Lost Administrator Privileges XP Home

C

Chris N

I am helping a friend with a Toshiba Satellite L30-113 running Windows XP Home. I set the machine to automatically log on using run "control userpasswords2" and installed SP3. However somewhere along the line after a reboot all administrator accounts have lost their privileges. There are only 3 accounts I can log onto and none have admin privileges. control userpasswords2 is no longer accessible from any account and without admin privileges I can't install any new programs or updates or do a defrag etc. I can't log on to the original Administrator account as there is an error message Unable to log you on because of an account restriction.

I have tried booting up with PClogin now to remove all passwords and reset all accounts as administrator but that failed. I still cant log on as administrator. The other account I was using did have administrator privileges but they have been lost.

I have run Malwarebytes to remove all threats (thankfully it was previously installed). I have also tried to reset file permissions using SECEDIT.EXE
Link has been removed
This did not work

I have downloaded he Download the SubInACL tool and tried the fix halfway down the page here:
Link has been removed
This did not work

Any thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

Kind Regards

Chris
 
Thanks for your reply and suggestion Elizabeth. I am able to boot into safe mode but am not able to log on to the Administrator account. Actually the account I am using called Owner was once an Admin account but has since lost all admin privileges probably due to some registry corruption. There is actually no password for the main administrator account so there should not be a problem to log on. The computer does not recognize any account as being an administrator account. The other problem is the computer refuses to log on to the original Admin account. I get the error message- unable to log you on because of an account restriction.

Kind Regards

Chris
 
was there ever a password assigned to the admin account which is only visible during safemode, if not then just type in adminstrator, then for password box just tab through it.

or hit ctrl + alt + del twice

here are a few links to read through:

http://www.wikihow.com/Log-on-to-Windows-XP-Using-the-Default-Blank-Administrator-Password

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d-a-user/9c547838-88dc-40e7-9f89-76d1ed4736c4

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windowsxp/ht/adminpassword02.htm

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ss/safemodexp_5.htm
 
Thank you very much Elizabeth. The links are excellent resources. The last link above seems to describe the problem exactly. There is no password for the Administrator account account. However when I try to log onto the admin account in safe mode using run/Control userpasswords2 I continue to get the error message user options could not be started with the supplied user information. Ensure that the supplied information identifies an administrator on this computer. Otherwise the usual error message is Unable to Log You on Because of an Account Restriction . I get the same errors when trying to log on to the other account which had admin privileges which have now been lost.There must be some registry corruption after installing some updates. I have tried running windows repair using the start up disk but I need to log on as administrator which fails. It looks like the only option left, which I was hoping to avoid is a clean install.

Kind Regards
Chris
 
do not ever run a repair install UNLESS the installation cd is at the same service pack as the system now, otherwise you will really need to do a clean install.

one more thing to try, will give you instructions to burn a bootable cd of Hiren's boot cd and see if you can get into the accounts that way to change all passwords and or priveledges:

Courtesy of Jose Ibarra
Make yourself a Hiren's Boot CD which you can download from here:

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

The ZIP file is large, so the download will probably take a little while to complete bit it is worth it. Then unzip the download to extract the Hirens.BootCD.ISO file that will be used to create your new bootable CD.

Creating a bootable CD from a .ISO file is not the same as just copying the .ISO file to a blank CD. You have to use software that understands how to burn a .ISO file to a CD to create a bootable CD.

In the Hiren's ZIP file are the BurnToCD.cmd file that you can double click to launch it, but I have never used it and prefer to use ImgBurn.

If you need a free and easy CD burning software package, here is a popular free program:

http://www.imgburn.com/

When installing ImgBurn, DO NOT install anything from UniBlue or the Ask toolbar (never install the ASK toolbar for anything).

Here are some instructions for ImgBurn:

http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?showtopic=61

It would be a good idea to test your new bootable CD on a computer that is working.

You may need to adjust the computer BIOS settings to use the CD ROM drive as the first boot device instead of the hard disk.

These adjustments are made before Windows tries to load. If you miss it, you will have to reboot the system again.

When booting on the Hiren's CD you will see a menu of options. Choose the Mini XP option. Then it will appear that Windows is being loaded and you will be presented with a desktop that has the look and feel of the Windows Explorer interface you are already used to using.

One way to check the disk for errors is to open My Computer and right click your afflicted drive and choose Properties, Tools, Error-checking, Check Now... put a check mark in both the boxes and then Start.

Sometimes that doesn't work, so you can also click Start, Run and in the box enter:

cmd

Click OK to open a Command Prompt window and enter the following command (assuming XP is installed on your C drive)

chkdsk c: /r

This disk checking can take a long time (perhaps several to many hours) depending on the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what the disk checking finds to do.
Let chkdsk finish and correct any problems it might find.

Depending on the the speed of your system, the size of the volume, the amount of data on the volume and what chkdsk finds to do, it may take a long time for chkdsk with error correction to complete (several to many hours) or it may appear to be 'stuck'. Be patient. If the HDD light is still flashing, chkdsk is doing something so don't interrupt it. It will finish eventually one way or the other. Keep an eye on the percentage amount to be sure it is still making progress. It may even appear to go backwards sometimes.

You may have to run the chkdsk c: /r more than once.
 
Thanks again Elizabeth. My replies below.

Elizabeth23 said:
do not ever run a repair install UNLESS the installation cd is at the same service pack as the system now, otherwise you will really need to do a clean install.

Thanks for this information. I wasn't aware of this. I tried a repair and it failed, probably for the reason you mention. So am now attempting a fresh install.

Elizabeth23 said:
one more thing to try, will give you instructions to burn a bootable cd of Hiren's boot cd and see if you can get into the accounts that way to change all passwords and or priveleges:

I will make a CD of Hirens boot CD as it looks like a useful tool. If I run into problems with the new installation I can restore the whole system again from a backup and try Hirens boot CD. Actually I previously used something similar, a "PC Login Now" boot CD to reset all passwords and set all accounts to Admin accounts but that failed. This leads me to believe that the problem was not with the accounts themselves but that there is a problem with the registry that prevented the accounts from loading properly.

Elizabeth23 said:
You may have to run the chkdsk c: /r more than once.
Click to expand...
I previously ran several disk checks.

I will let you know how things get on.

Kind Regards
Chris
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I am pleased to say that the clean install of XP and was successful. I updated to SP3 and got most of the updates. It took me a long time to reinstall all the drivers and programs and apart from a few minor issues the machine is now up and running. Its a shame that soon XP will not be supported. This old laptop has limited resources and XP serves it well.

Thank you again Elizabeth for all your help. It has been a valuable learning experience for me.

Kind Regards
Chris
 
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