XP Pro Hangs at Bootup, Demands PW...a Fine Mess!

[MarkTwain]

I'm running under XP Pro, SP 2. Yesterday I installed a Comodo Firewall upgrade, then rebooted. Suddenly, the OS asks me for a password--which was never enabled! Trying to go further minus a PW, I got this message: "Unable to logon because of an account restriction."

More re-booting, same demand for a PW. Then sometimes it didn't ask for a PW, just hung at
the "Loading your personal settings" screen. (Even when I went into the BIOS Setup and made the No Password selection under Security, the OS would demand a PW).

Finally, I tried the Recovery Console from the XP Install CDROM, but the RC also demanded an nonexistent PW, and stalled me.

Finally, I did a Repair/Reinstall from the XP Install CDROM, which went OK (except for a message during Setup saying, "VIAAGP1.SYS on VIA AGP Filter Driver Disk is needed." Browsing didn't find it, the setup finished).

I was able to boot up normally (though when I scrolled any screen, I got a rolling, wavelike screen-refresher effect. Still do).

But when I went to reinstall my Nvidia 7300 GT video drivers (because of the Reinstall), they apparently were still intact, and the procedure only let me uninstall them...

After a reboot, the OS once again hung at "Loading your personal settings." So I ran the XP Repair/Reinstall again, and got the OS working normally again. But now I'm leery of making any need changes on my system, for fear of triggering bootup hangs, etc.

Is there any way out of this mess?

[glc]

Do a system restore back to before you messed it up. If that won't work (it may not because of the repair reinstall) you may want to back up your data files and do a nuke and pave, get a fresh start.

[MarkTwain]

For starters, I uninstalled Comodo Firewall (trouble began with its so-called upgrade), and replaced it with Filseclab Personal Firewall. Since then, no more funny business (PW demands and hangs) during boot-ups...

(I've since heard of Vista users having their systems nailed by that Comodo upgrade).

...but this is just the beginning of my remedial measures....

Thanks, glc.

[glc]

What's wrong with the XP firewall? It's adequate as long as you are behind a router.

[MarkTwain]

Don't have a router, just a cable modem.

[glc]

You really should get a router, even if you only have 1 machine.