Strange Login Problem in WinXP Pro sp2

Bob151

Senior member
Apr 13, 2000
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My whole family uses the computer, when I need to stop to let someone else on, I can either logout, or lock it with the 'WinKey and L key' option and someone else can login, while I remain logged in. I have been doing this for years without ever a problem.

Now, whether I logout or 'WinKey and L key' all account sort of get locked out after about 4 or so of these cycles. So, rebooting is becoming common, and very annoying.

Now when this condition reveals itself, I can type characters in the password box and see that they increment. I am sure that it is not in CapsLock, because the light is not lit and my pw is lower case. The CapsLock light does alternate when I press it. I have tried typing in the password with it lit, just in case.

The only thing to do when this happens is to do an OS restart while everyone is logged in. Work progress gets interrupted. I've searched on the Internet, but everything I found in regards to lockouts were not related. And it isn't a password failed to many tries issue, all accounts don't work. The response from XP is not that the account in locked out, I don't think it provides any kind of response.

For Security measures, I have always run (since this instance of the OS install) VS 8.0, SpySweeper 5 (subscription just expired), and Ad-Aware with Ad-Watch (the pay to use version). Of course the firewall from the OS is always running, plus the FW services from Belkin router as well. Spyware/Virus scans haven't revealed anything except Ad-Aware's usual alarms about tracking cookies and MRUs.

This begun about 6-8 weeks ago and is getting very frustrating for me.

Any Ideas
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Big picture: sounds like you need more than one computer there :D

Look in the Event Viewer logs, are there any events that could shed light on this? As an aside, home-user VirusScan 8.0 is some pretty old stuff now, so you might want to think about something else.
 

Bob151

Senior member
Apr 13, 2000
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Yea, VS 8.0 was the previous version my employer's technology department provided for home use. I was recently given 2 licenses for VS10, but handn't installed it yet on this one.

The signatures with VS 8.0 are updated automatically. Sig date is February 9 2007.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Originally posted by: Bob151
Yea, VS 8.0 was the previous version my employer's technology department provided for home use. I was recently given 2 licenses for VS10, but handn't installed it yet on this one.

The signatures with VS 8.0 are updated automatically. Sig date is February 9 2007.
And is it on the 5100 (5.1.00) engine? A few of the latest threats are now requiring the 5100 engine for detection, which is a little scary. One recent example, PWS-GoGo

 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Ok cool. Now log on with an Admin account, click Start > Run > compmgmt.msc and look in Event Viewer. Do you see any events that might shed light on your lockouts?
 

biggestmuff

Diamond Member
Mar 20, 2001
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Could some security setting in the MS PowerToy TweakUI reset this? I don't recall what TweakUI is capable of as I'm at work right now.
 

Bob151

Senior member
Apr 13, 2000
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Well, there is just not too much in the log file. An hour before the problem showed up, there were some log entries from DCOM saying it could start a service, A1F4E726-8CF1-11D1-BF92-0060081ED811. Which seens to be related for Windows Image Aquisition, and it is correct, I have it disabled WIA as a service. I use Photoshop Elements to aquire images.

So just rule it out, I have set it to automatic.