dexterdoo

Right clicking on the "F" did the trick! It took me to a program that I had running but why it just showed as one letter (instead of the program's name) is beyond me?? lol Thanks again for the help!

When I start my XP Task Manager and open the Applications tab it shows one item which is simply a capital “F” running! I searched in the Processes tab and also installed Systernals but couldn’t find an “F” anywhere. Is there a way to find out exactly what this is??? Thanks!

Yes, the steps described are exactly what I did and have done many times. The machine was never in a domain and the install was not from a "modded" cd. I think I'll experiment with this a bit more (on a test machine, of course)!

When I turn on the computer it stops at the Welcome screen and has one name, Administrator. I click on it (no password needed) and the computer starts normally. Then I decided I wanted to bypass the Welcome screen and instead boot right into Windows XP Pro. So I did control userpasswords2, unchecked “users must enter a username and password”, clicked the “Advanced” tab and made sure “requires user to press cntrl+alt+del” was unchecked, then went to “User Accounts” and unchecked “Use the Welcome screen” and clicked “Apply Options”. Then when I rebooted the computer it stopped at the welcome screen again (the very thing I was trying to bypass) and asked for the Administrator password!!! When I clicked on the icon like before it kept telling me the password was wrong when there never was a password before? I don’t get it?? I didn’t need a password before so why do I need one now?? I’ve done this on many computers before and never had this happen. Fortunately for me this was a spare computer of mine (and not someone elses) so I could reload Windows from a backup I had without having someone really p***ed at me! Where did I go wrong in this process?

My problem is that now, when I play certain dvds and video files using Windows Media Player, it hangs or crashes the system. But my cloned drive (made 1 month ago) still works fine. I’ve reinstalled the video drivers and WMP 11 but the problem still persists. Is there a way to troubleshoot this using the offending dvds and the “logs” or something to find out exactly what is causing this problem? I’m trying to avoid whacking the drive and doing a clean install.

Mr.Jinje, I ran "net user administrator" and did get Local Group Memberships *Administrators I can't run the HDD offline right now. Tripredacus, GPRESULT said a whole lot ! What should I be looking for ?

Actually,I was going into boot.ini to set it for Safe Mode since I was already in Windows. But I'm denied any changes. There must be a hidden Administrator or something. I can't believe I'm going to have to reinstall all of the software because of this ......

I'm using XP Pro and I'm logged in locally. I can open Task Manager and anything else. Seems like even though it says I'm an Administrator,I'm still denied access, especially if a registry change is involved, like when I tried to install MS Office. There are a couple of users designated as administrator but none of them can gain access. Will the "real" Administrator please stand up?!!!" LOL I ran MalwareBytes and it found 19 infections and and removed them all. The computer has McAfee Security Center on it so I run a scan in Safe Mode now.

When I enter the Configuration Utility via msconfig and make a change I get an “Access Denied”error saying I need to log on as an Administrator - when I AM logged in as Administrator ! I’ve been reading for hours and it’s driving me nuts. Probably because I don’t understand how this all works (permissions, etc.) I tried logging in as “Administrator” with a blank password but still get the “access denied” message. I live a stone’s throw from the Golden Gate Bridge so if someone can’t help me with this, I’m going over the rail ! LOL

WOW !!!!! You are too helpful !!! Much thanks for this great info which was all new to me. I've copied your posts to a Word document and intent to try your suggestions, one by one. Thanks again !

Great post, broknindarkagain ! 62 processes does seem like a lot because I checked my other machines and they are around half that ! I located the problem though. I was suspicious of my video card (an older ATI All-In-Wonder) or it's drivers so I did a clean install on another hard drive with only the video drivers and the two conversion programs (WinAVI & ImToo MPEG Encoder) installed. The results were the same. Still locked up and would not work in the normal Windows mode. Looks like I'll have to upgrade the card to solve this. Meanwhile, I'll just use my laptop for conversions 'til then. I'll check out GSI and take a look at the report. Looks like there's some trimming to be done ! Thanks again for your help.

The last file I tried was 166MB. The conversion was from MPEG to AVI. I have 1GB of RAM, I'm using XP Pro and there are 62 processes running. My laptop has the same O/S, amount of memory and program installed and I can convet this file (or a 4GB file) with no problem !

I have two different programs that I use for video conversion but when I use either of them, my computer locks up after a few minutes. But both programs work fine if I run them in “safe mode”!??? They also work fine on my laptop, just not my desktop. Is there a way I can troubleshoot this problem using some of XP’s tools, diagnostics, logs, etc. and find out what’s causing this ?? I hate to keep switching to “safe mode” every time I need to use these programs. Thanks !

I was able to get everything cleaned up with a program called Speed Startup. The computer starts up in the Normal Mode and the item was removed. Thanks for all your help ! Now, on to my next question.

Ok, I disabled all startup items and the error did not come back! I noticed in the startup that mxgthmms.dll was there. Under "Command" it said Rundll32.exe C:\Windows\Sys........ So now, here's my question. If I uncheck that item in the startup tab, the dll error goes away but I'm running in the "Selective Startup" mode. How can I get rid of that item and return to running in the Normal Startup mode?