ok here is the deal, hp laptop running windows xp SP1. my laptop starts up and gets to the screen where you would normally choose your identity, except that my identites are not there to click on. it just sits at the blue windows intro screen. now the computer is not locked up, or hanging. windows is loaded, i justhave no option to login. i have tried safe mode and get the same problem. i have tried loading windows with last settings that worked, and that didnt work either. i ran diagnostics from my bios, and it said everything was fine. i dont know what else to try. my best guess is that my "login identity file" was corrupted, so it just doesnt show up, so i am unable to login. what can i do? if anyone needs more info than i have provided just let me know.

thanks

 

Only recommendation I can give w/o looking at it is install windows again over your current copy. This will allow you to keep your data and should fix your problem...just loose some windows settings.

 

i attempted that, but it said that i would lose all my data. i think its because my windows is on a set of HP restore discs

 

if you re-install windows without formatting your disc you don't love all of your data right? Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

d-oh!


See if you can get a real copy of XP off a friend then. Might be able to use that to repair your copy.

 

Is your Guest account turned on? Usually there would be no need for the login screen to appear if only one user is set for the computer.

 

Ha ha...

I had the exact same problem a few weeks ago...

http://oldlook.experts-exchange.com:8080/O...Q_20930895.html

Unfortunately, I went through the following steps without a solution

- Safe Mode didn't work
- Booted up on XP disk, Tried Recovery

I had to reinstall the OS, though it didn't overwrite my hard drive.

Do you have an HP by chance, if so, make sure you don't have anything plugged into your USB ports.

 

What I meant by that is the XP Boot revcovery will not work. I went through and got to about 8 minutes until the installation was done, and I got an error, and crashed XP when I'd try to reboot up.

Try the USB thing, do a search on the HP site, there should be an article about it.

I'm still reinstalling software on there, but my data was still there. I thought it might be a hardware problem, but I think the real problem is that HP makes a piece of laptop.

 

well i finally got it resolved, thanks for everyones help. i had to get a copy of xp from a friend in order to keep from restoring the whole laptop. then after that the fun part was getting the serial number to work. i couldnt use his becuase it had already been activated, and mine wouldnt work for some reason. but after several calls, and lots of hold time, i got it sorted out.

and btw, yes it is a POS HP

 

good to hear that worked out for ya