two left
that aren't updated though so it will have to happen with one of them in
order for me to justify calling. Otherwise I can go through my lead and see
if they can put me in touch with someone? Or, alternatively, if you can
constantly replicate the problem you could contact support and see what
their official response is and let us know how it turns out.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Hi Galen,

My problem poped up before I did the upgrade to IE7... somewhere around the
time I switched from a beta version of F-prot to Avast antivirus. I
uninstalled Avast 4.7 to see if that program was causing the problem but that
was not the case. I don't recall what series of security updates were
installed right before the problem started happening... maybe one of them is
the cause. If you can offer any other suggestions from your contacts or
experimentation, it would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Richard

 

[Galen]

In RichardL had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Hi Galen,

My problem poped up before I did the upgrade to IE7... somewhere
around the time I switched from a beta version of F-prot to Avast
antivirus. I uninstalled Avast 4.7 to see if that program was
causing the problem but that was not the case. I don't recall what
series of security updates were installed right before the problem
started happening... maybe one of them is the cause. If you can
offer any other suggestions from your contacts or experimentation, it
would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Richard

It's 6:00 in the morning and I've not slept but I'll be awake in a few hours
and I'll ping support then. If you should happen to lose this thread the
second link in my signature it my site and my respond email address is a
real one that is filtered fairly well so that real emails manage to get
through. I likely won't have any information until late today (-5 GMT or EDT
at the moment) but I've flagged this and will let you know what I find.

--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Galen,

Here is what I did last night. At the Microsoft site, I stumbled across
Defender so I thought I'd give it a try. I've been using Ad-Aware SE.
Defender found a piece of Spyware called Brodcast DSSagent that Ad-Aware
missed and I had it removed. I went into my Administrator account and in the
User Accounts section, enabled the Welcome Screen again though this time I
didn't check the "switch user" option... I seldom use this option. The
Welcome Screen password entry is now working again... at least it has for
over 9 hours. It seldom worked for over 15 minutes before. I'm not sure the
problem is fixed though another day of time will tell. If it is fixed, I'm
not sure what couuld have cured it. Maybe the Spyware was causing a problem,
maybe I just needed to disable the Welcome Screen and then re-enable it,
maybe the "switch user" option had something to do with it or maybe it is a
combination of 2 or more of the 3 changes. I'll keep you informed.

Richard

 

[Guest]

That didn't take long... the password problem returned this morning. I'm
back to using the Classic Login Screen again so please disregard my above
post.

Richard

 

[Kenneth Porter]

My problem poped up before I did the upgrade to IE7... somewhere
around the time I switched from a beta version of F-prot to Avast
antivirus.

I have one shared PC in my workgroup and the users just told me they're
seeing this. I haven't authorized IE7 to push to it from WSUS do it should
still be IE6. (We're a Firefox house and forbid use of IE6 except for
Updates and other OS-specific needs.) One user has no password so when this
happens they log into that account (no prompt) and then they can log into
the ones that require passwords.

This looks like some kind of keyboard focus issue. The I-beam fails to show
in the password control. Yet I can select different users with the mouse,
so the overall Window is accepting focus.

 

[Guest]

(We're a Firefox house and forbid use of IE6 except for
Updates and other OS-specific needs.)

Same here.

This looks like some kind of keyboard focus issue. The I-beam fails to show
in the password control. Yet I can select different users with the mouse,
so the overall Window is accepting focus.

Same behavior here. I thought I isolated the problem and figured it was
related to timing. In other words, if I waited a couple of seconds before
moving the mouse after the welcome screen and user icons appeared, I would
always get the I-beam. Then after a couple of days I noticed it would
sometimes work if I moved the mouse immediately and not work if I waited. So
far I haven't been able to isolate a cause as the problem is so erratic. The
only certainty is that using "ctrl, alt, del" twice after the problem occurs
brings up the classic login.

Richard

 

[Galen]

In RichardL had this to say:

My reply is at the bottom of your sent message:

Same here.


Same behavior here. I thought I isolated the problem and figured it
was related to timing. In other words, if I waited a couple of
seconds before moving the mouse after the welcome screen and user
icons appeared, I would always get the I-beam. Then after a couple of
days I noticed it would sometimes work if I moved the mouse
immediately and not work if I waited. So far I haven't been able to
isolate a cause as the problem is so erratic. The only certainty is
that using "ctrl, alt, del" twice after the problem occurs brings up
the classic login.

Richard

And the lack of a response from the development team in the past few days.


--
Galen - MS MVP - Windows (Shell/User & IE)
http://dts-l.org/ http://kgiii.info/

"Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and
its solution is its own reward." - Sherlock Holmes

 

[Guest]

Richard (and any other, especially MS-support / system guys):

I have had this same issue ongoing since I installed this XP (SP2, installed
about at the time you reported this).
So I have 4 accounts 1 for myself being also the "root", and 3 others for my
wife and the kids. All except mine are unprotected (without passwords).

Every time 1 PERSON logs in before me I cannot insert anything into the
password-dialog window. Then, every time I log in as another person again,
log off, and login again as "me", this works again. So the magic word is
odd-even.

Every even attempt the password-account is blocked by the "typing-disabled".
Every odd turn it works.

Best Regards
/Mika

 

[wearearewe]

Any action on this subject?

Richard (and any other, especially MS-support / system guys):

I have had this same issue ongoing since I installed this XP (SP2, installed
about at the time you reported this).
So I have 4 accounts 1 for myself being also the "root", and 3 others for my
wife and the kids. All except mine are unprotected (without passwords).

Every time 1 PERSON logs in before me I cannot insert anything into thepassword-dialog window. Then, every time I log in as another person again,
log off, and login again as "me", this works again. So the magic word is
odd-even.

Every even attempt thepassword-account is blocked by the "typing-disabled".
Every odd turn it works.

Best Regards
/Mika