user logins hang then auto log out within 5 min. anyway to fix?

[dan]

during a storm last night the power went out when the
family was using the computer. after power returned when
they tried to log into any user account the computer
would either hang for 5 minutes then automatically log
them back out to the welcome screen or when loggin in it
would log them out before it even showed the users
desktop. This also happened in safe mode after i checked
it. so i tried to restore a previous saved XP, but the
problem was consistent then as well. Is there anyway to
fix this that i am not thinking of or do they = screwed

thanks

 

[Malke]

during a storm last night the power went out when the
family was using the computer. after power returned when
they tried to log into any user account the computer
would either hang for 5 minutes then automatically log
them back out to the welcome screen or when loggin in it
would log them out before it even showed the users
desktop. This also happened in safe mode after i checked
it. so i tried to restore a previous saved XP, but the
problem was consistent then as well. Is there anyway to
fix this that i am not thinking of or do they = screwed

thanks

Can you get into the Administrator account in Safe Mode? If so, try
making a new user account and see if that one works. If you can't get
into Safe Mode, then try Last Known Good Configuration. If that doesn't
work, the power outage may have damaged your computer. If you are
comfortable opening the computer and doing hardware diagnosis, that's
your next step. Sniff inside and see if anything smells burnt. If this
isn't your cup of tea, your best course of action is probably to take
the machine to a good local shop (not a BestBuy or CompUSA) for
testing.

Malke