No Way To Log In?

So I am trying to log in to a Averatec 4100, and when I start the computer everything works like normal, but once I get to the login screen, it only has the login background and no icons to click on. I tried to ctrl+alt+del, and that allowed me to get a login box, but it denied me attempts to login. So my question is what is the cause of this and how do I reinstall windows? Or if you have a better idea please let me know. Any help is appreciated.

 

I'd hazard a guess that you have a damaged SAM (the hive of the registry that stores user account password info.

You did not mention what OS you have. XP? Vista?
If you can tap the f8 key at start and get the OS start menu, try USE LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION. This will pull the most recent registry hives that worked.

If that does not work, what I would do is pull the drive, drop it as a secondary drive in another machine, go into the SYSTEM VOLUME folders (you may need to show hidden system folders and take posession of the folder in the other OS first--cannot remember--and manually restore a previous registry from the restore points there.

This is not difficult, but does take a little effort.

 

Do you have a restore CD that came with your laptop?

 

Thanks for all the help, the computer is XP, I tried putting in the disk but nothing happens. It does not load for some reason. I also tried the F8 and still nothing, any more ideas? I really would like to avoid pulling the hard drive unless I have to, as I am a bit of an amateur when it comes to that kind of thing.

 

Here is what the message that comes up says when I try to log on: 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.

 

F8--you must be missing the right moment. Power off your machine....turn it on, tap f8 once a second until you see the black menu with SAFE MODE--scroll down to LAST KNOWN GOOD CONFIGURATION

 

No need to reinstall Windows if you don't know the password. If it's XP Pro, you can try Ctrl+Alt+Del to get in the login box, type Aministrator as user name and blank password, you could log in successfully if the previous owner didn't set the password for Admin. All of laptops sold never have Admin password set.
If it's XP Home, you need to get in to Safe Mode by pressing F8 and Administrator account is only seen in Safe mode. The same as XP Pro, manufacturers always leave the password blank unless a costumer set it after purchasing a laptop.

So anyone should set the password for Aministrator account, if you don't know or not sure, you should check it now, otherwise some people like me can access your computer easily without knowing your login password.

If you can login Administrator account, then you can clear password of any account you want to login. Clear password is the only way if you don't know or forget the password.

If the Administrator account also has password, then the only solution is clear the password by a boot disk.
Search Hiren Boot by google then burn it to a disk. Boot up by this Disk and select Password & Registry Tools --> Active Password Changer.

Select your logical drive, then it will look into MS SAM database and show a list of accounts, now your task is only to pick the account you want to clear the password.
The whole process is only about 5 minutes.


With this tool, I have never reinstalled Windows just because of the unknown password or user name, even with windows Vista by using different boot disk.


Again, no need to reinstall Windows just because you don't know or forget password, this applies to XP,NT,2000, and Vista.