This problem drove me nuts on my VMWare XP guests and today, after the first reboot in about 4 months (following a build update), my VMWare XP host. Quite why I didn't remember the fix for the host escapes me.
Anyway, the problem is where you try to log in with an account which you *know* isn't disabled (in my case, I had other machines which I could log on to with no problem) but XP tells you it is.
Simply put, your machine has lost its connection with the domain. Or, more correctly, its machine account password has expired. You can prove that by trying to log in with a different a/c in the same domain. If that can't log in either, bingo.
To fix, remove the workstation from the domain and add it back. Ignore the prompt to restart after removing it - I've never needed to do that, but you *will* need to restart after adding it back in. You will obviously need to use an account which has rights to add/remove machines from the domain. If your machine is a corporate one, have a hack round in your registry: there's almost BOUND to be details of an account used to build the machine in there somewhere.
There's a registry hack to disabled the changing of the machine account password:
- Create a new DWORD name DisablePasswordChange in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Netlogon \ Parameters
-Assign it a value of 1
Restart again if you change/add this value (the default is '0' if the entry is present)
IIRC, there needs to be an equivalent setting on the domain controller for this to have an effect. Google for 'DisablePasswordChange' and knock yourself out
Anyway, the problem is where you try to log in with an account which you *know* isn't disabled (in my case, I had other machines which I could log on to with no problem) but XP tells you it is.
Simply put, your machine has lost its connection with the domain. Or, more correctly, its machine account password has expired. You can prove that by trying to log in with a different a/c in the same domain. If that can't log in either, bingo.
To fix, remove the workstation from the domain and add it back. Ignore the prompt to restart after removing it - I've never needed to do that, but you *will* need to restart after adding it back in. You will obviously need to use an account which has rights to add/remove machines from the domain. If your machine is a corporate one, have a hack round in your registry: there's almost BOUND to be details of an account used to build the machine in there somewhere.
There's a registry hack to disabled the changing of the machine account password:
- Create a new DWORD name DisablePasswordChange in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Netlogon \ Parameters
-Assign it a value of 1
Restart again if you change/add this value (the default is '0' if the entry is present)
IIRC, there needs to be an equivalent setting on the domain controller for this to have an effect. Google for 'DisablePasswordChange' and knock yourself out