Users/Passwords disappear

  • Thread starter Thread starter dst218
  • Start date Start date
D

dst218

I have WindowsXP Home Edition. I have had it automatically install
updates and upgrades since I got the computer 4 years ago and never had
a problem until last month. This problem (with slight variations) has
happened 3 times now.

1) After using computer as usual and shutting down properly, I later
turned it on again. I was previously not using the Welcome (user acct)
screen, but this time it came up. My password did not work. After
trying whatever I could, I reinstalled Windows, losing lots of info,
but was back using my computer again. When I reinstalled, I simply hit
enter for the one user acct it required me to make, so there was no
password.

2) Two weeks later, same thing happened again, only this time, the
Welcome screen had no user accts listed and my only option on the whole
screen was to shut down the computer! Talking to a knowledgeable
person on the phone, I was advised to Ctrl-Alt-Del twice on that screen
and sure enough, up popped a logon to windows box, where I simply hit
enter (no password from #1 above, remember) and I was in. I noticed a
new update to XP had just been installed, so I did a restore back to 2
days before that update and restarted my computer. It came up without
the welcome screen as it was supposed to.

3) Another two weeks go by, it's now 11/19/05, and it happens yet
again!!! Only THIS time, when I tap ctrl/alt/del twice and my user
name comes up, the blank password doesn't work. I attempt Safe Mode,
Repair, etc., to no avail. My only option was to again reinstall
WinXP, again losing all my information. After this reinstall, I
downloaded every update available from Microsoft for the OS in case it
was an update causing this, it would happen immediately before I
reinstalled all my programs etc. After all the updates, it still works
fine.

Does anyone know what is causing this behavior? My research has led
me to believe that it could be an interrupted download/install of a
Windows XP update. Some updates apparently need access to files
protected by passwords (even blank ones) and the update will
temporarily remove it, install its own password, then reinstall your
password when complete -- however, if this process in interrupted, the
update password remains, which, of course, you don't know! This
could be the case since my ISP does exhibit very brief (few seconds to
couple minutes) but frequent outages. If this is the probable cause,
is there any way to completely download an update, get off-line, and
then install without accessing the internet, for a clean install
without the possibility of an outage interrupting it....??

Or is this something someone has found the answer to and I'm way
off.....????

Help?!!!

Thanks !
 
I forgot to mention that I also did a check of my hard drive to be sure
something isn't being written to a bad sector. It checked out just
fine. I checked for viruses, spyware, adware, etc, and there were
none. The only other thing these three incidents have in common is
that I ran AdAware and/or Spybot in one of the last two sessions before
the problem. Spybot used to pick up something about Windows Firewall
but doesn't do that anymore.
 
Hi there..

I'm facing the same problem here - welcome screen without user account
listed!! I have been using my laptop for almost 2 years now and this has
never happened before.. I never use the welcome sceen and never set a
password for my user account too..

This problem has just happened to me this afternoon. I shutted down my
laptop properly before i went to school, i later turned it on again, a black
screen appeared asking me to choose to "start windows normally" or "start
windows in safe mode". I had chosen "start windows normally", but my computer
couldn't load windows and it restarted and asked me to choose the previously
asked options. This time i had chosen "start windows in safe mode" instead.

With "start windows in safe mode" option, my computer was able to load
windows. However, it brought me to a welcome screen without user account
listed!! To shut down my computer was the only option.. Then i tried to press
Ctrl-Alt-Del twice, then i got a pop-up windows with my user name asking me
to enter the <password>. I really have no idea for this as i never set a
password for my computer. Somehow, I still tried some of my regularly used
passwords.. yet, i still couldn't log on my account.

My problem still has not been solved till now, as i do not want to reinstall
my computer (i didn't backup my files!). Could anyone tell me instead of
reinstalling my computer, what else can i to do to tackle this problem?

Many thanks...
 
i am having a problem
when i turn on my computer it comes 2 a blank screen that says password
how do i get this 2 go away so it comes up to the windows log in screen.
my husband was messin around with the computer and now it does this.
please help me
 
dst218 said:
I have WindowsXP Home Edition. I have had it automatically install
updates and upgrades since I got the computer 4 years ago and never had
a problem until last month. This problem (with slight variations) has
happened 3 times now.

1) After using computer as usual and shutting down properly, I later
turned it on again. I was previously not using the Welcome (user acct)
screen, but this time it came up. My password did not work. After
trying whatever I could, I reinstalled Windows, losing lots of info,
but was back using my computer again. When I reinstalled, I simply hit
enter for the one user acct it required me to make, so there was no
password.

2) Two weeks later, same thing happened again, only this time, the
Welcome screen had no user accts listed and my only option on the whole
screen was to shut down the computer! Talking to a knowledgeable
person on the phone, I was advised to Ctrl-Alt-Del twice on that screen
and sure enough, up popped a logon to windows box, where I simply hit
enter (no password from #1 above, remember) and I was in. I noticed a
new update to XP had just been installed, so I did a restore back to 2
days before that update and restarted my computer. It came up without
the welcome screen as it was supposed to.

3) Another two weeks go by, it's now 11/19/05, and it happens yet
again!!! Only THIS time, when I tap ctrl/alt/del twice and my user
name comes up, the blank password doesn't work. I attempt Safe Mode,
Repair, etc., to no avail. My only option was to again reinstall
WinXP, again losing all my information. After this reinstall, I
downloaded every update available from Microsoft for the OS in case it
was an update causing this, it would happen immediately before I
reinstalled all my programs etc. After all the updates, it still works
fine.

Does anyone know what is causing this behavior? My research has led
me to believe that it could be an interrupted download/install of a
Windows XP update. Some updates apparently need access to files
protected by passwords (even blank ones) and the update will
temporarily remove it, install its own password, then reinstall your
password when complete -- however, if this process in interrupted, the
update password remains, which, of course, you don't know! This
could be the case since my ISP does exhibit very brief (few seconds to
couple minutes) but frequent outages. If this is the probable cause,
is there any way to completely download an update, get off-line, and
then install without accessing the internet, for a clean install
without the possibility of an outage interrupting it....??

Or is this something someone has found the answer to and I'm way
off.....????

Help?!!!

Thanks !
Click to expand...

I cannot help you with the cause of your problem but there are
utilities that allow you to reset passwords on NT class (NT, W2K, XP)
operating systems.

Go to http://home.eunet.no/~pnordahl/ntpasswd/ and download the boot
disk, this will enable you to reset any system password on an NT class
operating system
 
jess said:
i am having a problem
when i turn on my computer it comes 2 a blank screen that says password
how do i get this 2 go away so it comes up to the windows log in screen.
my husband was messin around with the computer and now it does this.
please help me
Click to expand...

It sounds like your husband set a BIOS password, get him to remove the
password. If he cannot rember what he set it to then you will have to
reset the BIOS. This is usually done by turning the computer off,
removing the battery on the mother board, setting a jumper to the short
out setting, waiting a few minutes, reseting the jumper, reinstalling
the battery and restarting. Do a Google search for remove bios
password .
 
Hi GreenieLeBrun,

I tried what you had suggested and I had successfully run the files to reset
my system password. However, when it run to Step 3, there was a problem
hinder me to carry on the process, as following:

===== chntpw Edit User Info & Passwords ====

Cannot find usernames in registry! (is this a SAM-hive?)


I would appreciate if you could tell me what can i do to tackle this
problem..

Many thanks...
 
Bluemoon1383 said:
Hi GreenieLeBrun,

I tried what you had suggested and I had successfully run the files to reset
my system password. However, when it run to Step 3, there was a problem
hinder me to carry on the process, as following:

===== chntpw Edit User Info & Passwords ====

Cannot find usernames in registry! (is this a SAM-hive?)


I would appreciate if you could tell me what can i do to tackle this
problem..

Many thanks...
Click to expand...

Have you tried logging in as Administrator? If you are using XP Home
then the password should be blank, if XP Pro use the password changer
disk to set the password to blank (the pw changer would also work for
XP Home if you set a password there. If you can get in as Administrator
back up your files, address books etc.

If this does not work have a look at Ultimate Boot CD for Windows
http://www.ubcd4win.com/ .This is a selfbooting CD that has cd burning
software included in it, you may be able to use it to burn your files
to a CD.

You may be able to do a repair install, as it is a note book see the
documentation that came with the machine to see if this is possible.
BEWARE this may not work on your machine, it will depend on the what
the manufacturer supplied. Some companies only provide you the the
ability to return your machine to the factory default, if that is in
case in your situation you will loose ALL your files. These link may be
of assistance.

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315341

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
 
I am the one who originally posted here. I did try logging in as
Administrator and I have XP Home. It would not accept no password,
blank password, etc. One of the three times this happened, I was able
to log in with my account (which IS the administrator account too) by
ctrl-alt-del 3 times to get to a password screen; otherwise, the
password input area is not there, although it says put in a password --
no user accounts listed. The other 2 times passwords of any type were
not accepted.

I honestly believe that this is a result of changed passwords during
the install process and when the process is interrupted, the original
passwords are not put back by Microsoft's update process. My ISP
blanks out for a few seconds here and there.

Here is what I now do. I have the updates downloaded but not
installed. When I'm ready to install, I disable my internet
connection and do the installation. I have also directed Outlook,
Word, music program, etc., to store ALL email, documents, music files,
etc., to a folder directly on my C: drive that I call "mine" or
"backup" or whatever, just nothing like "My Documents". Thus if this
should happen again, a reinstall of Windows will not wipe it out. (It
worked the last time.) I would still have to do the windows reinstall
and reinstall all software programs, but my personal data is intact.

The last time I reinstalled, I was advised not to reinstall drivers or
software until I had downloaded and installed ALL updates from
Microsoft. That took a lot of time because there were lots of updates,
but after all that, I installed my drivers and restarted the machine.
Seems to work fine. Then I installed all my software and redirected
their data to the folder I described in the previous paragraph.

In using my computer the other night, something happened and I lost my
wallpaper to a blue screen and when I tried to put the wallpaper back,
it was already selected, but still the blue background. So before
turning the computer off, I went back to a previous restore point. It
comes up fine now again, but I wasn't taking any chances.

I honestly and truly believe this is an install problem with Microsoft
updates, as each time it cropped up the day after an update installed.
Hopefully, they will find the problem and fix it.
 
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