Nick Jacobs

Hi Gang,
Has anybody seen this before? (I haven't, been working with XP for a
while). It's my brother's computer.

Unforunately, he has the same problem with trying to get to safe mode, LKGC,
etc.

Our next step is to get out the old WinXP cd and try getting to the recovery
console to do a repair.

After that, side by side to save the data files and then a complete rebuild,
which we don't want to do.

So,
Does anybody have any ideas before we go that far?

Thanks,
Nick

It's WinXP/Home, fairly up to date on the SP/Hot Fixes, and just had a full
virus scan (does do active scanning too) a day or two ago.

Malke

Nick Jacobs wrote:

> Hi Gang,
> Has anybody seen this before? (I haven't, been working with XP for a
> while). It's my brother's computer.
>
> Unforunately, he has the same problem with trying to get to safe mode,
> LKGC, etc.
>
> Our next step is to get out the old WinXP cd and try getting to the
> recovery console to do a repair.
>
> After that, side by side to save the data files and then a complete
> rebuild, which we don't want to do.
>
> So,
> Does anybody have any ideas before we go that far?
>
> Thanks,
> Nick
>
> It's WinXP/Home, fairly up to date on the SP/Hot Fixes, and just had a
> full virus scan (does do active scanning too) a day or two ago.

Yes, of course we've seen this before. If you'd searched the newsgroup,
you'd find tons of posts regarding this very problem. Since you can't
get into Safe Mode, have you tried "Last Known Good Configuration"? If
you can't boot into that, then I'm afraid you really have no choice but
to do the Repair Install. Here's a link if you need instructions:

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

This should preserve your programs and data, although you will have to
reapply Windows updates.

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

Nick Jacobs

Easy buddy, yes, I did search the newsgroups...

In case you don't know, a little bit of sugar goes a long way compared to
this "rough and gruff" attitutde.

And in case you missed in LKGC = Last Known Good Configuration, and my post
even mentioned about doing a side-by-side, etc. I was just checking to make
sure there weren't OTHER tricks out there that I haven't seen yet. You
never know, maybe somebody has written a tool to diagnose something like
this....

Oh yea, I do believe I even mentioned recover console too, didn't I?

Nick


"Malke" <malke@nospoonnotreally.com> wrote in message
news:uC8D7ThzDHA.536@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Nick Jacobs wrote:
>
> > Hi Gang,
> > Has anybody seen this before? (I haven't, been working with XP for a
> > while). It's my brother's computer.
> >
> > Unforunately, he has the same problem with trying to get to safe mode,
> > LKGC, etc.
> >
> > Our next step is to get out the old WinXP cd and try getting to the
> > recovery console to do a repair.
> >
> > After that, side by side to save the data files and then a complete
> > rebuild, which we don't want to do.
> >
> > So,
> > Does anybody have any ideas before we go that far?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Nick
> >
> > It's WinXP/Home, fairly up to date on the SP/Hot Fixes, and just had a
> > full virus scan (does do active scanning too) a day or two ago.
>
> Yes, of course we've seen this before. If you'd searched the newsgroup,
> you'd find tons of posts regarding this very problem. Since you can't
> get into Safe Mode, have you tried "Last Known Good Configuration"? If
> you can't boot into that, then I'm afraid you really have no choice but
> to do the Repair Install. Here's a link if you need instructions:
>
> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
>
> This should preserve your programs and data, although you will have to
> reapply Windows updates.
>
> Malke
> --
> Elephant Boy Computers
> www.elephantboycomputers.com
> "Don't Panic!"

Malke

Nick Jacobs wrote:

> Easy buddy, yes, I did search the newsgroups...
>
> In case you don't know, a little bit of sugar goes a long way compared
> to this "rough and gruff" attitutde.
>
> And in case you missed in LKGC = Last Known Good Configuration, and my
> post
> even mentioned about doing a side-by-side, etc. I was just checking
> to make
> sure there weren't OTHER tricks out there that I haven't seen yet.
> You never know, maybe somebody has written a tool to diagnose
> something like this....
>
> Oh yea, I do believe I even mentioned recover console too, didn't I?
>
> Nick
>
>
> "Malke" <malke@nospoonnotreally.com> wrote in message
> news:uC8D7ThzDHA.536@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
>> Nick Jacobs wrote:
>>
>> > Hi Gang,
>> > Has anybody seen this before? (I haven't, been working with XP for
>> > a
>> > while). It's my brother's computer.
>> >
>> > Unforunately, he has the same problem with trying to get to safe
>> > mode, LKGC, etc.

Sorry - didn't mean to come across gruff. And if you'll refer to your
original post, you'll see that you didn't say you'd searched the
newsgroups, so how was one to know? Most people who post here are not
particularly computer savvy so don't know how to search. Also, I didn't
catch the LKGC acronym, so sorry for suggesting it. Anyway, I don't
think there are any other tricks out there. The best trick I can
suggest for dealing with Windows is to start out with a clean
installation on compatible hardware, update it, get it all set the way
you like it, and then image the drive or partition onto another drive
or partition. Yes, this is cart-after-the-horse in your brother's case,
but from what you've described, in my opinion (not having seen your
brother's computer and only going on what you've said), the best
solution is at least to start with Repair Installation. If that doesn't
work *and* you know the hardware is all good, then it's format, clean,
install, etc.

Cheers,

Malke
--
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
"Don't Panic!"

ddgitche

In case anyone's still interested in this topic, I've encountered and solved it once. The problem of immediate log off upon log in started right after removing adware and spyware from the computer. What I found to be the cause was that some malware had replaced the normal UserInit entry in Winlogon so that it pointed to wsaupdater.exe instead of userinit.exe. When the Ad-Aware 6.0 or SpyBot S&D removed the file, the registry change still existed, so this became a "missing or damaged userinit.exe" problem.

To repair, since you have to be in Windows to edit the registry, I made a parallel XP installation into c:\winnt2 and booted into that installation. I started regedt32, selected HKLM, and then selected File | Load Hive. I browsed to the original installation's registry files (c:\windows\system32\config) and selected the SOFTWARE hive, choosing a new key name of SOFTWARE3.

Then, in HKLM\SOFTWARE3\MICROSOFT\WINNT\CURRENT VERSION\Winlogin I deleted the UserInit entry, and renamed the OldUserInit entry back to UserInit. (If that hadn't existed, I'd have edited the UserInit data value to change it back to userinit.exe from wsaupdater.exe.)

Then I selected the HKLM\SOFTWARE3 key again, and used File | Unload Hive to disconnect it from the new installation's registry.

After reboot, everything was back to normal (except for the fact that the parallel install removed all the previous restore points.).

Hope that this helps!

danothemano

I did this to myself accidently with sysinternals Autoruns program by disabling the "userinit.exe". Don't do that if you want to be able to log on!

If you have another computer networked, chances are you can fix the problem in about 30 seconds using remote registry and avoid doing a parellel install.

If you have a user with a passord (and admin rights) on the troubled machine, Boot it up, run regedt32 on another machine that you have networked, connect to remote registry using your credentials and then add/fix the key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\MICROSOFT\WINNT\CURRENT VERSION\Winlogin\userinit.exe

Another option that might work if you don't have a network is to use BartPE to boot and make the registry change (I didn't try this way but it should be do-able. Just mount the hive like the previous poster explained.)

Be more carefull next time wether it is with geting spyware infected, or using tools that you don't understand.

dan