Win 7 log on issue

[glathem40]

Greetings all,
     I  have an HP p6320f  desktop, Win 7 Home Premium SP1.   Short story long - Some type of major crash, am finally able to get to the desktop in safe mode, but when I try to boot normally I get to the user screen   "The user profile service service failed the logon. user profile cannot be loaded"   I have only ever had 1 user acct (admin).    There are so many error messages in event viewer I wouldn't know where to start.  thx.

[Transfusion]

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-security/user-profile-service-service-failed-the-logon-user/4ed66b21-c23e-42f1-98b2-706dcf931fae
A complete guide to fix this problem.

[glathem40]

Thx - Will follow when I get home tonight.

[glathem40]

I (nervously) edited the registry per the link.  PC booted fine but with error msg on desktop "windows version may not be genuine, click here"  Led me to Microsoft website, where for nearly 3hrs it stayed with a spinning circle "validating windows".  Gave me a "restore previous session"  which led me to the page (youtube video) my daughter was watching when it locked up initially.  Ran avast and Malwarebytes scans - ok.   On next reboot "Restart and select proper boot device or insert boot media"   Could not  get into setup , safemode, anything.  Opened up case, unplugged , cleaned and reseated HD, PS, etc connections.  On reboot was able to get F9 (HP diagnostic tools). CPU and RAM passed,  HD error BIOHD-2.  From my initial research I gather my HD is toast.   Any thoughts or magic out there ?  Thx.

[glathem40]

Next day I was able to get into setup.  Ran SMART status from BIOS - "Hard drive failure imminent" blah blah  Just wondering outloud, How difficult is it to ascertain whether this was a result of an outside threat or an internal failure ?  If it died from a virus fine.  If it was due to internal mechanical  failure it really irks me to think that as long as WD has been making hard drives, a 2yr life expectancy for a modern 1TB Hard Drive is just considered acceptable ?

[Transfusion]

2 years? That's a comparatively short lifetime for a hard drive... (http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-signs-hard-drive-lifetime/) average...3-5 years... I still use a 4200 RPM 40 GB IDE Toshiba laptop hard drive from 2002 and its working strong and steady...one of my primary hard drives is a Fujitsu MHV series laptop hard drive taken from a computer which I bought in 2005...
It seems that hard drive manufs are skimping on materials these days... I remember not too long ago Seagate issued a recall of their Barracuda 7200 RPM 1 TB hard drives because they were failing by the dozen...

Looking at your first post... a "major crash" followed by data corruption to the point where you can't load your Windows account signaled the threat of a Hard Drive failure.
Outside threat? Unless your computer was roughly handled or accidentally pushed over when running it probably is a fault with the hard drive itself...

Just in case there is a chance your data may be recoverable, try this: http://lifehacker.com/5515337/save-a-failed-hard-drive-in-your-freezer-redux, then use http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk to repair the damaged sectors of the hard drive, and then immediately backup all your important data to another hard drive via a Linux Live CD.

[epoh]

Could have been a bios update need first..

[glathem40]

update BIOS ?

[Transfusion]

I think you can safely ignore that post... It is already evident that your hard drive has failed.... if there really was a BIOS problem you would have noticed issues since the day you bought the computer.... BIOS errors don't crop out of nowhere

[Salmon Trout]

if it died from a virus fine.

Hard drives don't "die from viruses". They aren't alive. A computer virus is a piece of malicious code (software) that disrupts or alters other software (operating system, settings, programs).

If it was due to internal mechanical  failure it really irks me to think that as long as WD has been making hard drives, a 2yr life expectancy for a modern 1TB Hard Drive is just considered acceptable ?

It happens. It is not considered acceptable. You were unlucky.

[glathem40]

By "died" I meant failed due to corrupted files, but thanks ! - I was going to give the new hard drive vitamins so that it wouldn't get sick, now I can save that  money.

[Salmon Trout]

By "died" I meant failed due to corrupted files, but thanks ! - I was going to give the new hard drive vitamins so that it wouldn't get sick, now I can save that  money.

I know you meant that, and that's why I wrote what I did, but it seems I made it too jokey and you failed to understand. You don't seem to understand that hard drives cannot, and do not, "fail" permanently because of a virus or "corrupted files". An installation of Windows or one or more software applications or data files might become unusable because of a virus, or user error, or file system damage, but unless the hard drive is actually failing (or has failed) mechanically you can just format it and use it again.

[glathem40]

      I posted in this thread again for 2 reasons.  The first - I want to thank you Salmon Trout in your persistence in making your point.  I had a hard drive failure on another computer yrs ago and received S.M.A.R.T.  warnings that the drive was failing before any operational problems appeared.  Though I had read that, if your drive became so unrecoverably infected one could reformat and install an os, I have never been through the process myself (There is a difference between reading about wrestling a bear and wrestling a bear).  I went back and read Transfusions first link and where it stated [Bad sectors are areas of the hard drive that do not maintain data integrity. They are automatically masked by the operating system and thus hard to identify].  Also where he stated [Looking at your first post... a "major crash" followed by data corruption to the point where you can't load your Windows account signaled the threat of a Hard Drive failure.] I now have a better understanding of what a hard drive failure may look like.
     2nd reason - I have most of my critical data (pictures, documents) backed up on an external drive.  I have ordered a Win 7 recovery disc set from HP and a new HD on the way.  The main bit of data on the old drive that I am concerned about is a program (Sony Vegas Pro video editing) that I had purchased and downloaded on that drive. (my daughter lives for creating, editing videos).  If I were able to access the old drive. is it possible to retrieve and install a program such as that. or should I wait until I have the computer up and running again and contact the company for help ?  Thx to all at CH.

[Salmon Trout]

The main bit of data on the old drive that I am concerned about is a program (Sony Vegas Pro video editing) that I had purchased and downloaded on that drive. (my daughter lives for creating, editing videos).  If I were able to access the old drive. is it possible to retrieve and install a program such as that. or should I wait until I have the computer up and running again and contact the company for help ?

If you replace the hard drive with a new one, and use an HP recovery disk or a Microsoft Windows install disk to get an operating system on it, you would have to re-install Vegas Pro from scratch. This applies to most if not all software packages. You cannot just transfer the files from an existing installation. If you obtained Vegas Pro by downloading a 30 day trial version and paying to unlock it, then download it again, and refer to the email you got from Sony for the unlocking code.

[glathem40]

So I finally got a new HD (seagate 1Tb). BIOS recognizes it. Installed revovery disc 1. "loading widows" with the bar along the bottom ran for about 10 min then windows boot manager error 0xc00000e9 - "This error can be caused by unplugging removable storage or by faulty hardware such as HD or CD ROM. I ran a SMART status check from BIOS and got "HD failure imminent" (is this a valid test on an unformatted drive ?).  This same result is what ultimately lead me to believe the original hard drive failed.

[patio]

So it is reporting the new HDD the same way ? ?

This could mean 1 of 2 things...
A) It's actually the HDD controller on the MBoard that is failing ...or
B) A flakey/failing PSU will cause this to happen.

Borrow a known good PSU of the same or greater wattage and swap it in their overnite...run the complete Windows install again on the new drive...if it completes with no errors you have found the culprit.

[glathem40]

Thx Patio - pinned out voltages from PSU - found nothing out of range or unsteady.  Began to research the pegetron m2n78-la found http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware/m8530f-desktop-PC-with-a-m2n78-la-mother-board-doesn-t-see-my/td-p/181716/page/15. I know product bashing is frowned upon, but If you want to see a shooting star tonight, my hp p6320f paperweight should be descending to earth about that time. Cheers.

[patio]

Page won't load...probably the same quality as the MBoard...

And yes...we tend to refrain from product bashing here...but if it's warranted no harm , no foul.

[glathem40]

Baisically 27pg thread where this MOBO overheats and SATA controllers become inop.  Since I'm into it with an HDD and recovery disc set, wondering if anyone knows of a replacement MOBO (different brand of course) and if this sounds like a legitamite work around to reload windows ?

 
 I am not sure how I have been lucky enough never to encounter the HP/Compaq booby trap but until today I was so fortunate. Apparently HP Tattoos a number in the bios of their motherboards so that when you try to use the factory recovery, it checks to make sure the stock motherboard is in place. If it is not in place you get the following error:

Your system has detected a configuration error. Please report this error to Customer Care using the phone number found in the Warranty and Support Guide that came with your PC. Unless corrected, this error will prevent your PC from operating properly. Turn off your PC by pressing and holding the Power button. After a few seconds your PC will automatically turn off. (Code Purple)

I mean seriously? HP does not want you to be able to change the motherboard in their PC’s. I am guessing this is some idiots solutions to piracy somehow but in any case I will stop complaining and get to the solution.


It took some searching but I finally found a solution to this problem.

There are a few ways to do this but basically there is a script in the recovery image of the operating system which checks the bios for the correct motherboard code. It is a pretty simple batch script which says if the numbers don’t match return a exit status of 1 and give the code purple error and if it does match give a exit status of 0 and move on to the clean up phase.

I will say that normally you would have to mount the drive on another computer or boot a rescue disk of some sort in order to do this but it turns out that HP was nice enough to give us access to a cmd.exe window even when receiving this error.

1. Once the error box comes up press shift and F-10 to get a command line.

2. Navigate to the following folder.

view sourceprint?
1 C:\hp\bin\checkdmi\
3. Enter the following command.

view sourceprint?
1 checkdmi.cmd
4. The code looks like this:

view sourceprint?
01 if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto mismatch 

02 goto cleanup 

03   

04 REM ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

05 REM Found discrepancy in the DMI. Notify the user with the localize 

06 REM message via lg.ini, then shut down the system immediately. 

07 REM ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

08 :mismatch 

09 echo - Mismatched DMI - >c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

10 echo DMI from Master UUT: >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

11 type DMIinfo.ini >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

12 echo ---------------------------------------------- >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

13 echo DMI from This UUT: >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

14 type DMIofUUT.ini >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

15 echo ---------------------------------------------- >>c:\hp\support\CodePurple.log 

16 del DMIinfo.ini DMIofUUT.ini 

17 start /w c:\hp\bin\MsgAction.exe "%title%: %message%"

18 shutdown.exe /s /t 0 

19 goto end
5. All I did was change the line “if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto mismatch” to “if ERRORLEVEL 1 goto cleanup”

6. Save the file

7. Reboot with the following command.

view sourceprint?
1 shutdown -r -t 0
8. Once the system comes back up you should move past the dreaded “code purple” error with no problem.


Thx

[glathem40]

Edit - ment "Use the recovery disc set that I have already purchased from hp to reload windows, if I get a diffetent Mboard".

[Salmon Trout]

when you try to use the factory recovery, it checks to make sure the stock motherboard is in place.

[...]

I mean seriously? HP does not want you to be able to change the motherboard in their PC’s.

A motherboard change would very likely make a restored system partition from the recovery image (an image of a Windows install on the stock hardware) unbootable or if it bootable, unstable. Furthermore, and equally importantly, a motherboard change would invalidate the OEM Windows license (OEM licenses are tied to a specific hardware setup). Both technically and legally you need to use a full retail Windows install disk.

[glathem40]

     I felt I should make a final post so that I may publicly recant my derogatory comments in previous posts regarding Hewlett Packard.  I had e-mailed them my concerns during this process and was shocked ! to receive a phone call from a case manager.  When I relayed my story, and expressed my concerns regarding the motherboard, she put me on hold while she "checked with engineering" and said there were no reports of failures with this motherboard.  My problem was, using the recovery disc set with a third party HDD.  I told her the product literature said it would do a full install and she said " yes it does, but that is incorrect".  So she offered a free pre-loaded replacement HDD.  When that didn't work (SATA ports still wouldn't communicate)  They offered to repair the motherboard for a very modest sum, and I up and running agiain.  I am concerened how long the motherboard will last, but to receive a free HDD and an inexpensive repair on a computer that is more than a year out of warranty shows a lot more concern than most companies would. (these days !)  Kudos to HP and thanks to all at CH who helped along the way.