[iLoveLucy]

Hello everyone,

I'm sure this has been posted many times before but from all the forums I went to nothing could help me, so please bear with me. So what happens is that after I log in I can see my background picture (without the desktop icons nor the task bar) for a few seconds and then windows logs off by itself. I'm not very good with computers but I've managed to get a boot CD that lets me edit the registry and while on other forums I found different suggestion, my registry looks alright (from what was said on the different websites.) In the Winlogon tree I have the keys (if that's what you call them) Shell and Userinit. The data for Shell is "Explorer.exe" and for Userinit it's "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe," both of which seem correct. What other keys should I look at to find my problem?

Also, it seems like spyware problems can cause this issue, and before my last normal restart an infected file was indeed repaired by some antivirus program so that might be a clue. However wih my very little knowlegde it looks like the registry is alright as I described so I'm lost.

The urgent thing is that I need to access a file on my computer, so if you guys have any suggestions I would be very glad to hear. Thanks a lot for any help, and I hope to get this problem solved soon.

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Hello welcome to GeeksToGo, We will be happy to help you.

We will need some more information


If this is a name brand system:
Make
Model
Operating System
Age of the computer
Memory Total
Hard Drive Size, How much free space



If this is custom then We will need the following:

The CPU brand and model
The Motherboard brand and model
Ram amount and speed
Cd\Dvd rom interface IDE/ SATA
Hard Drive size and free space
Any cards in PCI slots
Any software installed\updated and driver updates done just before problem started

All this will help in determining a course of action to best correct the problem you are experiencing.

[rshaffer61]

Hello welcome to GeeksToGo, We will be happy to help you.

We will need some more information


If this is a name brand system:
Make
Model
Operating System
Age of the computer
Memory Total
Hard Drive Size, How much free space



If this is custom then We will need the following:

The CPU brand and model
The Motherboard brand and model
Ram amount and speed
Cd\Dvd rom interface IDE/ SATA
Hard Drive size and free space
Any cards in PCI slots
Any software installed\updated and driver updates done just before problem started

All this will help in determining a course of action to best correct the problem you are experiencing.

[edge2022]

Provide us with all the info that rshaffer is asking for.
Try booting into safe mode, in order to get to that file that you urgently need.
http://www.computerh...sues/chsafe.htm

Are you clean of all malware?

[rshaffer61]

By clean have you gone through the steps Here?

[iLoveLucy]

Hey guys, I'll try to get the info you need shortly. For now I forgot to say that safe mode or last good configuration don't work either.

[mark41]

I have the same problem, Dell Inspiron 1509 with 75 GB hard drive, windows xp media edition. A friend surfed the web and got a pop up, he called me when all the machine would do is turn on and show his background image, no login option and ctrl alt del will not bring up the task manager. I got to safe mode it shows login icons however when I try either his or the admin it logs on and the immediately logs out. I put in the dell supplied OS CD and tried the OS repair which took about an hour and when it finished I had all of the symptoms. I can also say that from info on the forum I went into OS repair facility and tried to use the recovery console to and the files "wsaupdater.exe" and "userinit.exe," do not exist in the windows/system32 folder.

I need to get access to the files on this computer since my friend has not done a back up on several months (very bad) any suggestions other than remove the hard drive and slave it to another computer copy the files initialize the hrd drive and reload everything????

THANK YOU

[rshaffer61]

Direct to: mark41

Please start your own topic
Although your issue may seem similar there can be other issues that may need to be resolved.
By bumping on someone's topic it makes it confusing for the tech to understand who they are helping. This can in turn cause the wrong support to be given and can cause instability or worse to happen to your system.

[iLoveLucy]

Sorry for taking a long time, I have some of details for you but I think it's enoguh. It's a relaively old computer (around 6 years), and it has about 60GB on the hard disk of which at least 6GB are free (I don't remember exactly). The operating system is XP. I already talked about a part of the registry that's responsible for startup in my first post, so any ideas or something that I could do please? Thanks in advance.

[rshaffer61]

Per you initial post you say you did have a infection notice. That may very well be your problem. The issue now is to get you back into windows so you can go to the malware forum and get assistance with removal of the infection.
If the main issue is getting access to a file on your computer then you can create a live cd and be able to pull that file off. get Puppy Linux HERE

Get puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso download it and burn it to cd
..
if you don't have a burning program that will burn .ISO files get burncdcc in my signature below ..a small FAST no frills iso burning program...

NOTE...do not put a blank cd in until burncdcc opens the tray for you
1. Start BurnCDCC
2. Browse to the ISO file you want to burn on cd/dvd ....in this case its puppy-2.16-seamonkey-fulldrivers.iso
3. Select the ISO file
4. click on Start


make sure in the bios the cd drive is the first boot device....

put the cd in the cd drive..boot your computer....puppy will boot and run totally in ram...if your hardware is in good working order you will know...
after you get it running and your at the desktop...you take the puppy linux cd out and then you can use the burner to copy all yor data to cd/dvds
you can also use it to backup your data to a external usb harddrive..just have it hooked to the computer when you boot up with puppy...

[rshaffer61]

Reason for edit: double post

Edited by rshaffer61, 16 April 2009 - 08:22 AM.

[iLoveLucy]

Thanks very much for the file info! I just want to clarify that I got a notice that an infected file had just been repaired before this problem occured, so I didn't get a message about a new virus. Also, I didn't encounter any significan problems with viruses, meaning I didn't have to take any action about a virus problem and didn't get major threat warnings. I've read on other places that some antivirus program can cause this problem when fixing a virus problem, so can anyone please confirm is this is true and what checks I should do to give you guys a clue about what's wrong?

[rshaffer61]

Have you done the puppy linux live cd and been able to get your files backed up? If so we can proceed. Let me know

[iLoveLucy]

Yes thanks, I have been able to acess my files but now I really want to get this problem fixed and nothing has been posted about actually solving it so please someone help...

[edge2022]

Do you have your Windows CD, or the recovery console? If that is the case then you should click on "Repair Common Windows Problems" in my sig and follow the steps there.

If you don't have your Windows CD and don't have the recovery console installed, then make a RE boot disc using the steps in "Recovery Console Instructions" in my sig. Once you have the CD, then follow the instructions in the "Repair Common Windows Problems" link.

[rshaffer61]

Just for our curiosity, do you remember what virus it found and quarantined?
After rereading thread I believe you may have a usernit.exe corruption. Edge2022 your thoughts on this?