G
Guest
Howdy!
I didn't do a very good job of defining the problem yesterday. Lets see if
this is any better.
The System:
XP Pro SP2 with all current updates. 3 Administrator accounts. 6 restricted
accounts.
The problem:
Intermittent failure of certain activities from administrator accounts. The
User Accounts program will be the example used.
Symptoms:
After a fresh boot, and logging into any account with administrative
privilege, it sometimes happens that the User Accounts program fails to
function. The programs window border is displayed with blank content, and
then a smaller window pops up declaring "unspecified error". Logging out and
then back into the same account does not clear this condition. Logging into a
different administrator account and then back to the original account that
had the failure clears the condition, and everything works fine. This can
happen to any administrator account on the system.
No events are logged.
Virus scans (AVG) are clean.
HiJackThis is clean.
Windows Defender runs clean.
The system has been clean and stable for a long time.
The problem has probably gone unnoticed for a while. There were intermittent
failures of other applications with similar symptoms that I tolerated and
worked around for a while, but eventually it prompted a more indepth
investigation.
System Restore points existed, but would not successfully deploy, so that is
not an option. System Restore has since been turned off. Returning to the
earliest backups (Jan 22, 2006) show the same problem. Rebuilding the system
from scratch would take over a week of effort, so I would like to avoid that.
I suspect that, on occassion, the account does not get set up correctly
during login.
Perhaps logging in as a different administrator resets account information
cached in memory. I really have no idea; grasping at straws.
What I'm looking for are diagnostic techniques to help narrow the problem
description. For instance, is there a way to examine the currently active
security profile of the current process? Is there a system or policy setting
that I should use to help capture information when the problem occurs?
Thanks,
Doug.
I didn't do a very good job of defining the problem yesterday. Lets see if
this is any better.
The System:
XP Pro SP2 with all current updates. 3 Administrator accounts. 6 restricted
accounts.
The problem:
Intermittent failure of certain activities from administrator accounts. The
User Accounts program will be the example used.
Symptoms:
After a fresh boot, and logging into any account with administrative
privilege, it sometimes happens that the User Accounts program fails to
function. The programs window border is displayed with blank content, and
then a smaller window pops up declaring "unspecified error". Logging out and
then back into the same account does not clear this condition. Logging into a
different administrator account and then back to the original account that
had the failure clears the condition, and everything works fine. This can
happen to any administrator account on the system.
No events are logged.
Virus scans (AVG) are clean.
HiJackThis is clean.
Windows Defender runs clean.
The system has been clean and stable for a long time.
The problem has probably gone unnoticed for a while. There were intermittent
failures of other applications with similar symptoms that I tolerated and
worked around for a while, but eventually it prompted a more indepth
investigation.
System Restore points existed, but would not successfully deploy, so that is
not an option. System Restore has since been turned off. Returning to the
earliest backups (Jan 22, 2006) show the same problem. Rebuilding the system
from scratch would take over a week of effort, so I would like to avoid that.
I suspect that, on occassion, the account does not get set up correctly
during login.
Perhaps logging in as a different administrator resets account information
cached in memory. I really have no idea; grasping at straws.
What I'm looking for are diagnostic techniques to help narrow the problem
description. For instance, is there a way to examine the currently active
security profile of the current process? Is there a system or policy setting
that I should use to help capture information when the problem occurs?
Thanks,
Doug.