Login: unable to type password at welcome screen (several ..

Hi Cecil and Kenneth,

I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.

regsvr32 shgina.dll

Press Enter.

YMMV.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"Kenneth Porter" <shiva.blacklist.DeleteThis@sewingwitch.com> wrote in message
news:Xns987D7F54572DAshivasewingwitchcom@207.46.248.16...
=?Utf-8?B?Q2VjaWwgV2FyZA==?= <cecil@cecilward(.donotspam).com> wrote in
news:D0215F48-B316-473B-A21B-AE5916CC6752@microsoft.com:

> Symptom: a user can not type a password in at the winxp welcome
> screen, no flashing insertion point shows, no "blobs" appear.

See the thread "password prompt problem". You're not alone, but others here
haven't reported a resolution.

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/
browse_thread/thread/bde5168ae4f6170a/

"Ramesh, MS-MVP" <ramesh RemoveThis @XOX.mvps.org> wrote in news:esvYafgCHHA.4740
@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl:

> I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.
>
> regsvr32 shgina.dll
>
> Press Enter.
>
> YMMV.

GINA is the login API, so I'd guess shgina.dll is the DLL that provides the
Welcome Screen. I'll have to see what regsvr32 is supposed to fix.
Presumably it re-registers the DLL in the registry, so I'll have to see if
the registry is missing it.

Ramesh,

Thanks very much for that.

Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see if
the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.

More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login problem,
100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not effective
(typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).

In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.

Anyway, will report back.

--
Cecil Ward


"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

> Hi Cecil and Kenneth,
>
> I faced the same problem, and here is the command that fixed it.
>
> regsvr32 shgina.dll
>
> Press Enter.
>
> YMMV.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
> Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com
>
>
> "Kenneth Porter" <shiva.blacklist DeleteThis @sewingwitch.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns987D7F54572DAshivasewingwitchcom@207.46.248.16...
> =?Utf-8?B?Q2VjaWwgV2FyZA==?= <cecil@cecilward(.donotspam).com> wrote in
> news:D0215F48-B316-473B-A21B-AE5916CC6752@microsoft.com:
>
> > Symptom: a user can not type a password in at the winxp welcome
> > screen, no flashing insertion point shows, no "blobs" appear.
>
> See the thread "password prompt problem". You're not alone, but others here
> haven't reported a resolution.
>
> http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support/
> browse_thread/thread/bde5168ae4f6170a/
>
>
>

Hi Cecil,

>> In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with
>> a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

Nope. If this problem is intermittent, I don't think the registration
procedure will help. Then it must be caused by something else.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


"Cecil Ward" <cecil@cecilward(.donotspam).com> wrote in message
news:461BB875-0F66-42EF-8499-10C1649BBFDB@microsoft.com...
Ramesh,

Thanks very much for that.

Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see
if
the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.

More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login
problem,
100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not
effective
(typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).

In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?

I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.

Anyway, will report back.

--
Cecil Ward

I have the same problem on healthy Windows XP Home. I have 5 users; two
of them (including the administrator) are password protected.
The password can be entered every second time. That’s mean I need
to login to unprotected account then log out to be able to type the
password. It becomes very annoying and even worst. I can confirm that
this problem appeared for the first time after October’s
installation of hot fixes. I’ve tried the “regsvr32
shgina.dll” after reading this thread, but it doesn’t help.
Is there a way to report this bug to MS or something like that?
Thanks


--
redcomb
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/showthread.php?t=624907

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I confirm that the fix suggested earlier is not effective.

I have now seen this bug on more than 15 machines, on different networks,
and on machines belonging to different organisations. Every machine is
virus-clean and well-secured. Each problem instance began in late autumn 2006
and is still unfixed (AFAIAW) as of today.

Is there any way to escalate this general issue?

Every machine has the following characteristics:

i) problem not apparent immediately after boot.
ii) at some point, the bug strikes, and from then on, the bug affects every
successive login attempt until rebooted,
iii) one the bug has struck, repeated logging in and out does not fix the
problem, (using the workaround that 2xctrl-alt-del bypasses the welcome
screen and presents the traditional username/password prompt, so allowing
successful login)

iv) there seems to be no pattern in the onset of the problem
v) certain machines are completely immune

vi) all machines are otherwise fine, have been thoroughly security inspected
and scrutinised for infection. Every machine is well secured in the sense all
that no everyday users have administrative rights or administrative access.

Speculation: the issue was caused by Windows Update, possibly by a bad
chaining or unfortunate sequence of applied updates.


--
Cecil Ward


"Ramesh, MS-MVP" wrote:

> Hi Cecil,
>
> >> In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with
> >> a
> problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?
>
> Nope. If this problem is intermittent, I don't think the registration
> procedure will help. Then it must be caused by something else.
>
> --
> Regards,
>
> Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
> Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com
>
>
> "Cecil Ward" <cecil@cecilward(.donotspam).com> wrote in message
> news:461BB875-0F66-42EF-8499-10C1649BBFDB@microsoft.com...
> Ramesh,
>
> Thanks very much for that.
>
> Still too early to tell, but I have applied this fix to eight machines. The
> machines were rebooted afterwards, and since rebooting always cleared the
> problem immediately for a while, I will need to give it a day or so to see
> if
> the problem indeed appears fixed permanently.
>
> More information. Tested four machines on Friday which were all experiencing
> an intense form of the problem. In every case a user could log in using
> double-ctrl-alt-del plus traditional login with username+password, then
> logged out and experienced the can't-enter-password-at-welcome-login
> problem,
> 100% reproducibly, again and again until a reboot cleared the problem. In
> every case on every machine there was no hang, blind typing was not
> effective
> (typing the correct password and hitting enter was not effective).
>
> In your opinion, is the fact that a reboot cures the isue consistent with a
> problem curable with the proposed re-registering fix?
>
> I will also review the list of hotfixes auto-applied during october.
>
> Anyway, will report back.
>
> --
> Cecil Ward
>
>
>
>