Help needed - Random user profile loading

Moron · 27 Oct 2018 at 23:30

So its been a while since I've had an issue with my pc but this evening on booting up it took 2-3 mins to load pausing for along time showing "preparing desktop", "welcome" etc... which normally just flash up for a second due to SSD.

Once the PC finally loads the desktop is not my normal one, I cant access windows explorer/control panel etc... errors just pop up, I have a "failed to connect to a windows service" error saying windows could not connect to the User Profile Service.

Now I've worked out that something is wrong with my login (which was automatic as I only had one), but it seems every time I boot there's an issue which stops it loading my account and forces the PC into this slow load of a temp/backup/emergency one. The fix is to switch user into my normal account.

Once I do this everything seems fine other than chrome won't launch which is random, but I have access to all other programs.

When restarting again it seems to load into the temp/backup/emergency user profile which doesn't exist as far as I can tell.

Can't tell if there's something wrong with windows, some hardware or what...... completely stumped.

Anyone got any suggestions, thanks very much!!

Resistance · 28 Oct 2018 at 04:18

Do you have a anti virus program installed

Moron · 28 Oct 2018 at 08:03

Yes. Just a freebie one. Can’t remember if kasper or Norton

Resistance · 28 Oct 2018 at 08:28

Best to go buy this is a free scanner and the best antivirus you can get ESET Internet security remove the one you have and install the free 30 day one and it does not cost much to buy and better to get 2+ years it works out cheaper and you get a discount when you go to renew it

JRS · 28 Oct 2018 at 09:04

There's a guide on Neosmart for sorting out a corrupted user profile, that sounds like what's happened here. Link.

Quartz · 28 Oct 2018 at 11:56

Is the SSD full? I used to see this when HDDs got full.

Vince · 28 Oct 2018 at 12:15

check the event logs, profile loading shows in the event logs and errors in the event logs, normally you would see this with mandatory roaming profiles.

sfc /scannow is a good place to start assuming it's not a roaming profile?

Moron · 28 Oct 2018 at 12:30

JRS said:
There's a guide on Neosmart for sorting out a corrupted user profile, that sounds like what's happened here. Link.

Thanks for tips. Tried the copy and paste between users but no luck. Still takes ages to load to then be able to chose users and hen the first time you boot you still go to this temporary user desktop.

Moron · 28 Oct 2018 at 12:30

Quartz said:
Is the SSD full? I used to see this when HDDs got full.

Nope still got over 70% free.

Thought I’d just bite the bullet and try and fresh install of windows but that’s not wanting to work for the time being so back to trying the fix the issue.

Will try scan now again. First time round it didn’t find anything. EDIT - ran again and apparently no issues

Vince · 28 Oct 2018 at 12:47

Moron said:
Nope still got over 70% free.

Thought I’d just bite the bullet and try and fresh install of windows but that’s not wanting to work for the time being so back to trying the fix the issue.

Will try scan now again. First time round it didn’t find anything

If scannow doesn't work and you have run chkdsk, can you get in enough to check the profiles in the registry? When the profile service fails to load a user profile it creates a registry entry that copies the old profile then renames the original profile as .bak, sometimes it's best to back up these entries, nuke the recreated profile entries and rename the original ones back. TBH something else is probably up anyway as nuked profiles normally point to something more sinister. The only time I have ever come across this and didn't just rebuild a machine is during a failed domain migration of roaming profiles. In the end if you actually want to fix it you will probably have to use adsi edit and check all of the entries for the user there. What event log entries do you have in windows for the failed profile load? I have seen before where services lose permissions so a windows service can't fire up and subsequently dependant services fail to start. Again it's all shot in the dark stuff without some idea of what is happening in the logs.

Personally I would make sure everything I have is backed up and either try and rebuild a new profile, if that doesn't work I have had success in the past using system restore. There are also some options for reinstalling all windows ui components using powershell which sometimes fixes the failed service / app but in general I haven't had huge success with this.

Resistance · 28 Oct 2018 at 14:14

Moron said:
Nope still got over 70% free.

Thought I’d just bite the bullet and try and fresh install of windows but that’s not wanting to work for the time being so back to trying the fix the issue.

Will try scan now again. First time round it didn’t find anything. EDIT - ran again and apparently no issues

Did you try the link I put above in case you have a virus

Moron · 2 Nov 2018 at 21:02

Ended up just going for fresh install in the end. it had been 1year or so anyway so was about time to have a fresh machine. thanks for all the suggestions.