Can ONLY log on in Safe Mode

[papilgee4evaeva]

Hello all; this is my first post here. I'll begin from the beginning.

Earlier this morning, I went to open my email program (I use Thunderbird... that's another story), and Windows basically wouldn't let me open the program. As I usually, do, I went to open Task Manager to see if I could find any problematic processes running. Windows wouldn't let me open Task Manager.

So I restart, hoping to fix the problem that way. Upon restarting, I can't log in. I type my password... correctly... about five or six times. Windows tells me that my username or password is incorrect each time.

I restart again, and then I'm attacked by the infamous Black Screen of Death.
After a system restore from a repair disk I created, I still can't log in to any of my accounts on the computer (in normal mode). I even removed all the passwords, but any time I click on either my own account, my emergency account, or the guest account, it still tells me that "the user name or password is correct." As the title says, I can only log in successfully in Safe Mode.

Any suggestions? Can anyone point me the right way?

BTW, my machine is a Toshiba Satellite L505D-S5983, 3 GB RAM, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit. The OS came preloaded and without manufacturer's disks.

 

[richc46]

You must determine the cause of the conflict. Try this

How to troubleshoot a problem by performing a clean boot in Windows Vista or in Windows 7

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello papilgee4evaeva, welcome to Seven Forums!



This was a problem in Vista for a while and I believe I saw someone reference this tutorial in an attempt to help someone else with similar issues just the othe day; have a good look through the tutorial at the link below to see if there's anything that will be a help to you.

The User Profile Service failed the logon. User profile cannot be loaded. - Vista Forums


Please be sure to keep us updated as to what you find out.

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

Just found one clue... upon trying to restart in Normal mode, explorer.exe fails to load. So I didn't even get far enough to test any of the non-Microsoft services... or even get to try to load any of the user profiles I've created.

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

OK, for fun (and because I hadn't done it before), I decided to look at the Event Viewer. I had a multitude of warnings and errors, so I looked at the warnings and saw that many of my executables (including WINLOGON) and DLLs were reported as infected. Can't run System Mechanic or Windows Defender in Safe Mode, so I'm installing AVG to figure out what's going on.

Looks like I got my work cut out for me tonight as far as cleaning up this mess...

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here's an excellent, free AV scanner.

Malwarebytes.org

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

I used that, and it found and quarantined three infections in the registry:
Adware.SmartShopper
Broken.OpenCommand (occurred twice)

No infections found in any of the files in the windows\system32 folder.

Still no dice as far as returning functionality. I get two different scenarios when I try to log on:

1) either I can click on my username and it tells me that the username or password is incorrect (as stated before, I removed all my passwords trying to fix the problem). Trying to click on the power button in the bottom right corner has no effect whatsoever.
...or...
2) it lets me log on, but then I get a failure in dwm.exe and a Black Screen of Death with a mouse cursor. Pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL shows an error message saying that Windows was unable to display startup or shutdown controls and that I should press ESC or turn the power off using the laptop button.

Still trying to find solutions... I'll keep everyone posted.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again.


If you have a Windows 7 disk see if you can do a system restore to a point before the issues started, using this tutorial at the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...t-using-system-restore-windows-7-a.html?ltr=P

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

I'll try that again. I did it once, but I'm going to try to go much further back than just three days ago.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Yes give it a go and be sure to keep us informed.

 

[richc46]

I'll try that again. I did it once, but I'm going to try to go much further back than just three days ago.

To work, of course, you must restore to a point prior to the problem. The further, back you go,the more unwanted changes will be made. Be sure to use the System Restore feature that lets you decide what will be affected. If you are going to lose something that cannot be replaced, no key number etc. Maybe we can suggest another solution.

 

[whs]

Scanning with AVG may give you only a partial result. Try to scan with more programs, e.g. MSE which is pretty good. You may also try to disable all startups and see what happens.

PS: Just saw someone post this list of free malware scanners: http://www.freebyte.com/antivirus/

 

[richc46]

Scanning with AVG may give you only a partial result. Try to scan with more programs, e.g. MSE which is pretty good. You may also try to disable all startups and see what happens.

Taking the lead from WHS, here is a free scan from a well known company, that will not hurt to try.

Free Virus Protection, Free Virus Scan | FreeScan | McAfee

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

System Restore didn't quite get it... I still can't log on in Normal Mode... still "user name or password is incorrect."

I'm making manufacturer-spec system recovery disks now in hopes of solving the problem this way, as much as I didn't want to. Will keep you all posted via my handy-dandy 9-year-old came-preinstalled-with-Windows-2000 machine!

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

I hope the recovery disks will do it for you, yes, do keep us informed.

 

[papilgee4evaeva]

Recovery disks worked. I'm back in business.

Thanks for everyone's help. I did get a lot of resources to use for later should another problem arise.

 

[richc46]

I am glad for you a nice happy ending.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Glad to hear you got it sorted.