Windows XP reboots after logon

[aakash_007]

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 ?

[+allan MVC]

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.

[MazX_Napalm]

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

[Guest Jeremy of Many]

it doesnot even let me take ownership of the folders even as admin and UAC turned off.

UAC is in Windows Vista, not XP, thus you're posting in the wrong subforum and probably getting information that won't help you.

[aakash_007]

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 ?

[+allan MVC]

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).

[aakash_007]

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 ..

[MazX_Napalm]

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

[diacad]

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?

[John.D]

It fixes the entries that whatever malware changed

[SugarCain]

In dealing with this I found it easier to just reload the OS and apps because of how much the malware/spyware/viruses screw up the PC.