geek help

[Bibio]

i have a problem i have never come across before..

windows xp home sp3

loads to the login screen then starts to load profile, then saves settings and returns to login screen.

tried googlefoo nothing much of help

any help appreciated..

[timwilky]

Originally Posted by Bibio

i have a problem i have never come across before..

windows xp home sp3

loads to the login screen then starts to load profile, then saves settings and returns to login screen.

tried googlefoo nothing much of help

any help appreciated..

Problem identified, replace with an operating system

[timwilky]

well you did ask for geek help. numpty help may be able to microsoft fix it for you

To fix the problem, you'll be needing a Windows XP CD.

Insert the CD, boot up, follow the prompts to get you into Recovery Console.

Once you're at the Recovery Console prompt, do this:

copy userinit.exe wsaupdater.exe

Hit enter, then type "exit" and hit enter again.

Hopefully, job jobbed.

Tim, you can't call yourself a geek if you can't fix rudimentary issues like this, sorry.

[Bibio]

will give it a try... supose its somit to do with lavasoft?

UserInit.exe is the process that deals with setting up network connections, starting the Windows "shell" etc etc.

Windows XP, in it's infinite wisdom, renamed it to wsaupdater.exe. Unfortunately, it's possible for viruses & other malicious software to over-write this with it's own version.

There's a checksum performed on wsaupdater before it's executed, if it fails the checks, it's not called, and the login is aborted for safety. Equally, if wsaupdater is missing, the login is aborted.

There's a chance that it won't be this, but this is the easiest fix to try. So if it doesn't work after you've replaced wsaupdater, let me know.via this thread.

[Bibio]

cheers Baph your a star.. copied from a working install.. worked a treat...

just renamed userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe then copied to win32.. then also copied userinit.exe to win32..

cheers bud...

Originally Posted by Baph

Windows XP, in it's infinite wisdom, renamed it to wsaupdater.exe.

Are you sure about this? only ask as I've always had userinit on several builds & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892893

Originally Posted by Bibio

will give it a try... supose its somit to do with lavasoft?

Are you running Ad-Aware then as I have had no issue with that program and Service pack 3

Originally Posted by _drummer_

Are you sure about this? only ask as I've always had userinit on several builds & http://support.microsoft.com/kb/892893

Yup, I'm sure. It was after BlazeFind started abusing wsaupdater that they rolled the change back.

It's not uncommon for the MicroSoft update procedures to fail that rollback (if you install SP1, then follow every update given in order without jumping SP2 etc), there's a bug in the update procedure that can leave wsaupdater being called.

That's why the MSKB article you linked states to copy userinit.exe from a known good location & name it wsaupdater.exe on the target, as the failed rollback involves the registry keys still pointing to wsaupdater.