Member Avatar for Weddie Jr

Hi All,

I just run a clean install on three of my dx2300 MT and the problem am facing is i can log on as administrator without any problem but cant log on using user or guest account.

The computers are running on XP Pro SP3 and joined to a work group.Any help rendered will highly appreciated.

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by epok13hart

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Short, practical triage and repair notes that build on ’s and ’s points. The two most common causes for a user‑only blank desktop after logon are (a) a bad or missing Default User / corrupted per‑user profile that prevents Windows from creating/loading the user profile, and (b) Explorer (the user shell) not being started for that account because of a per‑user registry value or a logon script. The steps below isolate which it is and give safe fixes.

  1. Quick triage

    • Boot Safe Mode and/or log on with an administrative account. Create a fresh local standard user and log on normally. If the new user gets a normal desktop, the problem is per‑user profile corruption. If the new user also gets a blank desktop, the problem is system‑wide (Default User, shell, startup scripts, or imaging issue).

  2. Check whether Explorer is starting

    • On a blank desktop press Ctrl+Alt+Del -> Task Manager -> File -> New Task, run explorer.exe. If the desktop appears, the shell isn’t launching automatically. That points to a per‑user Winlogon\Shell value.

  3. Inspect and fix the registry and Default User safely

    • From an admin account run regedit. To check a specific user’s shell, load the user hive (C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\ntuser.dat) into HKEY_USERS (Regedit: File -> Load Hive), browse to Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon and confirm the Shell value is explorer.exe. Unload the hive when done. Also verify HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell.
    • Check C:\Documents and Settings\Default User exists and has normal NTFS permissions. If Default User is missing or damaged Windows can’t create new profiles.

  4. Other useful checks before rebuilding profiles

    • Look in Event Viewer (System/Application) for profile-related or userenv errors. Run chkdsk /f and, if needed, sfc /scannow from an admin command prompt (XP CD required). If these machines were deployed from an image, ensure the image was generalized with Sysprep before deployment.
    • When repairing profiles, back up C:\Documents and Settings\<user> first. If a profile is corrupted, create a new account and copy user data (Desktop, Documents, Favorites) into the new profile rather than trying risky automatic repairs.

The questions raised by (imaging/cloning) and (is the profile being created) are the right diagnostic directions. Use the Safe Mode/new‑user test and the hive check above to determine whether to repair Default User, fix the per‑user registry, or rebuild individual profiles.

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Member Avatar for Bob_180_Bob

Hi,
You did a clean install on all three PCs.
You have them connected as a work group, how?
What have you done to set up the work group?
You can log on as administrator, on all three PCs?
You can not log on as user...,on all three machines?
Have you had these machines working together before you clean installed?
Did you do a separate install for all three machines or did you do one install and cloned that and installed that on the other two?

Member Avatar for epok13hart

is profile created.? just asking ^ _ ^ or the user account is created.?

Member Avatar for epok13hart

default installation would cause a computer to be on a workgroup since yousaid its clean install that means only administrator acount is available is join in server before u done clean installation

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