Need a favour from a Vista user

[greenfedora]

Hi,

I'm having some problems with my Vista installation right now but before I delve into the details, could someone with Vista please have a look for winlogon.exe (presumably in c:\Windows somewhere) and tell me where you find it?

[Steve]

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

[greenfedora]

C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32

Many thanks.

[greenfedora]

I think that might be a red herring anyway, although it does fit.

I'll tell you what's going on just in case someone has seen this before.

When I try to log onto my Vista account in normal mode, it looks like it's trying to log on, the screen goes briefly black and it throws me back to the login prompt.

I can login just fine (same account) in safe mode.

I have tried disabling all services and startup items so that normal mode would emulate safe mode in that respect, but it still doesn't work.

I have also tried creating another user account and removing the password from my current account, neither of which worked.

System restore does nothing to help.

The only message I can find in the event log is a 0XC0000005 at 0x00033492 in winlogon.exe but I'm not fully convinced that's the cause because surely it can actually logon or I wouldn't be able to get in via safe mode.

I Googled the above and found some hits for XP and some related BSODs (which I don't get), but nothing that looks directly related.

Cause? I went to B&Q. Really. Windows was working fine and I'd left my laptop on the coffee table, signed on and working okay. It was just watching the cricket while I was out. I went to B&Q and when I came back I noticed I'd been rebooted and then found I couldn't logon.

I suspect I'll have to reinstall but was hoping to avoid that.

[Rik]

Sorry, Gordon, I've managed to avoid Vista, but I'm sure a user will be along soon.

[Simon]

Sorry Gordon, I am a Vista user, but can't help with that one.  I wonder if it updated while you were out, which caused the reboot, and there's a problem following that?  How about removing the last couple of WUs, and see if that helps?

[Steve]

Not had this issue,thinking aloud how about graphics card and drivers but there again why didn't system restore solve the problem? Memory issue?

[greenfedora]

Not had this issue,thinking aloud how about graphics card and drivers but there again why didn't system restore solve the problem? Memory issue?

I had wondered about the graphics subsystem somewhere as that's just about the only thing I can think of that would be different in 'normal' mode (given that I've tried it without loading any services or startup items).

As to the suggestion that an upgrade ran while I was out, it's a good one and all I can think of that might have happened. I have rolled back via a system restore (to 3 days ago) though and I still get the problem.

I'll keep thinking on this for another hour and then give in and just reinstall.

[Steve]

Can you pull a memory stick out and see if that allows you to logon eventually. If you have developed a hardware fault a reinstall may not work

[mrapoc]

Could it be perhaps a virus? They often target the logon files  evil buggers

Try the vista repair options which are presented when you boot from disk

[Noreen]

I don't know enough to help you but maybe you can find something here http://www.howtogeek.com/tag/windows-vista/
or here
http://www.vistax64.com/tags.php?tag=performance+%26+maintenance

[scook94]

Could it be perhaps a virus? They often target the logon files  evil buggers

Try the vista repair options which are presented when you boot from disk

My thoughts exactly. It wouldn't hurt to logon in safe mode and do a deep scan with all the malware tools you have.

[greenfedora]

Thanks for all the suggestions people.

In the end I did a Windows reinstall and all is now well.

[Rik]

That's good, Gordon, albeit a real pain!