HP Window 7 locked me out! Help!

Quasar

I have an old but still functioning HP laptop, Window 7, which is still very useful for small work and the odd internet surfing, saving me wear and tear on my desktop computer.
Anyway, I was in the process of updating Avast on said laptop, when it asked me to restart the computer and I complied.

When switching on I got a message saying:

The User Profile Service service failed the logon.
User profile cannot be located

I pressed OK and it logged off then opened up again with the same message.

So I started again in safe mode.
Not safe mode with Networking, or safe mode with command prompts as I'm not sure what to do with these.

In safe mode I search for User Profile and I get a small dialog window saying:

You have been logged on with the default profile for the system Please use the event log for details or contact administrator. (I am the administrator)

The event log says nothing that I can see.

I search User Profile again and go to Configure advanced user profile properties where I see the User Profile dialog window with two listed profiles:

1. Default profile 1.62 MB Local Local 17...
2. (my usual profile which I cannot access now) 2.11 GB Backup 19...

The default profile is highlighted. I select mine highlighting it and press OK but it reverts automatically to the default profile.

Can anyone help? Please be gentle with me as I'm not very techie and need to be babied all the way. Thanks.

techquest

1. Boot into safe mode - After you power up your PC (and after it displays its own logo or post
screen), but before you see the Windows logo, tap F8 key repeatedly until the options mentioned
in step 2. appear.
2. The Advanced Boot Options menu will appear.
3. Use the arrow key to select Last Known Good
3. Then press “Enter” key to enter the mode you selected.
4. The machine will now reboot.
5. Let us know if this worked or not.
6. If not we can talk you through other methods to resolve your problem.

Quasar

techquest wrote: »

1. Boot into safe mode - After you power up your PC (and after it displays its own logo or post
screen), but before you see the Windows logo, tap F8 key repeatedly until the options mentioned
in step 2. appear.
2. The Advanced Boot Options menu will appear.
3. Use the arrow key to select Last Known Good
3. Then press “Enter” key to enter the mode you selected.
4. The machine will now reboot.
5. Let us know if this worked or not.
6. If not we can talk you through other methods to resolve your problem.

Thanks techquest. I've just done all the steps above and yes it reboots but I still get the "User profile cannot be located" message.

techquest

Okay
“
1. Boot into safe mode - After you power up your PC (and after it displays its own logo or post
screen), but before you see the Windows logo, tap F8 key repeatedly until the options mentioned
in step 2. appear.
2. The Advanced Boot Options menu will appear.
3. Use the arrow key to select Safe Mode With Command Promt
3. Then press “Enter” key to enter the mode you selected.
4. The machine will now reboot.
5. Let us know if you have booted into Safe Mode successfully.

Quasar

techquest wrote: »

Okay
“
1. Boot into safe mode - After you power up your PC (and after it displays its own logo or post
screen), but before you see the Windows logo, tap F8 key repeatedly until the options mentioned
in step 2. appear.
2. The Advanced Boot Options menu will appear.
3. Use the arrow key to select Safe Mode With Command Promt
3. Then press “Enter” key to enter the mode you selected.
4. The machine will now reboot.
5. Let us know if you have booted into Safe Mode successfully.

Yes I have proceeded as above and I'm now in Safe Mode - erm, it's hanging on "Preparing your desktop..."

Then there is an administrator. cmd. exe -

something I cannot post apparently as mse blocks me!

C:\ .. (you probably know) ... suystem32

Quasar

techquest you are an utter STAR!!! :T:T

I can't believe I have actually changed the registry!!!
It was very easy to follow, and on the face of it a very simple thing to do in itself, once one knows how to.

It's an old lappy but works very well still and is a good backup.

Thank you so much for your patience. :beer:


PS. Oh, your last post has disappeared!

techquest

Before we have to go into some more difficult stuff lets try a System Restore.

1. As before start your computer in Safe Mode
2. Select Safe Mode under the Advanced Boot Options.
3. Click Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
4. In this window select your restore point, if there are no restore points listed then SR was not switched on.
5. Use the SR on a date before your problem happened.
6. Let us know if it worked or if you had problems, especially if no SR point was there.

techquest

Quasar wrote: »

techquest you are an utter STAR!!! :T:T

I can't believe I have actually changed the registry!!!
It was very easy to follow, and on the face of it a very simple thing to do in itself, once one knows how to.

It's an old lappy but works very well still and is a good backup.

Thank you so much for your patience. :beer:


PS. Oh, your last post has disappeared!

Good stuff Quasar it's good when we can get a result. Just remember that registry hacking is not something we generally have to revert to, but you get a badge for getting there, and an old lappy up and operational to boot.

Sorry I took the last post off so that we could try one other method before I talked you through registry hacking.

Yes a few beers are now the next on my list :beer:

Quasar

techquest wrote: »

Before we have to go into some more difficult stuff lets try a System Restore.

1. As before start your computer in Safe Mode
2. Select Safe Mode under the Advanced Boot Options.
3. Click Start menu > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
4. In this window select your restore point, if there are no restore points listed then SR was not switched on.
5. Use the SR on a date before your problem happened.
6. Let us know if it worked or if you had problems, especially if no SR point was there.

Ouch do I have to do all that? It works well now.
Maybe tomorrow.
I have 4 system restore points in there. Just checked in the Tools section of ccleaner (no I haven't used ccleaner today).

Quasar

techquest wrote: »

Good stuff Quasar it's good when we can get a result. Just remember that registry hacking is not something we generally have to revert to, but you get a badge for getting there, and an old lappy up and operational to boot.

Yes beers are now the next on my list :beer:

Once I had spyware on my desktop (a Mac). Via the Apple tech forum I learnt to go into a folder and found 44 sneaky little programs to delete. Never had another problem since. In fact I have seldom had major problems with laptops either.

techquest

Quasar wrote: »

Ouch do I have to do all that? It works well now.
Maybe tomorrow.
I have 4 system restore points in there. Just checked in the Tools section of ccleaner (no I haven't used ccleaner today).

No you don't have to do any of that, your lappy is up and operational now. I posted that when I was thinking of another way to get you to where we needed and post's have a habit of sneaking up on you when your thinking and writing, So you can have a nice restful time now and use that old lappy tomorrow knowing you fixed it.