XP Login Freeze after prank

[Ben Reddington]

ok guys, you've saved me before, see what you can make of this one:

    I'm working on a windows XP machine that will no longer reach the login screen on bootup. I'm not sure of the exact cause, but I know what it probably has to do with. My friends were trying to play a prank on someone, and they needed to login to the prankee's computer but didn't know the password. Using a boot diskette and a program called NTFSDOS, they accessed and copied the computer's "SAM" file onto their disk. When the machine was rebooted it loaded through the big XP logo, and then shows a blank black screen with a mouse cursor. It does not show the login screen. The mouse moves and the numlock light works. Any ideas?

[merlin_2]

reboot pc...and hit the f8 key<safemode>and chose the last good config...

[Ben Reddington]

We tried that, but to no avail. Same symptoms. On a brighter note, it boots properly in safe mode, but this is of no help to us because we still dont know the password.

[merlin_2]

the passwords are listed in the sam file...are you password cracking...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q314503&ID=KB;EN-US;q314503

[Ben Reddington]

That was the plan, but now we just want it to boot properly.

[merlin_2]

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20Repair%20Windows%20XP%20by%20Installing%20Over%20top%20of%20Existing%20Setup:

[Raptor]

Passwords are there for a reason.. If you don't know what you're doing, don't even attempt to?

[Joleen]

From what I understand, you copied the SAM file?  Can you copy it back to the original location?