Totally locked out of computer!!!!

markwombat

markwombat

markwombat

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Hi Guys,

I have a computer which is completely locked. It is runnign Windows XP Pro and was built around 2weeks ago. It has never been connected to a server and is for home/office use. There are 3 user accounts on it all of which are administrator accounts. None of the accounts had passwords on and neither did the default safe mode administrator account.

I turned on the computer today and whenever I get to the Windows Logon screen and click on a user I get prompted for a password (which no-one has created) and then upon entering any password I receive the following error:

"The System cannot log you on due to the following error:

The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

Please try again or consult your system administrator"


I tried booting into safe mode and every account has the a password and results in the same error.

Also at the same time as all this the guest account has appeared and also is passworded.

Please someone shed some light on this matter as I am completely stumped!!
 
Can't use Ultimate Boot Disk because the hdd is SATA and there are no SATA drivers built into UBD compatible with my motherboard.


Any ideas what could have automatically turned on guest and passworded the accounts and told them to look for a domain to connect to??
 
markwombat said:
Can't use Ultimate Boot Disk because the hdd is SATA and there are no SATA drivers built into UBD compatible with my motherboard.
Click to expand...
LostPassword.com's password changer will probably work, as it uses the xp setup loader, so you can probably load drivers.
 
This

"The System cannot log you on due to the following error:

The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.

Please try again or consult your system administrator"
Click to expand...

Makes it sound like it's been joined to a domain. If it were bad logon credentials it would say so.

It's trying to contact a domain controller and can't.
underneath username/password do you have a box for "Log onto"? If you do then switch it to the local workstation.

If it's not joined to a domain then probably LSASS is broken and it will need a repaired install.
 
One of my daughters PC's does that and all she does is press cancel to continue booting. If she enters a password then she can't get in. Try pressing cancel.
 
just dont enter anything in the password field and try to click okdoky
 
ctrl + alt + del twice at logon screen to get the classic screen.
if there's a domain involved it should show you it there.
choose local computer (as mentioned above) and you should be good.
 
Hi guys thanks for your comments. I have tried with no success the following:

Just pressing enter (i.e. a blank password) - still same error

Pressing alt ctrl del twice to get the logon screen but there is no sign of the logon to box anywhere, so cannot try local machine.

Whilst it does not matter what credentials I enter I always get the same error about the domain despite, I have experience adding computers to a domain and always thought that the Windows XP style logon screen was replaced when a computer becomes part of a domain. Since I still have the "Friendly" logon screen I believe it may have become corrupted and not actually part of a domain although the error suggests it is.

I will try a repair install tomorrow and report on any advances, thanks so far for your help and suggestions.
 
TBH - I would get a fresh hard disk and reinstall windows onto that. Then put the old disk back in as a second drive and copy any data off it that I needed.

Total time about 3 hours - probably less than messing around with boot disks and what not.

Good luck !
 
Had this problem on someones computer, I ran an XP repair by booting off the install CD, all was dandy when it came back up.

The kicker was it was XP Home that was trying to join a domain, which is impossible as Home doesn't support domain joining.
 
PiKe said:
Had this problem on someones computer, I ran an XP repair by booting off the install CD, all was dandy when it came back up.

The kicker was it was XP Home that was trying to join a domain, which is impossible as Home doesn't support domain joining.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this, I am going to attempt a repair tonight when I finish work, if it had been XP Home then I probably would have done a repair before now but since Pro can joins domains I was unsure if it had just been screwed with and so hesitated with the repair! Thanks again. :)
 
Ok guys heres the update,

Tried to do a repair tonight, the first time I followed through the process it continuously failed to locate files from the ccd during the "Setup is copying required files to the hard disk" stage, so I rebooted and tried again.

Second time lucky it got through the copying setup files to hard drive and rebooted and began the repair installation, however with 34minutes to go and during the "installing devices" stage I got a BSOD and it promptly restarted, I ran memtest86 on it for 30mins and found no problems, (i know it needs longer to be certain of any errors but I was pushed for time)

So i thought I'd give it another go at repairing, exactly the same time it BSOD'd and rebooted. So I have attached the HDD to my pc to recover the documents on it, does this sound like a faulty HDD??

Whilst I can recover files from the HDD I do not like the "can't repair appearence" and so everything in my eyes points towards a faulty HDD. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated :D

thanks again for your help so far....
 
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