Login: unable to type password at welcome screen (several PCs)

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Guest

Symptom: a user can not type a password in at the winxp welcome screen, no
flashing insertion point shows, no "blobs" appear.

However, this is not a hang. The keyboard works (can use up/down arrow
keys), and 2xCTRL-ALT-DEL allows log in fine using traditional login
username+password method. Mouse works. Machine seems otherwise fine. In fact,
following login, works as normal so the problem does seem to be confined to
the welcome screen functionality. Problem always goes away after a reboot.

Background: O/s : WinXP PRO SP2 throughout. This problem first appeared last
month, on several PCs, on different LANs at different sites, and has also
been seen on PCs belonging to other independant organisations.

Rule-outs: The machines are apparently healthy, no obviously relevant recent
changes have been made to them, no recent apps installed. They are well
secured (no regular users have administrative access nor are they power
users), and have been virus-scanned. They are not all the same mfr.

Speculation: Windows update hotfix automatically delivered?

Any suggestions,
 
Hi Cecil and Kenneth,

I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.

regsvr32 shgina.dll

Press Enter.

YMMV.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Symptom: a user can not type a password in at the winxp welcome
screen, no flashing insertion point shows, no "blobs" appear.
Click to expand...

See the thread "password prompt problem". You're not alone, but others here
haven't reported a resolution.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/
browse_thread/thread/bde5168ae4f6170a/
 
I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.

regsvr32 shgina.dll

Press Enter.

YMMV.
Click to expand...

GINA is the login API, so I'd guess shgina.dll is the DLL that provides the
Welcome Screen. I'll have to see what regsvr32 is supposed to fix.
Presumably it re-registers the DLL in the registry, so I'll have to see if
the registry is missing it.
 
Ramesh,

Thanks very much for that.

Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see if
the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.

More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login problem,
100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not effective
(typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).

In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.

Anyway, will report back.

--
Cecil Ward


Ramesh said:
Hi Cecil and Kenneth,

I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.

regsvr32 shgina.dll

Press Enter.

YMMV.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Symptom: a user can not type a password in at the winxp welcome
screen, no flashing insertion point shows, no "blobs" appear.
Click to expand...

See the thread "password prompt problem". You're not alone, but others here
haven't reported a resolution.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/
browse_thread/thread/bde5168ae4f6170a/
Click to expand...
 
Hi Cecil,
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

Nope. If this problem is intermittent, I don't think the registration
procedure will help. Then it must be caused by something else.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Ramesh,

Thanks very much for that.

Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see
if
the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.

More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login
problem,
100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not
effective
(typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).

In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.

Anyway, will report back.
 
I confirm that the fix suggested earlier is not effective.

I have now seen this bug on more than 15 machines, on different networks,
and on machines belonging to different organisations. Every machine is
virus-clean and well-secured. Each problem instance began in late autumn 2006
and is still unfixed (AFAIAW) as of today.

Is there any way to escalate this general issue?

Every machine has the following characteristics:

i) problem not apparent immediately after boot.
ii) at some point, the bug strikes, and from then on, the bug affects every
successive login attempt until rebooted,
iii) one the bug has struck, repeated logging in and out does not fix the
problem, (using the workaround that 2xctrl-alt-del bypasses the welcome
screen and presents the traditional username/password prompt, so allowing
successful login)

iv) there seems to be no pattern in the onset of the problem
v) certain machines are completely immune

vi) all machines are otherwise fine, have been thoroughly security inspected
and scrutinised for infection. Every machine is well secured in the sense all
that no everyday users have administrative rights or administrative access.

Speculation: the issue was caused by Windows Update, possibly by a bad
chaining or unfortunate sequence of applied updates.


--
Cecil Ward


Ramesh said:
Hi Cecil,
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

Nope. If this problem is intermittent, I don't think the registration
procedure will help. Then it must be caused by something else.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


Ramesh,

Thanks very much for that.

Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see
if
the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.

More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login
problem,
100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not
effective
(typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).

In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.

Anyway, will report back.
Click to expand...
 
I have had the same problem as others in this group with XP randomly
asking for a password. I have two user accounts one with a password
and one without. It is annoying and sometimes logging off and on fixes
this or rebooting will.

The last time it happened my wife was on the user account without a
password and I tried logging into the account with the password and I
couldn't (password wouldn't enter as before). I logged back into the
my wife's account. I then used Process Explorer to see what processes
were running that may be causing the problem and I found nothing
definitive. I then stopped all the processes running under the
password account thinking I could log back in that way.

Here's the scary part, when I switched user I didn't get the login
screen I got a blank desktop with the password accounts wallpaper (no
icons or task bar). I then hit CTRL+ALT+DEL and went file/run/explorer
and guess what, I was into the account???!!!???
 
Microsoft security update kb923191 causes the problem. Just uninstall
this update and that will fix the problem.
 
In not sure. I reinstalled windows and just didn't install that
update. So far everything is ok. You should be able to remove it, I
would check out Microsoft for the answer.
 
Removing this update solved the problem for me
Here's how to do it...

Start - Control panel - add or remove programs (tick the "Show
updates" box at the top). You should be able to see Kb923191 in the
list. Uninstall it and don't forget not to re-install it the next
time you do a windows update!
Click to expand...

I started to remove it, but it came up with a warning that a long list of
other programs (including a load of Windows Security Updates and suchlike)
relied on it to work... isn't it a bit dangerous to uninstall a single
Windows Update like this, if there's a dependency chain of other updates and
programs?
 
Dooger said:
In not sure. I reinstalled windows and just didn't install that
update. So far everything is ok. You should be able to remove it, I
would check out Microsoft for the answer.
Click to expand...
 
Folks,
I just got off the phone with MS and they recommended to me to remove this
update KB923191 for now and the issue should be fixed in SP3 that is planned
to be released in about 25 days.
 
Thanks for the update, Mike.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com
Winhelponline.com blog http://www.winhelponline.com/blog


Folks,
I just got off the phone with MS and they recommended to me to remove this
update KB923191 for now and the issue should be fixed in SP3 that is planned
to be released in about 25 days.
 
Hi,

I see the same problem with SP3 as well, and the annoying thing is
there's no way to remove the KB that causes it, since it's now part of
the service pack.

Logging on to an operating system should be possible, no?

Cheers,
Alan
Click to expand...

SP3 IS a service pack ; add/remove , uninstall .
 
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