PC boots to login screen, but

[T_O_A_D]

Howdy guys

As most know I run a dual boot.

Well my Gaming side is working just fine, now that I've cleaned up things a bit and did a defrag, on my Gaming OS and separate drive for the Game install.

I normally don't have to defrag that separate drive, but I've been installing and deleteing stuff for a spell messing with the Mods.

And my Game had been getting micro stutters.

Well that part is fixed.

But last week my working OS has decided to only boot to the login window. and when it trys to log in it brings up wallpaper,and hour glass, and it flashes a few times, them back to the logon window.

I've tried safe mode same thing even with administrator sign on.

I can Ghost it, back to normal, no problem, but I don't learn anything.

So I'm asking what can a guy do?

I'm thinking a Windows update got me, I allowed it to do it the other day during the big scare april first with that trojan that was going to kill us all.

And I think I logged in maybe twice since then, on that OS

Thanks

[Perfesser]

I can only guess a corrupted OS, I would try to repair it with the disk.

That should tell you if it was software or it's still a HD problem.

What was the micro stutter from? We were talking about that.

[delta7]

A recovery to a known safe point might be easiest but if you want to investigate and have the time then you can break it down

1) hardware

Take out everything apart from motherboard, processor, memory,graphics card, harddrive with boot sector, keyboard and mouse and see if will boot

[T_O_A_D]

Ah same machine as the one I'm gaming on and posting from right now guys.

Dual boot, as mentioned before.

Now it could be a HD but I'd think unlikely since it does boot, it just fails to finish logging on windows.

And I can access that drive as a slave and see every thing.

I'm sure its software, I've never had much luck doing the repair with the windows disk in the past.

And without it finishing the log on, I have no idea if possible that you can do a system restore point.

I was hoping maybe some DOS way in, to correct it, or roll back time.

[delta7]

You may have corrupted the MBR so cant boot - you can recover a restore point from dos or from the recovery console - the recovery console will also enable you to run CHDSK and if you are brave

FIXMBR - but be very careful with this as point it to the wrong place and you will not be able to boot into anything

anyway here is the dos way

Boot into safe mode/Log on with Admin Privileges/ Type: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe. Then press enter.

from the recovery console

http://www.icompute.info/System_restore_from_xp_cd.htm

some background from microsoft

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

I havnt done this so perhaps wait until someone with more experience gets back on this- all this is just info from sites I use

[Perfesser]

What was the micro stutter from? We were talking about that.

[gec]

it is probably corrupted user account. it happens sometimes but there is also a virus that makes your account unusable.

go to safe mod and log in as an administrator. not the user with admin rights or the corrupted user. then go to control panel and create a new user account. reboot your computer and log in to the new user account and just copy all documents from the corrupted account.

[B16Enk]

Also from the alternate boot, via explorer select the disk that copy of windows boots from, right click > properties > tools > Error Checking and run Check Disk from there.

[T_O_A_D]

What was the micro stutter from? We were talking about that.

It's in the first post, I defraged my slave drive with the game in it. I normally never have too, but with all this install unistall crap I've been doing with the several versions testing Mods, I guess it needs it from time to time.

it is probably corrupted user account. it happens sometimes but there is also a virus that makes your account unusable.

go to safe mod and log in as an administrator. not the user with admin rights or the corrupted user. then go to control panel and create a new user account. reboot your computer and log in to the new user account and just copy all documents from the corrupted account.

I mentioned already first post, I can't get into safe mode even with Administrator account.

Thanks

Also from the alternate boot, via explorer select the disk that copy of windows boots from, right click > properties > tools > Error Checking and run Check Disk from there.

Thanks I'll give that a try right now.

You may have corrupted the MBR so cant boot - you can recover a restore point from dos or from the recovery console - the recovery console will also enable you to run CHDSK and if you are brave

FIXMBR - but be very careful with this as point it to the wrong place and you will not be able to boot into anything

anyway here is the dos way

Boot into safe mode/Log on with Admin Privileges/ Type: %systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe. Then press enter.

from the recovery console

http://www.icompute.info/System_restore_from_xp_cd.htm

some background from microsoft

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307654

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

I havnt done this so perhaps wait until someone with more experience gets back on this- all this is just info from sites I use

Thanks Delta I'll give that a try if sugestion doesn't work.

[FoolTrottel]

I've had this before...

For ease of re-install, I had made a 'copy' of a full working XP installation, meaning: C:\Documents and Settings, C:\Program files and C:\Windows folders all copied one-on-one to a DVD.

(On a dual boot system, booting from a different partition.)

Now some time ago (I suspect this was pre-SP3) I know I could just empty the C-drive (apart from the boot-stuff that is) and copy the DVD contents back to C:\ and then boot with that 'restored' version of XP. And successfully logon and work with it.

But, after I got SP3, and had made a similar backup, this trick did not work any longer. Exactly the same thing: logon window, you login successfully, get to desktop, then it just says 'Logging off' and voila, there's the login screen. Even with Administrator, even in safe mode...

I do not know why, and I could not fix it. And I've tried lots of stuff... for several days... In the end, I just re-installed from CD.

Me thinks an SP3 feature... somehow the installation thinks it's corrupted. Enhancement in security by MS?

[T_O_A_D]

Thanks FT

I did what Roger said while sleeping it finished, with no errors going to reboot in a bit ans see. If no luck I'll try Delta's suggestion, then if it doesn't work I'll just run my Ghost disc to it.