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can't log back in after screensaver lock

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by pchw Jul 10, 2003 last reply Nov 6, 2003 2 views

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screensaver kicks in after period of non-use on xp box. user tries to log back in. login screen only half-way disappears, screen not refreshing. user waits a few minutes and ctrl+alt+screen comes back as if user never tried logging back in. userthen tries again and either can get in or can't. if can't get back in, this cycle continues. if a DIFFERENT user (admin) tries to log in, allows to kick user off, then user can log back in successfully. have tried disabling nic powerdown and thatseemed to help for a while, but problem comes back about a month later. tried disabling hybernation and servicepacking, same results. has happened on 4 machines so far.

9 replies

by stuart_at_oz Jul 10, 2003

Does this happen to other users if they are logged onto the offending computers?

Are you using roaming profiles one a network? If you are (and it sounds as if you are with the fact that is happpened on 4 computers...)then perhaps his profile is corrupted?

We only have a W98 network (NT backbone) at the moment and we have have found that deleting the user profile (user.dat) from the net work and the PC (while they are NOT logged on of course) can clear up odd problems.

If you are not using roaming profiles then perhaps try using an admin logon to delete their profile from the computer may help?

Other questions to ask might be Are the video drivers up to date? Is it a vanilla screen saver? Does the screen saver user DirectX -if it does, what version of Direct X does the computer have?

'Luck,

Stuart

by pchw Jul 11, 2003

No, not using roaming profiles. Just because it is happening to more than one person, that doesn't mean it is a roaming profile issue. THese are XP boxes and we had enough problems with roaming profiles on NT boxes and said NO to roaming on XP. Ihave considered the profiles as a possibility. We used the NT migration tool when we rolled out 400+ xp boxes identical in nature minus an extra application here and there (e.g. visio, project). For the most part the file migration has worked quite well, but that doesn't mean a few profiles out of 400+ didn't migrate correctly. Unfortunately, when disabling the NIC powerdown, it actually relieved the problem for anywhere from 4-7 weeks for these folks, so if I do rebuild a profile, it may take a couple months to determine if this makes a difference, but that's not really an issue. It's not like I haven't rebuilt profiles a zillion times before. I have considered the screensavers, but they are using the standard XP screensavers. As far as direct x, according to an ini file it looks like we are using version 8, but I don't know if the screensavers use direct x or not. Of course, if this is the case, it seems like many many more people would have the problem. Thanks. : )

by eric.cone Jul 10, 2003

Your users sessions are getting terminated because they are idle for a duration that is established either at:
1. The hub or switch
2. The MS TCP/IP stack (settings for preventing denial of service attacks will kill sessions)
3. The logon server (Windows servers can be set to quickly kill sessions)
4. An Intrusion Detection type product.

In any event, I've got a workaround for you. The user cannot logon in this example without enabling the use of cached credentials for logon. An Administrator can log on whether or not cached credentials are enabled.

Regards,
Eric K. Cone

by pchw Jul 11, 2003

Good idea about the switch except it happens to 2 of 15 people on one switch and 2 of 40 people on another switch. Plus these people were on the same switches prior to migrating to XP with no problems. I can look into the other 3 options, but thatleads me to wonder why it's not happening to many many more people. I'm not sure I understand your workaround. A user can log on with cached credentials in the environment, but that is not applicable to this issue. THanks. : )

by omie Jul 12, 2003

There are three things that you need to check...
1) Check the hibernate option if it is enabled. Disable is a good option.
2) Check the power option... select the monitor never, the hard drive never, and last is the system standby to never. It might happen that when your hard drive is off it takes long time to get screen back.
2) Check the power setting at the BIOS and use user defined or disabled.

I hope this helps.

by rcom Jul 12, 2003

Have you checked the event log files in the admin tools to see if an error is there. Is this a true windows screen saver or some of the junk offered on the internet? I personally prefer no screensaver and just have the monitor go blank. Screen savers are no more than eye candy and a waste of resources.