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User can't log on using cached profile

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14 replies

by neil.velie

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I am helping a user who cannot log into Windows XP SP3 using her domain login when not connected to our office network. When she attempts this, she gets the following error message: "The system could not log you on. Make sure your User name and domain are correct, then type your password again. Letters in passwords must be typed using the correct case." When connected to the network, she has no problems logging in. I noticed that the while she has a profile folder for her account in C:\Documents and Settings, her account is not listed at all in the "User Profiles" list on the "Advanced" tab in her computer properties - almost as if her profile is not being seen somewhere. She recently had some issues with corrupt systems files, which I corrected by running SFC. It's probably also worth mentioning that chkdsk is attempting to scan upon bootup, so I'm wondering if perhaps her profile is corrupt. Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this problem? Thanks!

14 replies

by shasca

Creating a new profile is simple enough. Backup her My Documents, Desktop, and Favorites. Logged in as another user, delete the affected profile and have her login again while connected to the network.

by neil.velie

Thank you - will recreating her profile in this way cause much disruption to her personalized settings and how her Windows experience looks?

by shasca

If you want to take less chances of losing something. Log on as yourself,copy her profile to the default user profile, then delete the corupt profile. It will look exactly as it does now, but the coruption may follow with it..

Another way is to create a profile like you want it customized and then copy that one to the default user. Delete her corrupt profile. The new profile will look exactly the same.

by luisjr02

Certain personlized changes in the Windows environment may not be the same if she has changed them. i.e. Desktop background cursors, sounds, etc. Also if she has shortcuts set for any files/programs in the root directory or throughout the network she may have to re-map to them.

by neil.velie

Thanks - if she has to lose her settings, so be it. It's better than not being able to log on outside the office. I'll report back regarding whether this fixes the issue or not Thanks for all your help.

by neil.velie

At this point, I don't think a corrupt profile is to blame. I created a new user account in AD, then logged onto this laptop using that account in order to create a profile. Logged out, disconnected the ethernet cable, and then tried to log back in using the newly created account - I still get the same error. Re-connect the network cable, and then I have no problems logging in.

by neil.velie

but neither of those settings helped. The DeleteRoamingCache key wasn't present, so I created it and set it to 0, then rebooted - same problem. I also set the "Number of previous logons to cache" setting to 50 and rebooted, but that didn't work either.

by shasca

I don't know what the heck is going on with this account. It's only the one account, and only on this PC?

by neil.velie

It's only this PC, but it's happening for any domain account. I just unjoined the laptop from the domain and then rejoined to see if that would help, but it didn't. I think I may have a clue to go on now, though - I opened up "User Accounts" in the Control Panel, and only the local admin account is listed. I tried to add the user's domain account and put it in the local admin group, and when I click "Finish" I get an error: "The user could not be added because the following error has occurred: The trust relationship between the workstation and the primary domain failed." I had no problems adding a user with this method on my own laptop. So, at least I have a slightly more informative error message to work with now.

by shasca

Trust relationship is the type error you normal get in these situations. Not that the profile cannot be found.... That does give you a direction to go. h
How do you join PC's do you create the Computer object first then join, or just join the domain at the PC and let it be created from then? You are using a full Domain Admin account too, Right?

Here are some discussions on others with similar problems. Maybe something will jump out.

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/forumarchives/windowsserversbs/Jan2006/post25690114.asp

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverDS/thread/effd46e4-b308-4ea6-bc30-3795e3f001ac

http://www.petri.co.il/forums/archive/index.php/t-19392.html

by neil.velie

In light of the sorry state of Windows on this laptop, including some other problems it's having besides this logon issue, I think I'm going to cut my losses and just re-image the machine. I'd like to figure out what's going on here but I have a feeling it could take a really, really long time. Thanks for all the help, I really appreciate it.

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