Unable to log into Windows 8.1 - I'm immediately logged out again

[gopher1369]

I have 3 MS accounts on my Windows 8.1 desktop. 2 accounts work fine, the 3rd starts to log in, but before getting to the desktop immediately logs itself out again.

I've tried to remove and re-add the account, same thing happens.

The same MS account logs in fine on other PCs (I have tested it on another Desktop and a laptop, on both of these other machines the account works fine).

Any ideas please?

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi


It looks as if this account is too corrupted to log into

It might be quicker to rename the bad account

if that works re create a new account with original name
see if that works

and copy over any inportant data files

Or recover any data files from bad account from within another account then delete the bad account and all its files

then re create the account to see if this now works

common cause of serious problems corrupt or missing ntuser.dat

look to see if the bad accounts NTUSER.DAT exists (it is effectively a registry file)

c:\users\username\NTUSER.DAT

there are backups made but recovery proceedure is complicated
Googling shows lots of tutorials

regards
Mike Barnes

 

[johnbl]

maybe malware modified your registry entry for the shell
see:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555648

I would think that deleting the account would kill the registry setting and you would not have the problem when you recreate the account.

make sure another account logged in the failing machine also works as expected.
just in case certain files on the machine have not been modifed or extra public files are running only on that machine.

you might even run sfc.exe /scannow command to check for modified core windows files.

 

[gopher1369]

Both of you have suggested deleting the account and recreating it - this isn't an option, my MS account is also used to log into my Xbox and I'm not deleting 10 years' worth of Achievements!

I will try the other suggestions when I get home later though, I'll have a nosey around the registry, thanks for the help.

 

[johnbl]

Sorry, you did not indicate how you were loging in. local account, network domain, or cloud account.
if "machineX" is the machine with the problem, log into that machinex with a different account
and see if that account also has the same problem.

it will help you identify the cause of the log out. IE, helps you find out if your public registry template for the local machine has been modified and any accounts loging into machineX would have the same problem.

or is it just your one cloud account. (then the local registry user name file for that account while on that machine has been modified)

in any case you don't want to or need to delete your cloud account.

at this point I assume you are not logging into a local account or a corporate domain controller.

Both of you have suggested deleting the account and recreating it - this isn't an option, my MS account is also used to log into my Xbox and I'm not deleting 10 years' worth of Achievements!

I will try the other suggestions when I get home later though, I'll have a nosey around the registry, thanks for the help.

 

[gopher1369]

Hi John,

In my original post where I wrote "I have 3 MS accounts on my Windows 8.1 desktop. 2 accounts work fine, the 3rd starts to log in, but before getting to the desktop immediately logs itself out again."

To be clear, I mean this, this is my Microsoft account I use to log into my PC:
"sign in to your Microsoft Account https://login.live.com/ "

 

[johnbl]

if the failing account will work on any other machine, then I think your local copy of the user profile on the failing machine is corrupted.
This can happen with some virus scanners issues, where local registry file did not get flushed to disk before a machine was powered off.

When a user logs into a machine for the first time. A user driectory is created for them on the machine and a default registry template is copied in to that directory. That default template is then modified as the user makes changes to their desktop. These changes are done to hidden files

on my system I am logging into a local account Win10admin.
my user registry is saved at:
c:\users\win10admin
here is a list of my hidden files: (start cmd.exe as an admin)

c:\Users\win10admin>attrib *.*
A SH I C:\Users\win10admin\NTUSER.DAT
A SH C:\Users\win10admin\ntuser.dat.LOG1
A SH C:\Users\win10admin\ntuser.dat.LOG2
A SH C:\Users\win10admin\NTUSER.DAT{6766f5d7-3b1d-11e4-80c5-b8ca3aeeeb75}.TM.blf
A SH C:\Users\win10admin\NTUSER.DAT{6766f5d7-3b1d-11e4-80c5-b8ca3aeeeb75}.TMContainer00000000000000000001.regtrans-ms
A SH C:\Users\win10admin\NTUSER.DAT{6766f5d7-3b1d-11e4-80c5-b8ca3aeeeb75}.TMContainer00000000000000000002.regtrans-ms
SH C:\Users\win10admin\ntuser.ini

in your case I would think that your ntuser.dat file in that directory is corrupted and I would unhide the file
attrib.exe -s -h ntuser.dat
then rename the file
ren ntuser.dat ntuser.bad
then I would unhide the default file c:\users\default\ntuser.dat
attrib.exe -s -h c:\users\default\ntuser.dat
and copy the file to my user directory

in my case:

copy c:\users\default\ntuser.dat c:\users\win10admin\ntuser.dat

now I have a new default ntuser.dat and my old renamed corrupted ntuser.bad

I would try to boot and log in.

if that did not work I would enableverbose logon/logoff messaging so the system will tell you what it is doing.
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/enable-verbose-status-message-windows


That would be my first attempt. I can think of a lot of reasons it will not be the problem. but it would be my first guess.