LOCKED OUT OF MY PC ! LOGONSTUDIO SUSPECT- HELP !

from WinCustomize Forums
i have a full R-Grille Red theme (bootskin,login, windowblinds, desktopX item, beatnik, objectdock icons, etc.)
xp pro sp2- doing fine.

i was installing a dvd driver program that hung the system.
when i rebooted, i did get the r-grille bootskin with the progress bar moving left to right as normal.
when that finishes, i get a black screen with a movable cursor. cant get past that. clicking all over, ctrl-alt-del, all no effect.

i went to safe mode, but just got a black screen with the white safe mode text in usual positions, and no further.
i went to safe mode command prompt, and just got the black screen with movable cursor. ctrl-alt-del no effect.

i went to recovery console, and renamed logonuiX.exe to something else, then copied logonui.exe to logonuiX.exe. restarted.
this changed nothing- same symptoms.


i checked microsoft site and you cant run system restore from Recovery Console ( duh- great feature!)

so recap- i get normal BOOTSKIN with progress bar left to right as usual, of usual duration.
when it goes to login screen, its black. no way past.

ok - what do i have to hack to get back in. theres GOT to be something!?


thanks
stu
5,910 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i was installing a dvd driver program that hung the system.


I think this is your problem right here. Logonstudio does not hack the LogoniuX.exe file. I actually found a website where a guy had a similar problem here. It was the optical driver that was installed by the driver program. It locked up his optical drive from booting and since it is a bootable drive, the system wouldn't start. What is the name of your DVD driver program?
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Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
There was a neat trick to getting back into his system. I'll see if I can find that thread.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it sounds like his problem occured much earlier in the boot process.
read again- i am able to boot my winxp cd, boot my windows harddrive to the point i said. i dont think its a hardware driver issue.

but for the record, it was a Sonic Cineplayer/mp3 bundle for mediaplayer. i couldnt find my key from the last install, so just clicked to cancelthe install. thats when it hung and i needed hard reset to make it go away ( when i clicked to shutdown, things started to shutdown, but that sonic install screen wouldnt go away for nothing, even with ctrl-alt-del. so i had to hard reset.)
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

i couldnt find my key from the last install, so just clicked to cancelthe install. thats when it hung and i needed hard reset to make it go away ( when i clicked to shutdown, things started to shutdown, but that sonic install screen wouldnt go away for nothing, even with ctrl-alt-del. so i had to hard reset.)

And you suspect LogonStudio why exactly?

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
And you suspect LogonStudio why exactly?


Yeah. What did LogonStudio have to do with your foiled MP3 player install?

i dont think its a hardware driver issue.


Okay, I guess I'm wasting my time then. I'll let you handle it, I was only trying to help. But, obviously, a music CD program accesses the CD rom Drive. Therefore, it may have modified the driver or maybe you corrupted the driver during the foiled install. Hence, when you rebooted, the system won't restart. You didn't install LogonStudio and reboot and the system locked up.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You may have to go into dos and turn the cd rom or dvd rom off at boot to get the system up and running. Then you can mess with the drivers. Its not logon studio, its just freezing up with the image displayed. Meanwhile the dvd or cd rom isnt booting properly. Just a guess, I ran into that problem before. You would have to search for the proper directions on how to do it.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It sounds like your PC is getting stuck when it is trying to load the corrupt dvd drivers. You need to post in the Microsoft's Newsgroup to find out how to selectively choose which drivers to load so you can skip over those drivers. I really don't think that LogonStudio is the issue....it just happens to be the screen that is coming up at the time your PC locks up
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay, I guess I'm wasting my time then. I'll let you handle it, I was only trying to help.


ugh. no, your not. i cant discuss my findings???

Then you can mess with the drivers. Its not logon studio, its just freezing up with the image displayed.


thats the point- there IS no image freezing. the bootskin with the moving progress bar goes normally and its up there no longer than normal (ie it doesnt freeze on this screen), then, when the logon screen with names should appear, I hear the normal click from the monitor when its changing a display mode but the screen is black AND the cursor moves with the mouse instead og the login screen being there to click on. so, its not really "freezing".

so, it might not be logonstudio itself, but the login screen got whacked? maybe?

ill try looking for the cd thing though. does anyone know which or where?

thanks

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
also, i added /noguiboot to my boot.ini file, which skips the bootskin.
well, it did that - no progress-bar screen.
then, right to the black screen in safe mdoe with the normal white safemode text in all 4 corners.

what i think i need is how to hack into whatever file to set the logon screen back to the normal one.

anyone?
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it could be your boot skin as when i downloaded one it locked me out of my compuer i tried safe mode and everything and i needed to use my recovery disk.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
it could be your boot skin as when i downloaded one it locked me out of my compuer i tried safe mode and everything and i needed to use my recovery disk.

thanks, but as before, its not the bootskin as that runs fine. its a whacked logon. there is so system freeze.

now the proof- i obtained one of these alternate boot programs that has its own login and gui, but attached to the xp installation.
doing so, i was able to get to the system restore points.
i chose the latest one, which was the one the system created when it sensed install of Sonic Cineplayer (as it creates points when it detects most program installs, incase rollback is needed.)

i rebooted,my BOOTSKIN went by fine as it always had, and lo and behold, there was my old, normal (unskinned) login screen, instead of a black screen. clicked my name, and into xp I went. all my other stardoc programs up and running fine. uninstalled login studio, rebooted, and had same thing now. r-grille red bootskin , regular default login screen, then rest of theme back to r-grille red once go past login.
so, interesting how login screen only got changed back to default by doing a restore just before a hanging install




Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
its a whacked logon


Did you restore back to the point before your Sonic aborted install or did you restore back to the point before you installed LogonStudio? If you restored only to the point before your Sonic aborted install, then I wouldn't blame it on a whacked logon, but a whacked Sonic driver installation. That would make more sense
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

i couldnt find my key from the last install, so just clicked to cancelthe install. thats when it hung and i needed hard reset to make it go away ( when i clicked to shutdown, things started to shutdown, but that sonic install screen wouldnt go away for nothing, even with ctrl-alt-del. so i had to hard reset.)

the system restore points.
i chose the latest one, which was the one the system created when it sensed install of Sonic Cineplayer

.......... the problem started with an aborted driver installation. It ended when you restored the system to previous of the aborted driver install. Your logon was affected by this, somehow...........

Sorry, but the thing that caused this, is sitting on the far side of the space bar. You aborted a driver install in progress, and things went wonky. We all make mistakes, accept it as a lesson (next time have your key ready), and stop trying to blame it on a program that wasn't even running when the aborted install hung.  

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is/was definitely a driver issue, and nothing to do with the logon, except that your display driver needs to load prior to showing the logon.

The logon screen is the first time you see true colour settings...prior to that it's the default vga 4bit.

Borking that driver install ruined/broke your graphic card installation preventing the display loading.

Restoring to a point before the dud driver install got you back to a functioning graphic driver again, nothing more, nothing less.

All this means that your thread topic was erroneous/misguided.

So much of a computer's failings can be attributed to driver-error......aka...the person driving the computer....

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top


.......... the problem started with an aborted driver installation. It ended when you restored the system to previous of the aborted driver install. Your logon was affected by this, somehow...........


exactly- thats all Im saying and was looking for help on.

the defensive comments (loginstudio developers maybe?) are childish.
("All this means that your thread topic was erroneous/misguided." gee- i said it was SUSPECT because the LOGIN was the ONLY component effected. SUSPECT PERIOD.)

also, I had clicked to cancel the install, i just didnt quit out of it (like closing the install box, or any "So much of a computer's failings can be attributed to driver-error......aka...the person driving the computer...."). the install program should handle that correctly, or why put the cancel button there?

so, a person should expect to be flamed( by an Admin and Wizop yet!) when they have a question about these products?? Great representation for Stardoc as a company

This is/was definitely a driver issue, and nothing to do with the logon, except that your display driver needs to load prior to showing the logon.The logon screen is the first time you see true colour settings...prior to that it's the default vga 4bit.Borking that driver install ruined/broke your graphic card installation preventing the display loading.


ah, a straight to the point technical explanation of what happened and what to look to repair.
question though- what does Safe Mode use? recall I said that the Safe Mode came up black also, except with the normal Safe Mode text across the top and all 4 corners. is safe mode supposed to use a default driver also, incase of video driver errors that need fixing?



Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Great representation for Stardoc as a company



Keeep in mind this is wincustomize.com NOT Stardock. You are recieving help from friendly volunteers, and excellent help I would say.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

i was installing a dvd driver program that hung the system.

Seems to me you know what the answer is but you don't want anyone to say it...

Oh, and I don't see any flaming here so ease off the gas, you'll just make people reluctant to offer help in the future

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ok. i give up.


im just trying to figure out WHY the login is blank when something else goes wrong.

ive had installs go bad before, but never one that blackened the login screen.
When I uninstalled loginstudio, i saw a bunch of registry keys change. so, did one of these get whacked- and if so, which one could cause this problem?

if we figured this out, next time we could know exactly what needs to be fixed.
there are other posts in search that talk about being locked out of systems.

Jafo had the best explanation , but I dont know if it fits withe the problem persisting in Safe Mode.
DOes anyone know if Safe Mode uses a differnt video drive PAST the bootskin? I thought the idea of Safe Mode was that if a driver IS bad, you can still get in.


Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Safe Mode uses a differnt video drive PAST the bootskin?


No....it does not.
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Purrrr... Hellooo Gary
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hey there, Hotstuff
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

the defensive comments (loginstudio developers maybe?) are childish.

There hasn't been even one Stardock employee that has responded until right now (which is me).  As we stated many times, WinCustomize is *not* a support channel.

What has been said about the failed driver installation is true.  Drivers don't load until after you see the boot screen prior to logonstudio loading.  A borked driver installation will cause your system to hang at that point.

Unfortunately, there is limited support that I can help with since:
a) I am on a network, so I don't use
and
b) like the warning says before you download, it is an unsupported product.

However, I think that your issue will be resolved if you can figure out how to fix the driver installation.  Considering that you are having safe mode and dos issues (which run independently of drivers and are not effected by logins) I doubt that your problem actually lies with logonstudio, since all logonstudio does is change a picture.  No program runs.

Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
clicked my name, and into xp I went. all my other stardoc programs up and running fine


Why is this topic still going on anyway? Didn't he find his own solution? It seems that he wants to blame someone else or something else for this own mistakes. This is why I decided not to get involved and let him find another scapegoat.
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Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
You would have thought someone called 'figureouter' would have...um...yeah...