Can not log onto PC

[Noahtuck]

Hey all

Okay, i have never seen anything like this, ever!!

A friends PC will not let you log on for more then 2-3 seconds then logs you back out.

This person has had more problems than anyone i have ever seen with their pc!!

He has it set up so when windows first loads you have three different accounts to choose from to log into.

His, wife's, son's.

No matter which account you click on to "log in", it goes to the desktop just long enough to see the wallpaper but not long enough to load the icons, then it goes right back to the blue screen and say's "logging off" and goes back to the main blue screen where you can once again choose which account you want to log into, and over and over and over no matter which account you choose.

There are no passwords set either.

He has XP Pro SP2.

There is nothing really important on it so a reformat and reinstall is not a big deal, but i'd like to know WTF is going on.

Any ideas ?

EDIT:
Okay, i did a search and came across this,
http://www.troublefixers.com/windows-logs-off-automatically-while-login/

Imagine that, this dude did not have his PC a week the first time and brought it to me and it had mad trojans and crap on it!!
Our buddy told him to stop going to all those foreign PRON sites and DLing crap and trying to play and install it!!


And yes he had antivirus and a firewall.
I swear!!!
I say it all the time,at least once a week, giving a PC to some people is like giving a loaded gun to a child

[SLK001]

And yes he had antivirus and a firewall. I swear!!!

I would say that neither program was worth a crap.

[Noahtuck]

And yes he had antivirus and a firewall. I swear!!!

I would say that neither program was worth a crap.

I meant I swear as in what a F'n moron!!, not that i swear it had antivirus and a firewall, LOL!!

Just because you have them, don't mean morons don't turn them off when they interfere with something they want to do.

Many a time i have had people who have said, well when i tried to do this it would not let me so i turned it off and now my system is screwed up

Heck, i have done it, but when i do it, it's with a known program or file, not some random unknown file off some anonymous random site.


DERR LOUIE!!!
HELLO!!!! McFly!!!!!!!



Trust me, from this guy, this is no surprise....

[sambat]

That's an interesting solution - if you have the correct permissions.

Cannot Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: error while opening key

The fly in the ointment is that to open the key, you need the correct permissions.
To enable the permissions on the problem PC isn't possible, because you can't log in.

[Noahtuck]

That's an interesting solution - if you have the correct permissions.

Cannot Open HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE: error while opening key

The fly in the ointment is that to open the key, you need the correct permissions.
To enable the permissions on the problem PC isn't possible, because you can't log in.

That's why i am not even messing with it, wipe it clean and reinstall windows!!

He'll either learn or keep messing up his PC

[freebird73717]

When it's that infected then sometimes a re-install is the safest thing to do anyway.

[gll99]

What happens when booting to safe mode?

[Noahtuck]

When it's that infected then sometimes a re-install is the safest thing to do anyway.

Yep!!

The kicker is, i redid his PC like a month and a half ago, and in less then a week he brought it back over because it was acting goofy, and i looked at the logs and saw that a bunch of trojans and viruses had been removed and blocked, ect. and told him... STOP doing whatever you are doing!!!

And fixed it without a reformat.

What happens when booting to safe mode?

Same exact thing.

Can not even get in through safe mode.

Too late anyways, i already wiped it clean and have reinstalled windows, drivers and all the other crap he wanted.


The funny thing is, his 10 year old DEMANDS Limewire be installed, even though i have warned him like 10 times about using it!!!!



I don't know, i have never known anyone to F up their PC like this, as many times as they do, in my entire life!


And that's the funny thing, i have worked on literally 100's of PC's over the years and i can't even recall how many i have built for other people let alone myself, and i have never seen this problem before, and i have seen some serious doozies in my time.

He is definitely "king of the hill"

[Bodyslide]

Add a line to block limewire in the hosts file.....And don't tell him

[freebird73717]

Noahtuck your too much of a damned nice guy.

I'd say it's about time to either tell him to fix his own pc or tell him you'll fix it for a price. Otherwise he's never going to learn. He'll just keep on doing what he's been doing because his good buddy will keep fixing it for him.

I've had to do this with some of my friends.

[Noahtuck]

Add a line to block limewire in the hosts file.....And don't tell him

Damn dude!!
Where you been ??

I ain't seen a post from you in what seem's like forever!!

Noahtuck your too much of a damned nice guy.

I'd say it's about time to either tell him to fix his own pc or tell him you'll fix it for a price. Otherwise he's never going to learn. He'll just keep on doing what he's been doing because his good buddy will keep fixing it for him.

I've had to do this with some of my friends.

Well, i don't know how many people around here would agree with that first part but...


And it's hard to charge him when he is the owner of the local pizza shop and i get all the food i want for free from the shop, for like the last 4 years!! :P

But i have told a few people that i charge, a LOT cheaper, then the local shops and best buy, i am going to have to start sending you people to best buy or a local shop so you understand how much money you are saving!!
And maybe you will stop messing your stuff up knowing i am right here to fix it for cheap!!

And one of my buddies dropped me off a half gallon of bourbon last weekend after i fixed his laptop and he slid me $40.00 a few weeks ago

I was in my living room playing Jurassic on my 360 and it was loading a new level and i hear this loud banging on my door, when i am home alone and playing a game i have the surround sound up way loud, i went to answer it and he was on my porch and handed me a half gallon and goes, thanks for fixing my laptop.
Got back into his truck and drove away.
8)

[gll99]

Unless they really need to install their own stuff it's always better to give everyone except the admin a guest account. Even your friend might consider logging with those limits until something needs an install or update. That way they can't install crap and can't update any software without going through the admin account which your friend could keep to himself. I have a general use computer in the central part of the house that anyone can access but no one but me knows the admin password. I don't use that one too often myself so it's a bit of a nuisance when software needs updating but we've never had an issue since I set it up that way.

[Bjs]

Possibilities can be almost from anything

1: They reinstalled xp and failed to reactivate ... similar symptom

2: Registry key values invalid for logon

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon]

Keys which could be missing

"Shell"="Explorer.exe"
"Userinit"="C:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\userinit.ex e,"

4: Userinit.exe missing

Use recovery console to (normal system setup example)

expand d:\i386\userinit.ex_ c:\windows\system32\userinit.exe

Reboot after

5: Corrupted registry

Bit long but kellys corner article covers registry replace using the backup from when the system first successfully booted ... article here

Of course this may affect software applications which were installed after this point which will need to be reinstalled

6: Wipe it and reload ... but consider making a master backup ... saves a lot of frustration

[redwudz]

I would probably go with the idea of making a backup with something like Acronis or Ghost. Would save a lot of time. I used to have to clean my brothers computer out about once a month. He downloaded and installed everything he could find, including viruses and trojans.

He told me his email quit working. I checked. It had 780 emails, every one spam. His ISP just blocked the account because of overload. I cleaned it out and it was exactly the same next month. I put in Acronis and at least it was easier to fix. I gave up trying to change his habits. If I put in a good antivirus, he would disable it because he couldn't download what he wanted. Ahh.. relatives.

[Noahtuck]

@ redwudz

I've thought about trying out some programs like that before but never really had enough of a reason to but for this guy i may try now.

Are either of them capable or is there a program capable of making a restore disc ?

Like you would get with a dell, toshiba, ect. laptop/desktop, where it would reinstall windows with all the programs that are on the PC at this moment ?

So you could just boot from the disc and it would do a complete clean install, because now would be the time to make one.

[freebird73717]

paragon drive backup. They have a free version. Use it to create a drive image (programs and all) onto dvd's. Also have it create a rescue boot disc.

Then if he hoses his system again just boot from rescue disc and reinstall the image from the dvd's you created.

[SLK001]

You can install both a firewall and an antivirus with password protection so that he CAN'T turn them off - or remove them.

[redwudz]

I like Acronis True Image myself, mainly because it's easy to use. It creates a boot disc for restoring. You can find older versions heavily discounted, but even the latest versions are around $30US and pay for themselves fairly quickly. Haven't tried Paragon. Didn't like Ghost the one time I tried it.

I usually copy the documents, photo files and the browser favorites and the like from the problem computer, then scan them with a antivirus program and put them back in the repaired PC. And update the antivirus and other antimalware programs after the restore. After it's running OK, you could make a new backup, ready for the next session when the PC gets trashed.

I agree about Limewire. That seems to be a bigger source of malware than music. And one of the biggest causes of ISP pull notices.

EDIT: I've tried password protecting the antimalware programs, but some malware will still get through when you install it. Then the antimalware programs are destroyed.

I ran into a program recently called something like Windows PC defender. It's a really nasty malware disquised as a antivirus program. I thought it was legit till I did a internet search. Fortunately it wasn't too hard to remove, but it took a registry editor to get all of it out. It killed all the antimalware programs, along with the restore info. The PC owner probably installed it unknowingly. The first symptom is lots of pop up ads and no way to set a homepage. IE finally locked up and wouldn't run because it was so choked with crap.

[Soopafresh]

Also encountered terrible malware and viruses on a friend's machine recently. The virus disabled the installed antivirus by destroying the .exes and blocked internet access to all the antivirus sites (Avast, AVG, Norton, etc) and Microsoft. The virus was called Virut. If you get this, good luck.

As a result, I found a really great Linux boot disk based virus cleaner called Dr Web Live CD. You download the .ISO which you burn to a CD or DVD and boot from there. Very good (but slow) scanner. Runs faster if you burn the ISO to DVD media. Good at avoiding false positives. Updated daily.

http://msk4.drweb.com/pub/drweb/livecd/

Make sure to download the instructions http://msk4.drweb.com/pub/drweb/livecd/LiveCD-en.pdf

[CogoSWSDS]

Set up 4 accounts: 1 for yourself, which is admin. Don't give him the password. Give him, his wife, and son user-level accounts. Install TightVNC and OpenVPN. Run them as services. When he needs something installed, remote into his computer as administrator and install it.

OK just kidding. I have a friend that is always wanting me to come over and install this or that for him (he has admin rights so he could easily install whatever he wanted). He actually keeps his system pretty clean. I've actually thought about installing OpenVPN and TightVNC on his desktop so I can remote in from my house, have him pop in whatever CD he needs to run and I run thru the install process for him.

Seriously, I'd rather have to install his software for him than have to go through what you're going through.

CogoSWSDS