WinXP Home - Failure logging in after hard power off

  • Thread starter Thread starter David W. Poole, Jr.
  • Start date Start date
D

David W. Poole, Jr.

Hello all,

I encountered a strange problem a little earlier. USB support on my XP
Home based laptop stopped working, so I went to shut down and restart
Windows. The machine never responded to the shutdown command. After
waiting for a bit, and after verifying all disc I/O had ceased, I held
the power button down.

When the box came back up, I was presented with the normal XP login
screen. After entering my credentials, I encountered the following
error message:

"The system could not log you on. Make sure your User name and domain
are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must
be typed using the correct case."

I know the password is correct because I haven't changed it since it
was created 9 months ago. All the common password error causes
(caps-lock, 'stuck' control/shift/alt/other keys) have been ruled out.
The laptop isn't connected to a network so the domain shouldn't be an
issue.

At this point I'm lost; the current account is the only account on the
box, having renamed the default account to it's current settings.

I've taken the laptop drive out and hooked it via a USB based
enclosure to my desktop, also a XP home based machine. Running a
chkdsk on the laptop drive from the desktop indicates no problems.

Unfortunately, the two machines I'm using were not shipped with
recovery discs, so I'm a bit lost as to how to proceed.

Any pointers appreciated; thanks in advance!
 
David W. Poole said:
Hello all,

I encountered a strange problem a little earlier. USB support on my XP
Home based laptop stopped working, so I went to shut down and restart
Windows. The machine never responded to the shutdown command. After
waiting for a bit, and after verifying all disc I/O had ceased, I held
the power button down.

When the box came back up, I was presented with the normal XP login
screen. After entering my credentials, I encountered the following
error message:

"The system could not log you on. Make sure your User name and domain
are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must
be typed using the correct case."

I know the password is correct because I haven't changed it since it
was created 9 months ago. All the common password error causes
(caps-lock, 'stuck' control/shift/alt/other keys) have been ruled out.
The laptop isn't connected to a network so the domain shouldn't be an
issue.

At this point I'm lost; the current account is the only account on the
box, having renamed the default account to it's current settings.

I've taken the laptop drive out and hooked it via a USB based
enclosure to my desktop, also a XP home based machine. Running a
chkdsk on the laptop drive from the desktop indicates no problems.

Unfortunately, the two machines I'm using were not shipped with
recovery discs, so I'm a bit lost as to how to proceed.

Any pointers appreciated; thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

At the login screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice in succession, then
log on as "Administrator" and the administrator's password. You
can now reset your own password.
 
Hi. This is the meow-send program at usenet. I'm afraid I wasn't able
to deliver any clue to the following address: "David W. Poole, Jr."
<[email protected]>
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

Any pointers appreciated; thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

Please ignore; issue resolved.
 
Pegasus \(MVP\) said:
At the login screen press Ctrl+Alt+Del twice in succession, then
log on as "Administrator" and the administrator's password. You
can now reset your own password.
Click to expand...

That was the magic; thanks!
 
Weird. Try using a different keyboard in case there is a problem with it. If
all else fails see the link below on how to proceed but since you are using
XP Home try first booting into Safe mode to see if you can logon as
administrator which may have a blank password and if you can then you can
use the administrator account to reset your user password.

Steve

http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm
 
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