XP Logs on then immediately logs off.

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with Windows XP. I was letting someone use it so I have no idea how this occurred. But now when I try to turn it on, it will show the logon screen.. but then immediately say "saving your settings" and log off. It even does this in safe mode. I don't know where to start, can someone please tell me what I need to do?

Hi kairi2, welcome to WTT. Looks like your post got missed somehow, my apologies.

First, try booting to Safe Mode by pressing F8 (or F5 is F8 doesn't work) when you boot the computer. Press F8 as soon as you see the manufacturers logo. Keep pressing every second or so until the Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. Select Safe Mode and press Enter.

Login as Administrator (no password required unless you added one).

Click on Start then Run, type chkdsk /r and press Enter.

You will get a window that says the check could not be performed ….
Do you want to schedule this disk check to run the next time you restart the computer?
Type y and press Enter.

Shutdown and reboot. Chkdsk will start. It can take an hour or more to run depending on the size of your hard drive. Be patient and let it complete undisturbed.

I see that you have used the malware removal forum several months ago. How long has this problem occured, and have you had any recent warnings or virus outbreaks? Your problem is typical of one where the userinit.exe file has been deleted by malware removal software during a cleanup process. If you have reason to suspect this is the case, you first need to head back over to the malware forum and have your system checked out first. Then come back here for instructions how to verify your userinit.exe file exists and how to restore it if necessary.