Windows XP reboots after logon


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My computers win xp pro reboots after i enter my password on logon screen and press enter everytime. I m not able to boot even in safe mode, same thing happens. The only thing thats working is safemode with networking prompt. i saw the event viewer there and its has an entry of 'DCOM error'. also when i try to open explorer.exe in cmd prompt the computer reboots again.

Any suggestions what to do now ?

I m wrting the post from my vista on same computer which runs normally. i can't access my documents of xp partition from vista. it says " you have denied permission to access this folder" it doesnot even let me take ownership of the folders even as admin and UAC turned off. how do i get off this ?

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Boot to safe mode

Regedit

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

If there is a key named "OldUserinit", delete the "Userinit" key and rename the "OldUserinit" key to "Userinit".

The "Userinit" key should now be c:\WINDOWS_PATH\system32\userinit.exe

If you can't get in via the safe mode

Boot to the Recovery Console

Get userinit.exe from another computer. (c:\windows\system32 folder)

Copy it to c:/windows/system32

Rename userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe

Boot to Safe mode w/Networking. Go to System Properties - Advanced - Startup & Recovery Settings and Uncheck "Automatically Restart". Reboot. If you get a blue screen error, post the contents of that error here.

sorry but the only mode i m able to get in is safe mode with command prompt , how do i go to system properties from cmd prompt ?

Sorry, my error. I misread your post. You might want to try a repair install (boot to the XP CD and choose the second repair option, allowing XP to install on top of itself).

I did that do , nothing seemed to work so reinstalled xp on a new partition.

All problems were due to some malware i suppose. I ran AVG scan and it caught about 15 viruses and cleaned them. After that i was able to boot once and after that xp hanged on "windows is starting " itself in all modes. When i used your 2nd recovery option the setup didnot continue after "setup is installing windows 39 mins left". it never completed and thus last option - REINSTALL WINDOWS.

Really bad on part of MS, malwares can ruin a fine running system. Thinking of upgrading to a MAC ..

sorry but the only mode i m able to get in is safe mode with command prompt , how do i go to system properties from cmd prompt ?

Read the second part of my post

If you can't get in via the safe mode

Boot to the Recovery Console

Get userinit.exe from another computer. (c:\windows\system32 folder)

Copy it to c:/windows/system32

Rename userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe

  • 3 years later...

Read the second part of my post

If you can't get in via the safe mode

Boot to the Recovery Console

Get userinit.exe from another computer. (c:\windows\system32 folder)

Copy it to c:/windows/system32

Rename userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe

Hi- I had this problem (3 years later!) and tried the "MazX_Napalm" fix. It didn't work, system still reboots after login. What exactly is the fix supposed to do?

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