WAY OT..HELP!!

First try booting into safe mode and see if you can get in that way

1.. Restart the computer. The computer begins processing a set of instructions known as the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS). What is displayed depends on the BIOS manufacturer. Some computers display a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS, while others may not display any indication that this process is happening. 2.. As soon as the BIOS has finished loading, begin tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Continue to do so until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again. 3.. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, scroll to and select the Safe mode menu item, and then press Enter.

Hi Joe,

You could try to boot into Safe mode by pressing F8 when the boot sequence starts. From there you may be able to troubleshoot the problem.

Most of the Microsoft hep talked about a problem with RPC calls.

Couldn't find anything virus wise about this on the McAfee or Norton sites.

Ken

Tried both safe mode and last known good configuration before I posted - no go on those ideas.

Has there been a power-outage in your area lately...? If somebody was using the computer at the time, the passwords file may have been corrupted.

I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but the simplest way might be to just log on as Administrator, and re-enter all the handles and passwords. Once you get it working again, set a 'Restore Point' so you can recover from things like that more easily... ;-)

put in your XP pro cd and boot from it.

Select a "REPAIR" installation.

it will reinstall XP over top of thhe existing installion, and your stuff will be safe. just don't select formating a drive, he he.

anyway, you should have had all the service packs and security patches installled on that box.

XP is so unsafe, you can't have an unpactched one hooked up to the internet for 40 secs while doing an install without getting bit with a worm.

Every trick in the book has failed. I'm formatting and re-installing . This sucks. :-( Thanks for the replies everyone.

the re-install without format still failed to log you in ?

make sure you install sp2 when all done, and then do a windows update once installed on the internet to get all the exploit patches.

the RPC explots will bite again without all the patches.

What I meant is that everything I tried short of re-installing failed. If I have to reinstall, I prefer to do a clean install.

one of the neat features of XPs repair re install is that it fixes the OS and leaves it the way it was before, with all your programs installed.

Normally at this point when my XP-pro machine has had enough Chris E would remind me to 'Embrace the Penguin' which one of these days i'm gonna have to.

Damian

Might be a bit late, but before you try the repair install you could try the command "SFC /Scannow" from Start|Run. That will check for and repair/replace any missing or corrupted Windows System files.

In regard the the service packs and other critical and security updates: Install them. The mean time to infection of an unpatched, unfirewalled WindowsXP system connected to the internet is 19 minutes.

In order to log back in again you have to remember what user name was used when you activated windows. Unless you used administrator as your user name. Another way might be to use "guest" as a user id & leave the password blank. I've had it happen to me & started freaking out.

Be careful with XP Pro, if you use encryption to protect your files & then reinstall XP they maybe gone forever...

JD

He can't login, so start/run does not work ?

I'm in the same boat. Been a CNE since '92 and now since Novell scored SUSE I'll have to update my status to include the penguin.

I'm actually kinda sorta excited about the whole thing. I just know I let my MCSE expired for a reason :)

Ted Novak TRA#5512 IEAS#75

Duh...

Just to update, I formatted and re-installed - then ran updates. Everything was dandy. Then in the process of installing the regular software, she died again. Un-bootable system. This really sucks. I think I have a hardware problem. I have another motherboard I'm going to stick in and try tomorrow.

Don't know much hardware wise about your machine - but this sounds like what I've observed in older computers - a dead or dying backup (or clock or ...) battery.

Terry

J.A. Michel wrote:

I had a similar problem, it was the mother board.

Randy

Did you check the fans are turning and the air ports are clear? One of our old Pentiums acts like a loon when the CPU fan stops.

Did you check/replace the battery?

Did you not know that taking an unpatched Windows box out on the Internet is a no-no, especially logged in as the Administrator/owner?

Good luck!

Get a Mac! :-)