Suddenly My Logon Requires a Password!

[gecko]

Out of the blue, my boot-up logon is asking for a password.
Nothing I enter will work - no surprise I guess - since I have never
used a password. A blank (null entry) doesn't work either.
Is there anything I can do? Was this caused by a virus?

Thanks

-GECKO

 

[Malke]

Out of the blue, my boot-up logon is asking for a password.
Nothing I enter will work - no surprise I guess - since I have never
used a password. A blank (null entry) doesn't work either.
Is there anything I can do? Was this caused by a virus?

No one but you can answer if you have a virus. You've posted quite a lot
lately about problems you've been having but have never answered the
question as to whether you've scanned for malware. Certainly malware can
cause the symptoms you're seeing but we simply don't have enough
information about your system and its recent history to give you focused
help.

You can try and logon with a different administrative account. If you don't
have one (and now you know why having an extra administrative account is A
Good Thing), then you can enable the built-in Administrator account and
assign it a blank password with NTpasswd.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Once in, you can scan for malware and also see if you can find out what is
wrong.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

If you're unable to do this yourself, take the machine to a qualified
computer tech. I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of
place.

Malke

 

[gecko]

No one but you can answer if you have a virus. You've posted quite a lot
lately about problems you've been having but have never answered the
question as to whether you've scanned for malware. Certainly malware can
cause the symptoms you're seeing but we simply don't have enough
information about your system and its recent history to give you focused
help.

You can try and logon with a different administrative account. If you don't
have one (and now you know why having an extra administrative account is A
Good Thing), then you can enable the built-in Administrator account and
assign it a blank password with NTpasswd.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Once in, you can scan for malware and also see if you can find out what is
wrong.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Removing_Malware

If you're unable to do this yourself, take the machine to a qualified
computer tech. I don't recommend using a BigComputerStore/GeekSquad type of
place.

Malke

This is a different system from the one I was working on before.
Thanks for your tips. I'll get back.

-GECKO

 

[gecko]

You can try and logon with a different administrative account. If you don't
have one (and now you know why having an extra administrative account is A
Good Thing), then you can enable the built-in Administrator account and
assign it a blank password with NTpasswd.

http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/

Once in, you can scan for malware and also see if you can find out what is
wrong.

Thanks

I successfully downloaded and created a boot CD with ntpasswd.
It seemed to boot up fine and it allowed me to 'unlock' my user and
Administrator both. I also blanked the passwords. It 'wrote' my
changes when done (or said it did), but a re-boot still showed that I
needed a password. Also Administrator did not show up as a user.

I'll go away now.

-GECKO

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Thanks

I successfully downloaded and created a boot CD with ntpasswd.
It seemed to boot up fine and it allowed me to 'unlock' my user and
Administrator both. I also blanked the passwords. It 'wrote' my
changes when done (or said it did), but a re-boot still showed that
I needed a password. Also Administrator did not show up as a user.

I'll go away now.

Assuming the "Windows Welcome Screen" logon...

- You still have it checked to require users to logon. You can change that
if you like - but I personally think automatic logons and no passwords are
generally a bad idea - if for no other reason than the bad habits they
encourage.
- If you blanked the passwords - then your passwords are blanked.
- If you have multiple administrative level accounts (or are using Windows
XP Home Edition) - the user "Administrator" (the built-in account for
administeriong the computer) will not be visible on the Welcome Screen. You
can use TweakUI (or a registtry edit) in Windows XP Professional to allow
that user to show or you can press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice quickly at the welcome
screen. In Windows XP Home - you need to boot to Safe Mode to utilize that
user.

 

[gecko]

Assuming the "Windows Welcome Screen" logon...

I may have mis-spoke here. Actually I don't get a "Windows Welcome
Screen" - All I get a Windows is starting up screen.

- You still have it checked to require users to logon. You can change that
if you like - but I personally think automatic logons and no passwords are
generally a bad idea - if for no other reason than the bad habits they
encourage.

I do? If I have 'it' checked to require users to logon, then I don't
know where 'it' is.

- If you blanked the passwords - then your passwords are blanked.

Yes I did that.

- If you have multiple administrative level accounts (or are using Windows
XP Home Edition) - the user "Administrator" (the built-in account for
administeriong the computer) will not be visible on the Welcome Screen. You
can use TweakUI (or a registtry edit) in Windows XP Professional to allow
that user to show

I can't do that if I can't logon can I? Or am I missing something
here?

or you can press CTRL+ALT+DEL twice quickly at the welcome
screen. In Windows XP Home - you need to boot to Safe Mode to utilize that
user.

I tried that in the screen I described above with no effect. Safe
mode made no difference.


Thanks for trying SS

-GECKO

 

[gecko]

May I ask a dumb question here?

I found that I can mount a working XP hard drive as c drive, with the
problematic drive as d drive. This c drive boots up fine, and Windows
Explorer shows the contents of the problematic d drive. This c drive
is an older disk I have and has the same user on it - me. Of course
it does not require a login password.

Now then, how can I copy whatever I need to copy from the working c
drive to the bad d drive? What should I copy and where?

I am thinking this could override and change the danged logon password
dilemma on the bad d drive. Would it?

Am I barking up the wrong tree? I have tried some copies, but they
either don't copy or don't do the job.

For some reason I see that the user (me) on the bad d drive does NOT
show up at all in Windows Explorer under d:\Documents and Settings
like it does under c:\Documents and Settings. That probably is
intentional?

Please excuse my dumb questions - I am just trying to fix this
problem.

Of course, in the background lies the question - how did this happen
in the first place? I may never know I guess.

Thanks all

-GECKO