cant logon to my computer after sp3 update

[outofsync]

I really dont know if I ever used a password or gave one...I just installed sp3 from an update from microsoft and now I have a logon screen which I never had before....I have never used a password to logon and now with the new screen it wants one and I dont have one so the computer just sits there waiting on me...it wont let me do anything

It does another odd thing..if you try a password and it is not the one a black screen comes up with a box in the middle saying the system cannot log you on now because the domain (my computer name) is not available......does anyone have the answer to this one...thanks in advance

[ctal]

The first thing to try, if you haven't already, is to leave the password box blank and then try to log on.

If that doesn't work, boot into safe mode (by pressing F8 when Windows starts to boot). You should be presented with two alternatives for logging on -- your usual user name, and "Administrator." Try to log on as "Administrator," without entering anything in the password box. If that doesn't work, try your usual user name, without entering anything in the password box.

If you get to log on one of those ways, go to the Start button, then "Run," and enter "control userpasswords2" (without the quotes). That will bring up a box which allows you to clear or reset passwords, and select automatic log-on without a password requirement.

You can also call up "control userpasswords2" from Start/Run after booting Windows normally, when you can get that far, and use it to do similar things.

Hope that helps,
-- Al

[outofsync]

thank you for your quick response...I was able to bring up 2 boxes for logon but nothing worked...everything you told me so far I tried if I was able to get that far....but nothing has worked sofar...everytime I put in a bad password or click enter in the box it comes up saying my computer name domain is not available



that is why I hate and most of the time do not update

[ctal]

This solution resolved somewhat differing symptoms for someone, but I suspect might work in your case as well. Probably a security-related file was corrupted during the update, and this solution uses the recovery console on an XP installation cd to rewrite the file to its default state. I believe that the "ren" statement renames the existing file to ".old" for safekeeping:

Kogin problem on Windows XP Home

-- Al

[outofsync]

I have xp pro installed...would this work on pro also...thanks

[ctal]

Not sure. But if you have a working computer available that has XP Pro, see if it has a file called C:\Windows\System32\config\security. If so, I suspect this fix will work, and if not, or if something goes wrong, you can always get back to where you are now by using the recovery console to delete the new security file and rename the old one to its original name.

HTH,
-- Al

[outofsync]

none of the above works so I decided on a clean reinstall of xp but it wont let me do that either....I wore out the f8 key to no end..lol...can someone help with that ...thank you

[ctal]

Probably it doesn't want to install over an existing Windows installation. So you have to first delete the existing partition. You might be able to do that by booting into the recovery console on the installation cd -- call up its help menu to see a list of available functions. Otherwise, you can use a third party partition manager. GPartEd is widely used, and is free. You can download it at the following link, and burn it to a cd:

GParted -- Welcome

To avoid this kind of problem in the future, as well as to protect yourself against hard drive failure or corruption, I suggest that you consider using a disk imaging program. If you had an image to fall back on, you would have been able to recover from this problem in a matter of minutes. Here are some threads which discuss the various programs which are available.

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/f49/lo...am-112229.html

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/f49/th...am-114759.html

Regards,
-- Al

[DrStrange]

I know you're going to do a clean install of xp pro but before you do that, you could try a repair reinstall. If it works, you won't need to reinstall your applications or tweak your windows settings which is what you would be doing from a clean install. You will, however, need to reinstall any Windows Updates from Microsoft.
To reinstall, enter past the Recovery Console screen until you see R to repair Windows:

Repair XP

[outofsync]

I have just put in a new hard drive and clean installed it and so far so good


1 more question...now that the old hard drive is out can it be wiped and used again at a later date or is it a throwaway...thanks

[DBoone]

You should be able to use it again. Plug it in and reformat it.

You might even be able to recover data from it before you reformat.

[outofsync]

thank you all for your help....you may close the thread if you wish

[ctal]

You're welcome! Our usual practice is to not close threads (unless unusual circumstances warrant it), but thanks for letting us know.

Regards,
-- Al

[DrStrange]

I assume you won't be installing SP3 on the new hard drive?