Computer Logs in and immediately off

I went to turn on my PC this morning and it started up, logged in, and then logged right back out to the welcome screen. It got as far as displaying the wallpaper, but then logged out. I've tried starting it up multiple times, and in Safe Mode and Last Known Good Configuration. Does anyone know if this can be fixed and how I could fix it? Thanks.

Hi, Sorry to hear of the problem with your computer,
If you can't boot into safe mode at all then your options are a bit limited.
More information on your machine, its specification, setup and what you had been doing immediately before the problem arose would be helpful……. Quite often it's recent changes/ installations of stuff that give us a clue as to the best course of action required.

First you could have a look here:

http://www.derkeiler.com/Newsgroups/micros…04-08/0434.html

and second you could try a Repair of Windows (on top) using your Windows XP sp2 installation disc. The repair you want is non destructive and does not normally lose your data, however it can't be guaranteed, so if your back up/archive/copy is bang up to date it's very reassuring.

If your back up is a little out of date and you have important stuff that would create a problem for you if it was lost then I would recommend copying your important stuff off before doing any else. You could boot into Linux (a Knoppix CD is a handy thing to have, or Bart Pre installed environment ( if you prefer a Windows type interface,) or slave your machine's hard drive to a similar machine, but please only do this if you are familiar with all the safety and antistatic precautions required and your machine is no longer under warranty or service agreement.
Let us know how you go and post back if you need detailed advice on any of the above
Regards
paws

It's kindof hard to do a repair of XP when they won't send the disk with the computer any more… I never understood their logic, since System Restore only works if you can actually get to it. I guess I could buy a new disk… EDIT: $200 for an XP disk, even with Vista out? That's not an option… dang. It was working fine last night, but evidently someone in the house freaked out this morning because of lightning and unplugged it with it still on, instead of shutting it down. It hasnt been used before yesterday for a week, so that unplugging is the only change that could have happened that I know of. The desktop was made by dell, but uh… that's all I can remember of it without getting onto it and checking its specs (since I can't logon, can't check them). EDIT: Are there any other ways of restoring whatever startup files were probably damaged other than buying a new XP disk?

Hi, Dells usually ship with a Restore disc that includes the essential drivers. see if you can locate it, if not you can probably get a duplicate from Dell support Regards paws