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WinXP keeps rebooting

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by bdraper17 1 view

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User Environment WinXP keeps rebooting
I'm running WinXP on a desktop. Whenever I start the computer I get the following message:

User Environment - Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system. - A required privilege is not held by the client.

Then there is a 30 second timer that automatically shuts down my computer and restarts it only to come back to the same message and another restart.

I've tried safe mode, last known good configuration and system recovery but that has not fixed the problem.

I do not have a choice to log into the machine as a different user.

9 replies

by bdraper17

While on the "Welcome screen" it displays the "Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system. - A required privilege is not held by the client." message then displays the shutdown dialogue box before it even reaches the desktop to perform any tasks. So I am unable to run anything.

by bfilmfan

Sounds to me like a permissions issue. Is this system on a domain?

Or has someone set something interesting in the local security settings?

by simy

Looks like you have two problems - you have a corrupt user profile giving you the user environment message, and a virus (sasser, I think) which shuts down your PC.

You'll need to remove the virus first. Since the virus reboots your PC almost immediately, you'll have to install your hard drive on another PC as slave and clean the virus with a virus scanner or sasser removal tool from Symantec.

Once you've removed the virus, install the hard drive back into your PC and login as administrator (press ctrl-alt-del to bring up the classic logon screen). Create a new profile with a similar name and copy the files from your old profile to the new one i.e. copy your files from c:\documents and settings\ to the new one (my documents, templates etc). You should be able to login as the newly created user.

by dmiles

CAUSE
This behavior occurs because the user name you typed during graphical user interface (GUI) mode Setup contains a space or backspace as the last character at the end of the name, which causes Setup to create an incomplete user profile located in the %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Username folder.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, press CTRL+ALT+DEL and restart the computer, or log off and log back on. This action creates a new user profile and you can successfully log on.

A new user profile is displayed as %SystemDrive%\Documents and Settings\Username .Computername (where the user name contains a space and the local computer name is appended).
STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Windows 2000.
MORE INFORMATION
This behavior usually occurs when you install Windows 2000 Professional in a workgroup setting and automatically create the user name during Setup. Setup creates a user account that contains the information that you supply when you are prompted for a user name and company name during GUI-mode Setup.

by bdraper17

This is an XP machine not 2000... I ended up taking the hard drive out of the PC and inserting it into another working PC. Renaming the administrator profile directory then placing the hard drive back in the origional PC. Took a while to boot up but everything worked after that.

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