Sun 14 Jan 2007
Recovering from winlogon.exe application error
Posted by Michael Brandonisio under Computers , PersonalDigg This Entry , [70] Comments
Hello,
Here I am today, attempting to recover my Windows XP Pro computer from an error after rebooting it, “winlogon.exe Application Error” Something about cannot write to some memory location. I did some searching via Google, No luck. I’m trying a system repair. Cross your fingers. If I can recover my accountig files, I’ll move them to my Mac Mini.
I Hope this fixes it.
[edited: 2 hours later]
Sort of fixed it. It is fixed enough to boot, login and recover and data I need. However the system is less than perfect. I cannot RDP to the XP box from my Mac Mini anymore and I keep getting errors about not being able to start ICS or other services. I’ve tried to run windows update but it just hangs.
At this point I’m thinking that I’ll get what I can moved to an external drive and start from scratch. 🙁
[edited: 8 hours later]
Windows Update finally responded. After spending much time running downloading updates and reinstalling IE. It seems to be working properly without error. What a head ache. I do most of my work on my Mac Mini and use this Windows box for validating web site designs and accounting. I’m vasilating between moving my accounting to my Mac using MYOB and just leaving the Windows box ass-is. I really did not want to spend so much time on this, but I need to get my tax papers prepared and it has all my accounting on it.
Sincerely,
Mike
I had the same issue. It is a tedious process, but see if you can bring up the task manager. Find winlogon.exe under Processes. Right click and set priority down to normal. That seems to do the trick until the next reboot.
Hi Frank,
Thanks for input. I cannot remeber what prompted the initial reboot, but after the first reboot I would get the winlogon.exe error. It did not matter what selection you made the system would complete reboot itself. The task manager was not an option since I could not even get to a log on screen.
Either way, it good to have more info. If the error comes up while still looking at a desktop then I’ll try this next time.
I’m having the same issue. I tried the task monitor trick but it said I could not do that. I’m think of doing a fresh install of XP. Could this be a hardware issue?
Hi,
After I did an installation over the top of the existing XP files it worked fine. I have not had any other issues since then. Do remember that you will have to Download and apply all of the security patches to get the system back to mormal since your putting an out of date CD version over a up to date version.
Mike
Guys if you Spybot runnuning on you pc then remove it. That’s what causes that winlogon.exe error
Hi Jim,
Is Spybot the name of the program or process? Or did you mean Spybots in general? Any additional info you can provide would be great.
Mike
I am facing same problem, is there anybody help us, please.
I have the same problem, Now it is just loopiing. Tried setting bios to default, no luck. Tried bring up under “Safe Mode’. np luck…
I can’t even get to my logon screen. Please, someone, how do I get in to my computer – XP Pro…
Hi Jim,
That is pretty much what happened to me. I ended up installing XP over the top of itself and then patched it to the latest patch level. It seems to be working fine since then.
Mike
Hi Ime having the same problem someone please help i have loads of things i need to recover it just keeps going over trying to load up get to windows logo then reboots continuous and says about tcant read the memory winlogon.exe i cant even load up into safe mode 🙁
Julie
Hi Juli,
I have not found any other way to recover from this other than installing windows over the top of your current installation. After doing that run windows update until there are no more updates.
Mike
I too am having the same winlogon.exe application error problem. I too uninstalled the “Spybot” program that another computer guy installed on my desktop. I cannot get it to boot at all. I can never even get to a screen that gives me the Safe-Mode option. I have tried pressing “F8” as it boots and it seems to just hang up there and do nothing. I will try to boot from the CD and will try to install XP over the top of it. I will report back
Cameron
I just fixed the sam problem.
These are the steps that i tooked..
1. Boot with winxp cd
2. Log in to recovery console
3. chkdsk /r
it seems to work for now :))
Hi Pixa,
I’m glad that worked for you. If this comes up again I’ll try that first.
If anyone reading this can confirm:
1. Boot with winxp cd
2. Log in to recovery console
3. chkdsk /r
Will correct this issue that would be great.
Mike
No, that did not work on mine, will have to reinstall over the top
Hi Mike J,
Thanks for let me know.
Mike
Guys, I’m an IT manager at a mid-sized company and we’ve had 15-20 machines suddenly start doing this in the last month. I’ve narrowed it down to an issue with the RPC and DCOM services; by default they are both set to “Restart the computer” if they can’t start.
We’re still working with Microsoft to determine why this suddenly started, but we have at least figured out that after several reboots and if you let it sit at the logon screen for a while before attempting to logon, you can sometimes get it to boot all the way into Explorer. If you get that lucky, go into your services and set the recovery options for both services to “Restart the service” instead of “Restart the computer”.
Hope this helps.
Frank
Hi Frank,
Thanks for input. I’m going to look at a few computers over here to see what the RPC and DCOM services recover is set to.
Mike
Hi guys,
Any idea on how to fix this if the computer just keeps rebooting, and I don’t have boot disk? The WINLOGIN.exe gray message box shows up for 1-2 seconds, then the machine reboots again. Un-ending cycle.
I have tried all the Safe Modes, same thing. Tried the debugging mode, it just hung. All this has occured after doing the upgrade to SP 4. Came up once, then this scenario.
I don’t have a boot disk as this was company computer my previous company let me keep when they let me go.
WIN2000 op system.
Is there some keystrokes I can do at startup that would stop the cycle and at least let me start the computer?
Thanks,
Craig
Hi Craig,
If you do not have you OS disk you may be able to do something from a a dos prompt. I’d look at trying to stop the restart by changing the recovery options for the service. I’m really sure how you’d do this either. Sorry I cannot be more help.
Mike
Thank for the reply Mike.
I did get a suggestion to try to get the task manager to pop up by pressing CTRL SHIFT ESC when the message pops up.
Just kind of shooting in the dark right now.
Craig
I tried Pixa’s suggestion and it worked fine for me. Seems like there was something wrong with my harddisk.
Hey guys…my wife’s computer just had this same issue and I was able to hit CTRL+ALT+DEL before the error message popped up and then login and do a system restore. No sure if that’ll work for anybody else, but just thought I’d throw this out there (problem happened after the Monday update from MS Update).
The same winlogon.exe issue.
I started with the installation CD and used the repair option.
That’s worked fine for me.
For systems where the winlogon.exe error popus up with an OK button – DO NOT press OK. The machine seems to run just fine with the dialog box pushed out of the way.
Go into services, and set the Recovery options as listed above. That seems to work like a champ upon subsequent reboots.
Hi
You sound like you know what you’re talking about. can I ask a question. I’m going to save time and tell you what’s mine. I have a problem with a logon.exe my win xp pro froze on the log in screen and I can’t reboot with f8 or any other trics like holding the ctlr or any other F#. plus I can’t reboot from the cd so I can repair the win xp. is there anything out there that I can stick in the cd rom and make the pc reboot from it
thanks for your time
Hi Rhiwi,
If you are having issues booting to any CD then you need to edit your bios settings to allow booting from the CD before the HD or floppy.
Mike
Hi Frank,
Thank you very much. I had got exactly the same situation as yours. Trick with services worked fine.
press f8 during startup before the winlogo comes up, and choose “last configuration that worked”
Thats what fixed it for me guys!
I also set the recovery options for those aforementioned services, so that might have had something to do with it as well, but that alone did not work until I did the F8 “Last Good known Configuration” trick.
Just passing by on a Google search, and found your page to be among the MOST attractive I’ve stumbled upon. Here’s telling ya so.
Hi Diane,
Thank you. The theme is by http://www.vanillamist.com
Mike
j’ai un sérieux problème avec ce message qui apparait quand j’allume mon HP 530 avec win XP SP2 ” winlogon.exe application error”. je vous en prie aidez – moi à faire quelque chose sinon je suis bloqué complétement.
auto-translate:
Best regards
Hi Uwitonze,
Have you tried any of the techniques here?
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Mike
I suddenly started facing this problem after running a couple of anti spyware apps and restarting Windows. Relying on the iPod Touch for now in an attempt to fix my laptop. Tried the F8 return to last known good configurations method but unfortunately it did not work for me. Any other alternatives especially when I’m without a Windows cd? Thanks.
Hi Eu Jin,
I too tried most the attempts to fix this without going through the use of a Windows CD to update the OS from the CD, but none worked for me. If you have a proper product code maybe you can barrow the media from someone Or MS may even send you a disk. I think they are around $30, it’s not a license, only media.
Mike
Thanks for the quick reply Mike, appreciate your efficiency. I managed to borrow an XP cd off a friend and currently trying out the chkdsk /r method which was pointed out by Pixa on the 7th of Jan 08.. The check is taking quite some time so I’ve decided to leave it alone to do its thing. Hopefully things will work out just fine for me. Will keep you guys updated on my outcome! In the mean time, any other possible methods would be great just in case I fail to fix the problem.
It didn’t work. Looks like I’m running out of options. Would a reinstall of Windows clear my HD? I’ve got heaps of important data which have not been backed up elsewhere.
Hi Eu Jin,
No, a reinstall of Windows will not clear your HD. When you boot to the CD to can select recovery console. From there you can move files to a flash drive or something.
I’m surprised that this did not fix it. I had run windows update over and over and over to get it working though.
Did you make sure or test for virus or worm? You have a contaminated HD that reinfected itself.
Mike
Thats good to know. I’ll probably do that, reinstall the whole windows. How do I use the recovery console to extract files though? Can’t quite remember the DOS commands. But then again, the whole Windows issue should be harmless to my files stored on the HD if I’m not wrong? And to your final question Mike, yes all this was a result of restarting after running an anti spyware program, Superantispyware if I’m not wrong. Cheers.
Hi Eu Jin,
Have the flash drive plugged in to the USB port before putting. It should be assigned a drive letter at boot. I’m going to guess Drive letter D, E or F depending if you have other partitions or drives on the system.
Here is a link on MS DOS commands.
http://www.computerhope.com/msdos.htm
Basically your only backing up your data. Also rename the windows folder to ‘windows-old’. When you boot to the CD next time you can choose to install windows in a non-standard folder like ‘windows2’ or ‘windows’.
Mike
hmmm…I was getting the same error message. But used the click here underlined for details. Stated the problem was with the uxtheme.dll file. So from msconfig, I uncheck the theme services. Rebooted with no errors. Realized that it turned off my XP Theme. So went into Services from Admin Tools, and set disable to automatic and click the Start button, to start the service. Then rebooted. Have not received the error since.
UXTheme is the XP Theme package, but was recently updated in a patch. So maybe chalk it up as a bad install. Now repaired.
Another option is to go to c:\windows\system32 and find the uxtheme.dll file. Rename it to uxtheme.dll.old. Then restart. Should repair, reinstall itself.
Hi all
I had a customer with the same winlogon.exe application error looks like uninstalling SP3 fixed it after 4 days of pointless virus scans
good luck to the rest of you 🙂
Hi,
I tried CHKDSKs / renaming the winlogon.exe hoping it would be rebuilt, fixboot and mbr but all with no luck.
Couldnt get in windows.
Re-installing over current installation as we speak.
Note: This happened when installing SP2 on an XP machine. That is ALL i did, windows update caused me hours of messing around.
Hi all
“HijackThis” fixed winlogon.exe problem for me.
i scan with hijackthis and fixed winlogon error.
seems like Computer working fine.
hi all.
just for your information.
in my case, winlogon.exe problem occured in a fresh copy of windoes XP Pro.i installed a fresh copy after formating HDD,and system was working fine untill i installed sm buscontroller driver.
systme gave me this error after installing sm bus controller driver.
Hi,
This really annoying winlogon bug started appearing for me this morning, after I went to windowsupdate.com and installed a bunch of hotfixes.
I tried all the solutions above except repairing windows. No joy.
Then for kicks I uninstalled IE8 Beta2 (silly me for having installed it on a production machine!)….. and voila! The winlogon bug is gone.
Im very happy now.
So add this to the list of things one could try.
Thanks for the help!
/Simon
How does one get in to “services” I’m new at this so a step-by-step to fixing this winlogon.exe error would be very helpful. The exact message I get is: The instruction at “0x7751eaea†referenced memory at 0x656c6389â€. The memory could not be read.
Click OK to terminate or click Cancel to debug.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff
Got hte same problem win winlogon.exe and found this post in another formum:
‘solution for this is
goto BIOS security option and if there is any memory security then disable it.’
In my BIOS version there is no setting for this, but i diabled all existing security options and this helps in my case
Hi Marko,
Do you have more information on what you found. Typically BIOS setting don’t need changing due once your computer is built.
I don’t think disabling any BIOS settings will have an affect on this type error.
Mike