Stuck in safe mode after using msconfig

[noneya22]

One of my company's employees is on the road and noticed that he had a
virus. He called me to help him deal with this and in the process of
guiding him through using a removal tool to remove a virus from the
laptop, I (following the removal tool's instructions) had him turn off
system restore and use msconfig to make the laptop boot into safe mode.
After rebooting in safe mode, he couldn't log in. This laptop is part
of a domain, and now that we're in safe mode he can't log in using the
user name/password that he usually uses (for the domain at work). I
have no idea of any of the local domain/workgroup (which I suppose is
what we're logging into in safe mode) user names or passwords. I tried
various combinations, including the administrator account, but none
worked.

I also went the F8 upon boot up route, and tried normal startup as well
as safe mode with networking, but am not able to get the domain textbox
on the login screen. I assume the boot.ini entry is overriding any
choices I make on the aforementioned screen. I also tried the Last
Known Good Configuration option, but no luck. Is there any way to
force the laptop to boot in normal mode, so we can log in? I'm looking
for an immediate solution that I can get him back into his laptop while
he is on the road. If there is no option there, I need a solution to
deal with this once he returns with the laptop. Even using an option
like system repair using the OS CD.

 

[beb]

He probably isn't logging on to the local computer from the drop down box as
the administrator or with his domain user account which might be a member of
the administrative group on the machine.

 

[Guest]

hello,

if it is an issue of forgotton password (I tried various combinations,
including the administrator account, but none worked.) try this to reset the
password http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ this will reset the local
password.

 

[noneya22]

If it matters, the laptop is running XP Pro and it is joined to our
domain here at work. Since the laptop is in safe mode, when you log in
you're not even given the choice to login to our domain (or any domain
for that matter). So, I suppose this login is for the local
computer/workgroup.

 

[Guest]

If you used msconfig to get the safe mode, did he go back to msconfig to
click "normal startup?"

 

[noneya22]

He can't since he is not able to login to the laptop. We don't know
any of the local workgroup account user name/passwords. The laptop is
in safe mode and doesn't have any networking support. So, we're not
even able to choose to login to the domain as we normally are.

 

[R. McCarty]

Run NT Offline Password boot disk & null out the local Administrator
password ?

CD-R Image Download & Instructions here:
http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/