Hi, desperately need help here...

I have/use a (office owned) laptop, using Windows XP (SP2), and I am logged on as 
computer administrator. Previously I changed the name of the log on name from "Administrator" 
to my own name "Avigayil" and used a password to log on, and everything worked fine. 

Recently I underwent a hard disk upgrade so everything was re-installed from scratch. 
Naturally, I updated windows and copied all my data exactly as it was before. I then 
proceeded to change the log on name from "Administrator" to "Avigayil" and added 
a password for my user account. Everything seemed to be fine... until the next day, 
I started up my computer (after having shut it down the day before) and windows did 
not recognize my password to log on! After several attempts, my office IT guy finally 
decided to re-install everything again so I could access my user account. Of course 
that also meant I had to copy everything back onto the drive. 

Again, I changed the administrator's account into my own name, and added a password. 
This time, I created a password reset disk (from the user account control panel, 
under 'prevent a forgotten password') and then proceeded to use my computer as usual. 
Again, when I restarted, windows did not recognize my password! This time I used 
the password reset disk and I could access my account. I then created another password 
and logged off and on again. 

The funny thing is, windows will remember my password (and will let me access my 
account using that password) if I only log off (without shutting down). But if I 
shut down my computer and restart it, then windows does not recognize me anymore. 
Please help! Many thanks in advance.

For the record, this problem occurs in both classic log on and 'welcome screen' log 
on.

Tip: Run a free scan for common Windows errors ad

re: Windows does not recognize my logon password Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 3:33 pm Posted by chris9169 (2 messages posted) Have you tried creating a new account, making a password etc for that, turn off the computer and enter the password on that?.. It could be a glitch on that account, just transfer files to the new account.. Or as you've re-booted windows a couple of times i gather? it could be that the the version of windows itself is glitched, it's restarting the password everytime you log on, im guessing your not using any symbols or anything in your password either.. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows does not recognize my logon password Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 6:21 pm Posted by Rich Kurtz (12246 messages posted) Leave the Administrator account alone, except add a good password. Create a new Administrator level account called Avigayil with any password you want. Shutdown and reboot. You should be able to login as Avigayil. Now click on Start then Logoff and logoff of Avigayil. Select Administrator and enter the password you chose for that account and you should be able to login okay. The big advantage to this is you always have a way to recover if/when your password on your main account (Avigayil) somehow gets whacked. Renaming the Administrator account should work, but since you're having problems, take the path of least resistance. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows does not recognize my logon password Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 6:57 am Posted by Avigayil (9 messages posted) Hi Chris, Thanks for the tip. I have just now created a new account with a different name, making a simple (weak) password for it (such as robinhood) and shut down and restarted and could log in just fine. I then changed the password to something more complicated including symbols (such as All-For1), shut down and restarted and could log in just fine. So yes I am thinking the glitch could be only in that particular Administrator account, although I can't understand what it is. Any ideas what it is and how to get it to work? Since this is an office computer, it's a hassle to have to transfer all files and user data onto another user account - the default in all office computer is just to log on into the Administrator's account (and rename it into each user's name). On Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 3:33 pm, chris9169 wrote: >Have you tried creating a new account, making a password etc for that, turn off the >computer and enter the password on that?.. > >It could be a glitch on that account, just transfer files to the new account.. > >Or as you've re-booted windows a couple of times i gather? it could be that the the >version of windows itself is glitched, it's restarting the password everytime you >log on, im guessing your not using any symbols or anything in your password either.. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows does not recognize my logon password Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 7:35 am Posted by Avigayil (9 messages posted) Hi Rich, Thanks for the tip. I have created a new account, and it works fine (as per my description in my reply to the other message in this thread). However, since this is an office computer, the default setting is to use the Administrator account as one's user account (and changing the name). So I really hope that there could be a solution to my problem as opposed to transferring all files and data onto another user account. Thanks very much in advance. Additionally - i have just noted, that when I reset my password to the administrator account, google talk can't log in either. I have to retype my password although I have checked the "remember password" box. I don't know whether this is relevant but maybe it shows how the particular account seems to have 'poor password memory'. On Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 6:21 pm, Rich Kurtz wrote: >Leave the Administrator account alone, except add a good password. Create a new Administrator >level account called Avigayil with any password you want. Shutdown and reboot. You >should be able to login as Avigayil. Now click on Start then Logoff and logoff of >Avigayil. Select Administrator and enter the password you chose for that account >and you should be able to login okay. > The big advantage to this is you always have a way to recover if/when your password >on your main account (Avigayil) somehow gets whacked. > Renaming the Administrator account should work, but since you're having problems, >take the path of least resistance. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows does not recognize my logon password (UPDATE) Tuesday, December 30, 2008 at 8:10 am Posted by Avigayil (9 messages posted) To Chris and Rich who have provided some solution to this problem, I have recently discovered that the problem account is NOT the administrator's account. There is another Administrator account (of course it's hidden and does not show on the welcome screen). This would mean that I could actually just move all my data to a newly created account and hope for the best. Thanks to you both for your help! :-) On Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 2:32 pm, Avigayil wrote: >Hi, desperately need help here... > >I have/use a (office owned) laptop, using Windows XP (SP2), and I am logged on as >computer administrator. Previously I changed the name of the log on name from "Administrator" >to my own name "Avigayil" and used a password to log on, and everything worked fine. > >Recently I underwent a hard disk upgrade so everything was re-installed from scratch. >Naturally, I updated windows and copied all my data exactly as it was before. I then >proceeded to change the log on name from "Administrator" to "Avigayil" and added >a password for my user account. Everything seemed to be fine... until the next day, >I started up my computer (after having shut it down the day before) and windows did >not recognize my password to log on! After several attempts, my office IT guy finally >decided to re-install everything again so I could access my user account. Of course >that also meant I had to copy everything back onto the drive. > >Again, I changed the administrator's account into my own name, and added a password. >This time, I created a password reset disk (from the user account control panel, >under 'prevent a forgotten password') and then proceeded to use my computer as usual. >Again, when I restarted, windows did not recognize my password! This time I used >the password reset disk and I could access my account. I then created another password >and logged off and on again. > >The funny thing is, windows will remember my password (and will let me access my >account using that password) if I only log off (without shutting down). But if I >shut down my computer and restart it, then windows does not recognize me anymore. >Please help! Many thanks in advance. > >For the record, this problem occurs in both classic log on and 'welcome screen' log >on. [Reply or follow-up to this message] re: Windows does not recognize my logon password Saturday, January 3, 2009 at 1:19 pm Posted by Avigayil (9 messages posted) A follow up to this message, it may be helpful to others with the same problem. When I restarted the computer, using the classic log on, I typed in my password into the user name field so I could see what I was actually writing in the password field. So I found out that the - (dash) symbol I use in my password is actually typed as ' (an apostrophe). I typed in any other key and neither one of them were as displayed on my keyboard. E.g. the double quote " was typed as à. No wonder Windows rejected my password! It's because the keyboard setting is not English US (as the physical keyboard is). Now I will need to figure out why this problem occurs and how to solve it. :-) Thanks for your support! On Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 6:21 pm, Rich Kurtz wrote: >Leave the Administrator account alone, except add a good password. Create a new Administrator >level account called Avigayil with any password you want. Shutdown and reboot. You >should be able to login as Avigayil. Now click on Start then Logoff and logoff of >Avigayil. Select Administrator and enter the password you chose for that account >and you should be able to login okay. > The big advantage to this is you always have a way to recover if/when your password >on your main account (Avigayil) somehow gets whacked. > Renaming the Administrator account should work, but since you're having problems, >take the path of least resistance. [Reply or follow-up to this message] Tip: Use one of the [Reply or follow-up to this message] links above to add a message to this thread Search this forum Start a new thread on a different subject Report abuse of the forum Return to the Windows XP Discussion Forum