Windows Welcome Screen Login Looping Problem

  • Thread starter Thread starter Skanman7
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Skanman7

Up until now no startup problems whatsoever with my system. Today, I press
the start button and it boots fine to the Windows' Welcome Screen. When I
click on my account icon (no password ever entered) it tries to login (I see
my desktop for about 4-5 seconds) but it comes back to the same Windows'
Welcome Screen after about 5-10 seconds. My significant other also has an
account icon and when she tries to login from the welcome screen she can't
get pass the screen either and gets the same 5-10 seconds looping problem
that happens to me. System specs: Dell Deminsion 3000; Windows XP Home
Edition w/Service Pack 3; 2.80 GHZ Intel Pentium 4; and 1GB DDR Memory. No
recent hardware changes made to system.

Many Thanks in Advance on any solution and Have A Super, Safe One Ahead!
 
Up until now no startup problems whatsoever with my system. Today, I press
the start button and it boots fine to the Windows' Welcome Screen. When I
click on my account icon (no password ever entered) it tries to login (I see
my desktop for about 4-5 seconds) but it comes back to the same Windows'
Welcome Screen after about 5-10 seconds. My significant other also has an
account icon and when she tries to login from the welcome screen she can't
get pass the screen either and gets the same 5-10 seconds looping problem
that happens to me. System specs: Dell Deminsion 3000; Windows XP Home
Edition w/Service Pack 3; 2.80 GHZ Intel Pentium 4; and 1GB DDR Memory. No
recent hardware changes made to system.

Many Thanks in Advance on any solution and Have A Super, Safe One Ahead!


=========================================================

Sounds like a trojan/virus has hit the system resulting in a userinit
problem.

I have used the approach below several times to a positive result.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Logon/Log off problems usually associated with userinit being corrupted or
removed/replaced by spyware/trojans

My fix:

1) Remove the hard drive.
2) Attach the hard drive to another computer. Either use an external USB
connection, or replace the good computer's CDROM with the bad computer's
hard drive.
3) Have the good computer's antivirus scan and remove the virus. Make sure
the antivirus is using the latest virus definitions. You can use a spyware
scanner as well such as Superantispyware or Malwarebytes.

Ok, now to fix the logging off issue.

1) Click Start, select Run, and type in the following: REGEDIT
2) In the registry editor, click HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE to highlight it.
3) Click File, and then "Load Hive..."
4) Guide it to the bad hard drive's WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG folder and
select the SOFTWARE file.
5) Name it "IWILLREMEMBERTOUNLOADTHIS" or anything else.
7) Open the IWILLREMEMBERTOUNLOADTHIS and go to the Microsoft/Windows
NT/CurrentVersion/Winlogon
8) In the right, find the "Userinit" key and change it's value to the
following: C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,
(The virus/trojan likes to add extra commands to this, so you usually just
have to delete the extra stuff after this)
9) Check and make sure that the Shell key has a value of "Explorer.exe" as
well (no quotes).
10) Go back and highlight the IWILLREMEMBERTOUNLOADTHIS, then click file and
unload the hive.

Often times your antivirus will remove the userinit.exe file. If you have
the same version of Windows this is a good time to copy it from the
c:\Windows\System32 folder to the Windows\System32 folder on the attached
hard drive.

See post by steven mahaffey

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1125013404
 
Up until now no startup problems whatsoever with my system.  Today, I press
the start button and it boots fine to the Windows' Welcome Screen.  When I
click on my account icon (no password ever entered) it tries to login (I see
my desktop for about 4-5 seconds) but it comes back to the same Windows'
Welcome Screen after about 5-10 seconds.  My significant other also hasan
account icon and when she tries to login from the welcome screen she can't
get pass the screen either and gets the same 5-10 seconds looping problem
that happens to me.  System specs:  Dell Deminsion 3000; Windows XP Home
Edition w/Service Pack 3; 2.80 GHZ Intel Pentium 4; and 1GB DDR Memory.  No
recent hardware changes made to system.

Many Thanks in Advance on any solution and Have A Super, Safe One Ahead!
Click to expand...

If you can boot into Safe Mode, what will you do then?

You need to fix the problem and from what you describe, this common
problem is fixed from the XP Recovery Console which you can load from
a bootable genuine XP installation CD (which may not be available) or
use a working computer to create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD.

Here are some instructions to make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD.
No XP media required.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic276527.html

After you have successfully booted the afflicted computer on the
Recovery Console CD, then you can work on resolving your issue.
 
Jose said:
If you can boot into Safe Mode, what will you do then?

You need to fix the problem and from what you describe, this common
problem is fixed from the XP Recovery Console which you can load from
a bootable genuine XP installation CD (which may not be available) or
use a working computer to create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD.

Here are some instructions to make a bootable XP Recovery Console CD.
No XP media required.

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic276527.html

After you have successfully booted the afflicted computer on the
Recovery Console CD, then you can work on resolving your issue.
Click to expand...

The Windows Recovery Console was a brave but almost useless attempt by
Microsoft to give us a tool to fix problems in case Windows ceases to be
operative. These days things are a little better: We have the Windows 7
Repair CD which gives us full access to the file system and allows us to
copy files to and from an external USB device. It works for Win2000/XP/Vista
and it can be downloaded from here:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/. The OP could
even use it to fix the registry as suggested by Touch Base, as long as he
first correctly identifies the correct Windows system drive letter. It won't
be X: and it often is not C: either while in Repair Mode.
 
Jose said:
If you can boot into Safe Mode, what will you do then?

You need to fix the problem and from what you describe, this common
problem is fixed from the XP Recovery Console...
Click to expand...

Is there a typo in there? Not that the OP will be able to boot to Safe
Mode, but if he did what can you do in the Recovery Console that can't
be done in Safe Mode?

The Userinit file might be missing but the problem described by the OP
is also often caused by a missing or invalid registry entry, how will he
fix that from the Recovery Console?

John
 
Is there a typo in there?  Not that the OP will be able to boot to Safe
Mode, but if he did what can you do in the Recovery Console that can't
be done in Safe Mode?

The Userinit file might be missing but the problem described by the OP
is also often caused by a missing or invalid registry entry, how will he
fix that from the Recovery Console?

John
Click to expand...

I don't think the OP will be able to boot in Safe Mode either, but
they can sure try.
 
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