Window XP Home Annoying Problem

kgsuth · Post by **kgsuth** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:01 am

My problem is not earth shaking, but it is annoying and I do not know how it started.

What happens is, that when I boot up, and windows loads, I get a screen that shows 2 boxes. The box in the background is grayed out and reads:

LOG ONTO WINDOWS

USERNAME ADMINISTRATOR
PASSWORD -(BLANK AREA)

The box in the foreground is live and says:

LOG ON MESSAGE

UNABLE TO LOG YOU ON BECAUSE OF AN ACCOUNT RESTRICTION
OK

So when you click on OK you then are taken on to the Welcome screen and the option to log on by using your user name. And you log on and all is well.

This is a home based system, one operator, never networked etc, so how come this has happened, and how do I get rid of the first two boxes. I sometimes wonder if someone did not hack into my system and took over as administrator. Maybe not, maybe I am paronoid, bipolar, or something.

But I would like to fix this and get the start up sorted out.

Any suggestions ?

Thanks in Advance

striker8000 · Post by **striker8000** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 1:24 am

possibly stupid question: was this computer set to automatically log on?
unrelated question: is this a fresh install of xp?

kgsuth · Post by **kgsuth** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 2:34 am

No, just a home machine, runs all the time except when I reboot for updates etc. I have folding at home on it, so it runs continously.

Not a fresh install.

Somehow I think I got hacked and somebody messed with this part.

MadDoctor · Post by **MadDoctor** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 10:06 am

Does your firewall report any unauthorized outgoing traffic?

Ken · Post by **Ken** » Tue Nov 09, 2004 10:20 am

kg,
You have no password, correct? You definitely need a password, even if you are the only user and you allow it to auto log on...

Go to control panel, users & passwords and tell us what is checked...

Are you using any type of firewall, software or hardware?

Do you have an anti virus? Do you run anti-spyware progs such as Adaware, Spybot S & D, spyware Blaster? If so, please list which ones...

Give us any info that you can, such as, when it started doing this, is any other strange things happening, have you recently installed or uninstalled any progs, etc... In a case like this, too much info is better than not enough. Some things may appear to be insignificant, however, in reality, very important...

I know that you have been folding for SG since the dawn of time, and I rarely see you post, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say "Thanks"!

kgsuth · Post by **kgsuth** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 1:33 am

Thanks for the help fellows

Ken, I appreciate your appreciation, Thanks.

Yes, I should do more posting, I just love the spirit of this forum and the generous help that is so freely given by some very gifted people. Unfortunately, I do not have the grounding in lot of this technical side of computers, so I feel some of my questions would be pretty basic!!!

So, Maddoctor, no unauthorized traffic out that I am aware of.

Ken, lets see, this problem has been ongoing for possibly 8 months or so. Can not say for sure when it started.

In the control panel In he Users area, I find the following

Ken Sutherland (that is me)
Computer Administrator

Guest Account
Off

ASP.net Machine A......
Limited Account
Password protected.

See, I have no clue, what ASP is all about. It is there, for what reason I do not know.

I have Zone Alarm Pro, I have Norton's Antivirus Prog, I have Ad-aware, Spybot, and I noticed when in the control panel, that Windows firewall is not activated, but am not sure with Zone Alarm is I need to activate the XP firewall.

I can not think of anything else out of the ordinary, but leaving it on and the FAH program running, the disk light comes on and goes off quite often, but I just put it down to FAH.

For now I will have to quit, as it is getting late, and I get up early, like 4:30 am.

Thanks, for the help, any suggestions would be welcome.

Ken

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Wed Nov 10, 2004 10:05 am

It's anybody's guess why this started happening all of a sudden.

Here's a coulpe of articles from MS about the error

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... US;q303846

http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -us;290109

Hope they help you with this annoyance.

kgsuth · Post by **kgsuth** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 8:19 am

Thanks Norm

It looks like this will answer the problem. Pretty simple when you see it in that MS Knowledge base.

I appreciate your time in finding the answer.

Ken

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Nov 11, 2004 11:40 am

Glad it worked

It was a longshot
Now I know