Windows Log on - Log Off Loop

[bklyn1028]

Ok,
bear with me....this is my "BOSS'S" COMPUTER. At the log in screen it says
his name, or admin...either when you log on says saving settings, then in a split second logs off. I researched and put in windows CD, went to recovery console and it now wants administrator password, which the admin password won't work. It seems that administrator just popped up there, no password works. Can't get into safe mode either, logs on logs off.
So, booted from windows CD again, hit F8, did repair, it loaded files, then it wanted to load windows, i took out cd, hit Shift F10, and it brought up the users on the system, all it had was Guest, Boss, and Admin, no administrator.
Any thoughts, and by the way, please tell me i didn't wipe out his hard drive.
never formatted.
thanks

[YRTNEG]

take out battery mid through loading, then reboot in safe mode come to the login screen prers crl alt del twice then enter administrator as username and password or how ever u spell it, that will get u logged on u can the copy C make a recovery, format the start again

[Fordy]

That Admin account is a built in feature to rescue yourself with incase you accidently screw averything up and/or delete your admin account, on the reboot it will appear again, so that you can save the day.

It's not needed for everyday usage, in fact it is explicitly reccommended by Microsoft that you do not use it, other than when neccessary to rescue the PC.

[philthomas]

This can be caused by an AV or Anti Spyware program that deletes a file that the registry still calls. The most common one is wsaupdater.exe

Try this :

Boot using your winxp cd.
Enter recovery console.
at the command prompt go to

C:/windows/system32

next type:
Dir *.exe

If you find, it, type

copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe

Exit and reboot normally. You should now be able to logon.

Run regedit

Navigate to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\

In the right pane, you should see

C:\WINDOWS\System32\wsaupdater.exe,

Change it so that it reads:

C:\WINDOWS\System32\userinit.exe

That should solve the problem, if the malware was the one that caused the issue.

< courtesy of gerryf @ geekstogo forum >