[poweruser]

System spec's & hardware:
Original mainboard: P4VMM2 NEW: P4MDPT (socket 478)
(More below)
2 Ghz P4, 256 Meg ram, 60 gig HD, Atech flashcard reader (USB-connected, reads 3-card types). CDRW, DVDRW (both LiteOn), 3.5" floppy. Qtronix keyboard: (Scorpius-98N). Qtronix PS2 mouse (two-button plus a center wheel).

Qtronix keyboard (Scorpius-98N, USB) is not correctly recognized by Windows (PNP) , and installs as "standard" every time! So special keys DON'T WORK!

"V2 Premier" System was sold to me by Viscom Technology, marketed by ShopNBC, in July, 2002. Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity was glued on case, with name "Hsing Tech" on certificate (near top left). So-called "Emergency Recovery CD's (two, not the same), both BOOT TO Windows 98! Both CD's were supplied by ECS, the maker of the mainboard! Microsoft Piracy Hotline (1-800-RU-LEGIT) says supplier of recovery CD(s) should have been the same as Cert. of Auth. (Hsing Tech). No CD for "XP Home" was ever supplied. Hard drive still is OK (low bad sector count) according to a system info utility called AIDA32 (bad sector count is well below threshold limit for SMART technonlogy). The old motherboard had problem in the USB subsystem that (I think) caused a bunch of files on the hard drive to get screwed up. System Restore is part of what was screwed up! No system restore points are ever available, from normal mode, diagnostic mode or safe mode! You can create one, but then it disappears at the next re-boot!

Recovery console is ON THE HARD DRIVE (lucky me, because I have no useable recovery CD --- that is, MAYBE "lucky me!" Read on!

I booted to safe mode / command prompt and ran C:Windows\i386\WINNT32.EXE, which STARTS Recovery Console from the hard drive--(blue screen, DOS-looking environment). The screens tell me that "upgrade is NOT available", which is UNLIKE the "in-place upgrade" system recovery you can do from a genuine Recovery CD. Recovery Console then copies a lot of files (I'm assuming system files), and then ASKS whether I want to do a "clean install" or a "recovery" of existing system. So far so good! Now here is the rub! According to Microsoft, there is a problem at my next step! (see the following link:
http://support.micro...kb;en-us;308402

Article 308402 is about Win XP giving a response of "Invalid Administrator password" when trying to log on Recovery Console! I set the Admin. password in safe mode, while logged on as Admin (8 characters), but that password did NOT work to get into recovery console! Microsoft tech support had NO ANSWERS after four hours on the phone, with four different tech's! Recovery console gives me three tries at "guessing" the password, then EXITS (with a message about three invalid password tries)!!

I'm pretty good with computers (for self-taught, anyway), but this one has me stumped! Anybody have any ideas? Thanks!

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You should be able to find keyboard and other drivers for your system here.

Recovery console is ON THE HARD DRIVE (lucky me, because I have no useable recovery CD

This is now standard practice for most computer manufacturers. I don't like it either, but I guess it saves them money.

I booted to safe mode / command prompt and ran C:Windows\i386\WINNT32.EXE, which STARTS Recovery Console from the hard drive--(blue screen, DOS-looking environment). The screens tell me that "upgrade is NOT available", which is UNLIKE the "in-place upgrade" system recovery you can do from a genuine Recovery CD. Recovery Console then copies a lot of files (I'm assuming system files), and then ASKS whether I want to do a "clean install" or a "recovery" of existing system.

Have you tried selecting clean install instead of recovery console? After selecting clean install there will probably be a repair option available. If not, don't proceed unless you have your important data backed up!

Article 308402 is about Win XP giving a response of "Invalid Administrator password" when trying to log on Recovery Console!

Have you contacted Microsoft and requested the "hotfix" as recommended in the MS KB article? It should be free of charge since this is a known problem (mention MSKB 308402). They will send you an email containing a couple files and instructions to install.

Date        Time  Version      Size    File name
  ---------------------------------------------------
  11-May-2001  13:57  5.1.2600.15  225,152  Spcmdcon.sys
  12-Nov-2001  04:48  5.1.2600.21  218,624  Srrstr.dll

Alternatively, if MS won't provide the hotfix, this procedure is supposed to work:
1. You must be running Windows XP home.
2. Download the software to create the startup diskettes for Windows XP Home as supplied in MSKB Q308402.
3. Boot using these floppies.
4. From the last diskette, number 6, copy the file SPCMDCON.SYS into the CMDCONS subdirectory on your C drive. You will need to change the viewing options (view all hidden files) in order to see this directory. Windows will prompt that the file already exists, you can rename the original to old first and then copy or just copy over the old file.
5. Restart your PC and select the recovery console. Your password now works.

For Pro users, I can not confirm if the above works as is, or if it needs some modifications. I do know that the bulletin states there are two files that need to be updated. On the Home version only one actually exists, the other file may be for the Pro version. If so just search each diskette to find the second file, more than likely it would be on the last diskette created, and then replace both files.
I hope this helps I spent quite a bit of time researching this problem only to come to dead end after dead end. Again I make no guarantees, but if the only other option is a complete re-install because you can not access the recovery console, it is at least worth a try.

[admin]

You should be able to find keyboard and other drivers for your system here.

Recovery console is ON THE HARD DRIVE (lucky me, because I have no useable recovery CD

This is now standard practice for most computer manufacturers. I don't like it either, but I guess it saves them money.

I booted to safe mode / command prompt and ran C:Windows\i386\WINNT32.EXE, which STARTS Recovery Console from the hard drive--(blue screen, DOS-looking environment). The screens tell me that "upgrade is NOT available", which is UNLIKE the "in-place upgrade" system recovery you can do from a genuine Recovery CD. Recovery Console then copies a lot of files (I'm assuming system files), and then ASKS whether I want to do a "clean install" or a "recovery" of existing system.

Have you tried selecting clean install instead of recovery console? After selecting clean install there will probably be a repair option available. If not, don't proceed unless you have your important data backed up!

Article 308402 is about Win XP giving a response of "Invalid Administrator password" when trying to log on Recovery Console!

Have you contacted Microsoft and requested the "hotfix" as recommended in the MS KB article? It should be free of charge since this is a known problem (mention MSKB 308402). They will send you an email containing a couple files and instructions to install.

Date        Time  Version      Size    File name
  ---------------------------------------------------
  11-May-2001  13:57  5.1.2600.15  225,152  Spcmdcon.sys
  12-Nov-2001  04:48  5.1.2600.21  218,624  Srrstr.dll

Alternatively, if MS won't provide the hotfix, this procedure is supposed to work:
1. You must be running Windows XP home.
2. Download the software to create the startup diskettes for Windows XP Home as supplied in MSKB Q308402.
3. Boot using these floppies.
4. From the last diskette, number 6, copy the file SPCMDCON.SYS into the CMDCONS subdirectory on your C drive. You will need to change the viewing options (view all hidden files) in order to see this directory. Windows will prompt that the file already exists, you can rename the original to old first and then copy or just copy over the old file.
5. Restart your PC and select the recovery console. Your password now works.

For Pro users, I can not confirm if the above works as is, or if it needs some modifications. I do know that the bulletin states there are two files that need to be updated. On the Home version only one actually exists, the other file may be for the Pro version. If so just search each diskette to find the second file, more than likely it would be on the last diskette created, and then replace both files.
I hope this helps I spent quite a bit of time researching this problem only to come to dead end after dead end. Again I make no guarantees, but if the only other option is a complete re-install because you can not access the recovery console, it is at least worth a try.