Windows Shuts Down at Logon

I have a very perplexing problem. I'll provide as much detail as I can because I am unable to isolate the problem.

After returning from vacation, my computer was shut down for two weeks, I booted up and was given the Icon in the panel indicating that updates were awaiting installation. I clicked on the icon and was told not to shut down Windows as it was installing upate 1 of 1. This continued for about 2 hours at which point, I shutdown the system believing I had a Windows "hang up". When I attempted to reboot, I reached the user logon screen, selected administrator, and entered the password. The System logged on then shut down. I then attempted to enter via Safe Mode and could not get to Safe Mode ... the system was running but would not take me to the Safe Mode screen. I again shut down after 2 hours. Now, I cannot even get the system to respond. I have attempted to use a rescue disk, the CD in the drive with the boot sequence set to CD first. I use System Mechanic Pro 7 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus/Hacking software which is kept up to date, so I should not have any viruses. I am also very careful with e-mail and do not open anything from a sender I do not know.

I am truly puzzled and looking for any advice on trouble shooting this problem.

Appreciate any help and thanks in advance ...

 

Hello JLD from Atlanta,

Automatic updates can be a pain, especially with Kaspersky also loaded. Some time they are just too big for the system to swallow. The worst thing you can do is pull the plug part way through.

You say you have tried safe mode, but not let it run long enough to finish booting. Safe mode can take an very long time - let it run overnight.

If it still doesn't get there have you also tried booting to last known good configuration? this sometimes recovers from a failed update.

If this doesn't get you going I think your only option is going to be reinstalling Windows.

I don't know System Mechanic does it give you the facility to copy files from the pc? If this allows you to copy off you data to somewhere else do it soon. Control with the Windows disk will not allow this. Alternatively can you take the hard drive out to slave it to another pc? Again this would permit data recovery.

A repair install may work in which case the data would remain safe, other wise a clean install will have to be performed.

Let us know how you get on.

Studio T

 

I did try to do the restore function and it did not work. I have also tried to boot from the Windows XP disk and have not been able to get it to work. I have set the boot sequence to look to the CD drive before going to the hard disk. Is it too late to try the Safe Boot again? Is there a source for a boot disk that I could download onto a 3.5" disk and boot from that and reinstall? This is really strange but it sounds like it's a Microsoft issue (which I have never encountered to this point) vs. a virus. Does that make sense or is there more testing I need to do? Also, as I was trying to boot numerous times, I received an error that userinit could not be executed. My only option was "OK" so I hit enter and proceeded. The system then went into shutdown mode. Could that come from killing the update too soon?

I realize I may be asking some basic questions but this experience is odd for me. Thanks for any help/advice.

 

Do NOT do a repair.

Sounds like there is registry damage.



http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

You said you booted to XP CD and it did not work. Meaning, it didnt fix the problem, or it didnt boot to it?

Set the boot sequence to CD, and remove the hard disk from the boot sequence. That usually forces it to boot to it.

 

I could not get the boot to occur from the CD. I created an XP boot floppy but it would not respond to that either ... That sounds like more than a registry problem but will explore more intensively. Why do you say "don't repair"? Are their implications I should know about???

Thanks for any and all help ...

 

Tell us about your 'XP CD' Some are manufacturers rcovery disks, not Microsoft XP CDs and do not offer the normal Microsoft setup and repair options.

Studio T

 

My XP CD is "straight" from Microsoft. Since I built the PC, I purchased a regular CD as opposed to getting a third party version. I assumed it was a "bootable" CD but may be mistaken. Obviously I have not had to do this so I have not tried the disc until now.

Still wondering about the earlier comment to NOT do a repair. Has that been a risky proposition for others? As much as possible, I would like to save my settings and the SW that is presently installed since I have a lot (I know it's too much but I have some bad habits!!!!).

Thanks again for all the help ...

 

Well, I ward off repairs unless we know for sure--registry damage is permanent if you perform a repair. The repair wont fix registry issues.

A repair takes the current system state (current registry hives), drops them into the repair folder which contains the backup hives, and overwrites the backup hives. So any reigstry problem you had, now cannot easily be resolved, if at all.

What a repair does:

Replaces all system files (and default programs) with fresh copies, that are of the same version on the CD. It will remove all windows updates.
Sets drivers back to default states, which also includes uninstalled if windows didnt have drivers initially for a device.
Deletes system restore points.


I already mentioned the registry stuff it does.

 

Run a check on your hard drive through the systems BIOS, check the XP CD in another machine just to see if it is boot able. Choose "Notify me but do not download or install updates" in Automatic Updates in the future. Don't let Windows reboot your system for you after updates are downloaded and installed, then you can check immediately to make sure updates were successfully installed or not, and then you reboot the operating system.
Also make a backup of your system on a separate drive, at least a backup of the drive windows is installed on and system state, which will have a backup of your registry if it is ever needed. Use ntbackup.exe if necessary. Just my thoughts on the subject, hope you get a handle on it.
Bug

 

The reason I am thinking it could be registry related.

1. You did a windows update, and shut the PC off before it completed(yeah I know it was hanging). That could have caused registry damage.
2. You received a userinit.exe error. If the userinit.exe entry under winlogon in the registry is damaged, it will do the very thing you are describing.

 

Adrynalyne was hoping you could recover without reinstalling. A repair install may well fail if the registry is damaged, necessitating a full clean reinstall.

The recovery techniques mentioned involve controlling the pc from another operating system, either by slaving the hard drive to another pc or installing a second copy of XP (Microsofts preferred method) or using another operating system entirely (Addy likes linux). Even Microsoft setup is a simple operating system. these are all very advanced techniques and can take many hours of work. And you still have to reinstall most of your stuff because you replace the corrupt registry with the first one ever on your pc. For most users reinstallation is preferable because it is much quicker and guaranteed.

A repair install will take about 45 minutes
A clean install will take about 90 minutes.

I outlined a sequence of solutions, least intrusive first, in post 2.

How did you get on with saving your data?

I do not think you have any form of malware, just a corrupted system.

Studio T

 

I believe I have isolated the problem with userinit.exe. Activity update ... booted up in Safe Mode and let it run overnight (it took that long). Used System Mechanic to clean the disks and repair the registry (as best it can). After rebooting into normal mode, I was shut down automatically. Went back into safe mode and found a userinit.exe in another directory. After replacing the userinit in my System32 directory, I rebooted normally. After doing some work, I rebooted to see if all was okay. It was not ... reboot was automatically logged off. I went back into Safe Mode and searched on userinit.exe. I now had three incidents ... the original replacement file, the System32 file (which looked like it had reverted back to the older version), and a new one in a folder called Prefetch in my Windows folder. This is confusing. I am now trying to upgrade to SP2 (really redoing it since I am already on SP2). Now the system seems to be hanging on the upgrade.

What are your thoughts/advice/suggestions? Is there a place to get a new userinit.exe? What is going on here?

Thanks in advance ...

 

Still having problems with userinit.exe. I can logon in Safe Mode and all seem to operate fine. I uninstalled Daemon because the dtscsi.sys file was "corrupt". I'm now trying to do an upgrade with my original XP CD and SP2. However, I'm still not able to get booted into the normal mode. I now have 3 options when I bootup ... Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Professional Setup, and Windows Recovery Console. The only way I can boot up is in Safe Mode selecting Windows XP Professional.

Would appreciate any advice or counsel ... Thanks in advance ...

 

Now I am really frustrated ... Tried numerous suggestions and still no luck. Here is what I am now contemplating ... would like advice on the approach as it is my last ditch effort. I have a tape backup from about two weeks before the system crashed using Windows Backup utility. If I reinstall windows XP Professional using the Repair function (OR from scratch), can I do that, restore the tape backup and "almost" be where I am today OR will I have to reinstall all my software? Big question ... would really like some help/advice.

Thanks ...