Worn out Welcome

[sunrise]

I've got an unusual problem. I'm working on a computer that boots to the Welcome screen, but no further. when you click on the user's icon you see the wallpaper for a few seconds (no icons) then back to the welcome screen. This is the second time this has happened, the first time was about two weeks ago. At that time I did a repair install and that seemed to fix the problem. but now it's back. The OS is Windows XP Home, I've run 2 virus scans with two different programs on the hard drive and it's came up clean both times. Any ideas on what the problem is?

[-Vampyre-]

Do you use an older version of spybot. I have a client that was having the same problem. What is hapeening is the a registry key is getting changed or deleted. Here is some info on how to fix.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_wel_screen.htm

[-Vampyre-]

Do you use spybot. I had a client that this happened to a couple of times and it ended up being an older version of spybot with newer definitions. It was doing something to a registry key that has to do with logging in. Here is some info on how to fix.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_wel_screen.htm

[Guts3d]

Possibly a corrupt profile, my suggestion would be to boot up in safe mode by pressing the F8 key repeatedly on boot and choose safe mode in the resulting black and white menu. Then go to control panel and make a new account and see if the problem is resolved with the new account. Good luck!

[-Vampyre-]

I had a client that had this problem. It had to do with the userinit value in the registry. Using an older version of spybot with definitions for a newer version was deleeting the key. If you search for windows logon logoff problem on the internet it will give some info on how to fix.

http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_wel_screen.htm

[-Vampyre-]

Your userinit registry value is getting changed. I had a client with the same issue. The problem ended up being an old version of spybot with newer definitions. If you boot in safe mode you will probably have the same l problem. What I had to do was boot to the recovery console and copy and new userinit.exe to the system32 file. Then I had to remotely connect to the affected pc's registry and change the value for HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
and change the value for userinit to C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe,
with the comma. Then reboot and it would log in just fine.

[slgrieb]

Sunrise, did you run a full hard drive diagnostic on the machine?

[sunrise]

Vampyre I think you have the right idea.It happened after a scan with Spybot. I can't get into safe mode (same problem) and I've done Virus scans and full diagnostic on the hard drive. But I'm having trouble with editing the registry. I've followed the instructions on the web page suggested but it's not working. If I connect the hard drive to my computer is there a program for editing the registry that way? I could just do a repair install again but since the last one I've but in sp3 and since my cd only has sp2 I'm worried it may just screw things up worse. Does anyone know if it's ok to do?

[MobilePCPhysician]

Slave the drive in to another xp computer. Copy userinit.exe from the windows\system32 folder into the same folder on the slave drive. Rename it wsaupdater.exe. Now, copy the userinit.exe file again to the system32 folder. Remove drive and install it back into the computer. Start it up. Use ccleaner or other registry cleaner to clean the registry.

[sunrise]

MobilePCPhysician I followed your instructions but I still can't get it to logon properly.I'm wanting to do a repair install because I know that will work. But can I do it with a XP SP2 cd when the system has SP3 installed?

[MobilePCPhysician]

Yes, it will work. You will have to update to sp3 when you are finished.

[sunrise]

Yes, it will work. You will have to update to sp3 when you are finished.

And thats what I did and so now the system works fine. Thanks for your help