PC Auto Shutdown Problem

[jldodge]

My PC automatically shuts down as I attempt to logon everytime I boot. I can get into Safe Mode but cannot logon in Normal Mode. The problem started after I shutdown in the middle of a Windows update that was going on for a few hours (thinking that it was hung and a reboot would finish the update). Instead, it prevented me from logging on. After some research, here is what I have done.

I thought I isolated it to the userinit.com. I took a copy from the ServicePack\i386 directory and placed it in the System32 directory. Then I completed a SP2 upgrade from the hard drive. I have run Spybot to locate spyware, run chkdsk /f, and used System Mechanic to repair the registry. I also have copied userinit.exe to wsaupdater.exe in my System32 directory. So far, none of these have fixed the problem. I'm stumped and would like some thoughts, ideas, suggestions on what else I can do.

Would appreciate any and all help ... Thanks in advance.

[Cricket]

What kind of computer is this? Home built or name brand?

It sounds as if you have the Windows XP installation CD...if you do you could try to do a Repair Install.

Cricket

[jldodge]

This is a home built PC ... and I do have the Windows XP disk. I have been warned to avoid the Repair install because it apparently overwrites many drivers back to the original Windows version so I would have to essentially re-install all of the software. I do have a tape backup from about 2 weeks before the problem occurred. If I do the repair, can I then use the tape backup (created via Windows backup facility) to restore to the current state or will I still have problems with the drivers, etc.

Have you or anyone else run into this problem before? Given the volume of traffic in the Microsoft forums, it seems as if this type of situation happens fairly often. I just have not been able to get any of the fixes to work. Any thoughts on other causes?

Thanks again for any input/thoughts ...