SP2: System didn't boot after installing SP2

[Asai]

Hi,

I'm using Toshiba Laptop. When the system restarted after
installing SP2, it didn't boot. After the windows xp logo
and progress bar, the display goes blank. After many
tries, then booted to recovery console with XP cd. There
was no passwd for the administrator.

Tried bootcfg /rebuild. it didn't work. Then tried
reverting back to original 'system' file by copying from
c;\windows\repair\. Even then it didn't boot.

Then I resorted to the last option, repair xp
installation. After this now I got an error msg in a
dialog box with title "lsass.exe- - System Error" and the
message in the box is

"When trying to update a password, this return status
indicates that the value provided as the current password
is not correct."

After this, again the screen goes blank. Now I again tried
to go to recovery console, this time the empty password is
not accepted.

Please help me in booting the system with/without
softwares, but with data.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[George Birbilis]

In my system I found out the XPSP2 setup had failed to compete:

it was installing a service to finish up stuff after reboot, but that
service (and many others on the PC) was dependent on RPCSS service which was
failing to start cause the XPSP2 had changed the user account for that
service to "NetworkService" (it had also changed some other services to
"LocalService" and they were failing to start too) from "LocalSystem". In
some of those service account change cases it had "NT AUTHORITY\" prefix
there, that one doesn't seem to be the problem though

the problem was it hadn't created those accounts! only solution was to fix
them to use "LocalSystem" again (obviously they wanted to make those
accounts with lower priviledges, but didn't know what priviledges to give to
such accounts, what group to put them into etc., plus since RPCSS wasn't
working the MMC properties dialog didn't show up and various other ugly
behaviour - luckily "regedit" worked)

so using "regedit" or "regedt32" (prefer the 1st) I had to go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

and search for all services that had the value "ObjectName" set to anything
else than "LocalSystem", esp. "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" or
"LocalService" and changed them to "LocalSystem" and then those services
were starting OK again and the system started functioning OK. First do this
to "rpcss" service, since it's critical for many other services to load too

* In your case you may have to somehow edit the registry files from recovery
console or from other machine (or write a registry update script [.rgs] to
fix the problem and somehow run it from recovery console). Keep in mind that
unfortunately default setting in machine policy is for the recovery console
to not have much power. So one usually has to choose the other automatic
recovery options from Windows CD. The one I suggest is to install WinXP in
another folder of the same machine (keep the old problematic folder, don't
replace it) and boot from there, then work as I said making some dummy user
account and trying to copy and edit the registry there or use some
specialized tool)

 

[George Birbilis]

btw, for the record:

in my case I couldn't uninstall XP2 cause the "Cryptographic Service" wasn't
running (cause it depends on RPCSS). In fact most stuff on the PC wasn't
working properly cause of the dependance many services have on RPCSS. Thank
god "regedit" didn't depend on that too cause the MMC was unusable (plus
couldn't find a way from the command-line to enable/disable a service, could
only find how to start/stop it - that's why I resorted to registry editing)

In my system I found out the XPSP2 setup had failed to compete:

it was installing a service to finish up stuff after reboot, but that
service (and many others on the PC) was dependent on RPCSS service which
was failing to start cause the XPSP2 had changed the user account for that
service to "NetworkService" (it had also changed some other services to
"LocalService" and they were failing to start too) from "LocalSystem". In
some of those service account change cases it had "NT AUTHORITY\" prefix
there, that one doesn't seem to be the problem though

the problem was it hadn't created those accounts! only solution was to fix
them to use "LocalSystem" again (obviously they wanted to make those
accounts with lower priviledges, but didn't know what priviledges to give
to such accounts, what group to put them into etc., plus since RPCSS
wasn't working the MMC properties dialog didn't show up and various other
ugly behaviour - luckily "regedit" worked)

so using "regedit" or "regedt32" (prefer the 1st) I had to go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

and search for all services that had the value "ObjectName" set to
anything else than "LocalSystem", esp. "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" or
"LocalService" and changed them to "LocalSystem" and then those services
were starting OK again and the system started functioning OK. First do
this to "rpcss" service, since it's critical for many other services to
load too

* In your case you may have to somehow edit the registry files from
recovery console or from other machine (or write a registry update script
[.rgs] to fix the problem and somehow run it from recovery console). Keep
in mind that unfortunately default setting in machine policy is for the
recovery console to not have much power. So one usually has to choose the
other automatic recovery options from Windows CD. The one I suggest is to
install WinXP in another folder of the same machine (keep the old
problematic folder, don't replace it) and boot from there, then work as I
said making some dummy user account and trying to copy and edit the
registry there or use some specialized tool)

-----
George Birbilis ([email protected])
http://www.kagi.com/birbilis
--------------

Hi,

I'm using Toshiba Laptop. When the system restarted after
installing SP2, it didn't boot. After the windows xp logo
and progress bar, the display goes blank. After many
tries, then booted to recovery console with XP cd. There
was no passwd for the administrator.

Tried bootcfg /rebuild. it didn't work. Then tried
reverting back to original 'system' file by copying from
c;\windows\repair\. Even then it didn't boot.

Then I resorted to the last option, repair xp
installation. After this now I got an error msg in a
dialog box with title "lsass.exe- - System Error" and the
message in the box is

"When trying to update a password, this return status
indicates that the value provided as the current password
is not correct."

After this, again the screen goes blank. Now I again tried
to go to recovery console, this time the empty password is
not accepted.

Please help me in booting the system with/without
softwares, but with data.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[George Birbilis]

more info in case it can help anyone

on the task manager you'll see only processes, but no users in the "users"
pane, nor any users mentioned as owners for the processes, only one or two
procs will show "SYSTEM" in the user column. Also no Start bar etc.

you have to use "File/New Task (Run)..." from the task manager and run
"regedit", then follow info I had below on how to edit the registry to fix
the system

btw, for the record:

in my case I couldn't uninstall XP2 cause the "Cryptographic Service"
wasn't running (cause it depends on RPCSS). In fact most stuff on the PC
wasn't working properly cause of the dependance many services have on
RPCSS. Thank god "regedit" didn't depend on that too cause the MMC was
unusable (plus couldn't find a way from the command-line to enable/disable
a service, could only find how to start/stop it - that's why I resorted to
registry editing)

In my system I found out the XPSP2 setup had failed to compete:

it was installing a service to finish up stuff after reboot, but that
service (and many others on the PC) was dependent on RPCSS service which
was failing to start cause the XPSP2 had changed the user account for
that service to "NetworkService" (it had also changed some other services
to "LocalService" and they were failing to start too) from "LocalSystem".
In some of those service account change cases it had "NT AUTHORITY\"
prefix there, that one doesn't seem to be the problem though

the problem was it hadn't created those accounts! only solution was to
fix them to use "LocalSystem" again (obviously they wanted to make those
accounts with lower priviledges, but didn't know what priviledges to give
to such accounts, what group to put them into etc., plus since RPCSS
wasn't working the MMC properties dialog didn't show up and various other
ugly behaviour - luckily "regedit" worked)

so using "regedit" or "regedt32" (prefer the 1st) I had to go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

and search for all services that had the value "ObjectName" set to
anything else than "LocalSystem", esp. "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" or
"LocalService" and changed them to "LocalSystem" and then those services
were starting OK again and the system started functioning OK. First do
this to "rpcss" service, since it's critical for many other services to
load too

* In your case you may have to somehow edit the registry files from
recovery console or from other machine (or write a registry update script
[.rgs] to fix the problem and somehow run it from recovery console). Keep
in mind that unfortunately default setting in machine policy is for the
recovery console to not have much power. So one usually has to choose the
other automatic recovery options from Windows CD. The one I suggest is to
install WinXP in another folder of the same machine (keep the old
problematic folder, don't replace it) and boot from there, then work as I
said making some dummy user account and trying to copy and edit the
registry there or use some specialized tool)

-----
George Birbilis ([email protected])
http://www.kagi.com/birbilis
--------------

Hi,

I'm using Toshiba Laptop. When the system restarted after
installing SP2, it didn't boot. After the windows xp logo
and progress bar, the display goes blank. After many
tries, then booted to recovery console with XP cd. There
was no passwd for the administrator.

Tried bootcfg /rebuild. it didn't work. Then tried
reverting back to original 'system' file by copying from
c;\windows\repair\. Even then it didn't boot.

Then I resorted to the last option, repair xp
installation. After this now I got an error msg in a
dialog box with title "lsass.exe- - System Error" and the
message in the box is

"When trying to update a password, this return status
indicates that the value provided as the current password
is not correct."

After this, again the screen goes blank. Now I again tried
to go to recovery console, this time the empty password is
not accepted.

Please help me in booting the system with/without
softwares, but with data.

Thanks in Advance.

 

[George Birbilis]

see "XP SP2 Network Connections gone" thread for additional (and final - all
fixed now!) info on this (the problem was caused originally by too
restrictive file/folder permissions and XP SP2 setup failing to set proper
permissions for NetworkService and LocalService accounts before trying to
reboot the system to finish the last bits of installation at reboot [rpcss
service wasn't coming up at reboot cause networkservice account didn't have
enough access rights to system folders])

more info in case it can help anyone

on the task manager you'll see only processes, but no users in the "users"
pane, nor any users mentioned as owners for the processes, only one or two
procs will show "SYSTEM" in the user column. Also no Start bar etc.

you have to use "File/New Task (Run)..." from the task manager and run
"regedit", then follow info I had below on how to edit the registry to fix
the system

btw, for the record:

in my case I couldn't uninstall XP2 cause the "Cryptographic Service"
wasn't running (cause it depends on RPCSS). In fact most stuff on the PC
wasn't working properly cause of the dependance many services have on
RPCSS. Thank god "regedit" didn't depend on that too cause the MMC was
unusable (plus couldn't find a way from the command-line to
enable/disable
a service, could only find how to start/stop it - that's why I resorted
to
registry editing)

In my system I found out the XPSP2 setup had failed to compete:

it was installing a service to finish up stuff after reboot, but that
service (and many others on the PC) was dependent on RPCSS service which
was failing to start cause the XPSP2 had changed the user account for
that service to "NetworkService" (it had also changed some other
services
to "LocalService" and they were failing to start too) from
"LocalSystem".
In some of those service account change cases it had "NT AUTHORITY\"
prefix there, that one doesn't seem to be the problem though

the problem was it hadn't created those accounts! only solution was to
fix them to use "LocalSystem" again (obviously they wanted to make those
accounts with lower priviledges, but didn't know what priviledges to
give
to such accounts, what group to put them into etc., plus since RPCSS
wasn't working the MMC properties dialog didn't show up and various
other
ugly behaviour - luckily "regedit" worked)

so using "regedit" or "regedt32" (prefer the 1st) I had to go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services

and search for all services that had the value "ObjectName" set to
anything else than "LocalSystem", esp. "NT AUTHORITY\NetworkService" or
"LocalService" and changed them to "LocalSystem" and then those services
were starting OK again and the system started functioning OK. First do
this to "rpcss" service, since it's critical for many other services to
load too

* In your case you may have to somehow edit the registry files from
recovery console or from other machine (or write a registry update
script
[.rgs] to fix the problem and somehow run it from recovery console).
Keep
in mind that unfortunately default setting in machine policy is for the
recovery console to not have much power. So one usually has to choose
the
other automatic recovery options from Windows CD. The one I suggest is
to
install WinXP in another folder of the same machine (keep the old
problematic folder, don't replace it) and boot from there, then work as
I
said making some dummy user account and trying to copy and edit the
registry there or use some specialized tool)

-----
George Birbilis ([email protected])
http://www.kagi.com/birbilis
--------------
Hi,

I'm using Toshiba Laptop. When the system restarted after
installing SP2, it didn't boot. After the windows xp logo
and progress bar, the display goes blank. After many
tries, then booted to recovery console with XP cd. There
was no passwd for the administrator.

Tried bootcfg /rebuild. it didn't work. Then tried
reverting back to original 'system' file by copying from
c;\windows\repair\. Even then it didn't boot.

Then I resorted to the last option, repair xp
installation. After this now I got an error msg in a
dialog box with title "lsass.exe- - System Error" and the
message in the box is

"When trying to update a password, this return status
indicates that the value provided as the current password
is not correct."

After this, again the screen goes blank. Now I again tried
to go to recovery console, this time the empty password is
not accepted.

Please help me in booting the system with/without
softwares, but with data.

Thanks in Advance.