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No Ctrl+Alt+Del Prompt Revisited

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logixman

MIS
Mar 6, 2002
23
US
We have a Windows NT 4 SP6 BDC that out of the blue decided that it no longer wanted to boot properly. The machine boots up to the default NT background but then never displays a logon prompt. It just hangs there. In that state you can't logon, you can't ping... nothing. Has anyone seen this and/or fixed this without blowing away the server. It has a SQL database and user files on it. Any help is much appreciated.
 
I had same issue with windows terminal server. The problem in my case was ATI RAGE Pro video driver on DELL OptiPlex GX1. This was a couple of years ago, so I do not recall the version of the driver. It was fixed by a newer driver or/and a service pack.

Good luck.
 
hey u try with last known good configuration.still if its not working u need to reinstall nt server
 
Forgot to ask - can start the box in VGA mode?
 
No matter if the server comes up in normal, VGA, or HAL for that matter we get the same result. The 'Last Known Good Configuraton' would work, but the server had to boot all the way up to the "logon point" so that pretty much blows the last known good option.

From what I can find it appears that it may be a corrupt SAM database. An ERD would fix it in a second, except this is a remote server and no one has been to visit it in 2 years so there is no up to date ERD. Looks like we're up the river...
 
Is the hard drive full? Is it on the network? Can you map it's C$ drive from a different machine? No CRTL+ALT+DEL response while it's sitting there? HD light frantic, or quiet?

Sounds like a virus or service is starting up and taking too long, or a corrupt user profile. As the logon process starts, try holding the shift button down. If you can, logon as a different user and see what happens.

Something is corrupt, or out of whack - i'd try to figure out what it is before i wiped NTSRVR off it.

just my 2¢..
good luck pbxman
Systems Administrator

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Turned out to be a corrupt default user profile. Unfortnately without the ERD we had re-install NT.
 
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