lsass.exe error loop at bootup

Can you help me save my files on my computer?

FYI: I have an Emachines 4155 with a 1.5 Gig P4, 60 Gig HD, DVD drive, CDRW, 512 Mb RAM.

I put on a Logitech Cordless Elite Duo KeyBoard and Optical Cordless Mouse. I loaded the software and the computer prompted me to power off so the changes could take effect.

I did.

When I powered it back up it came up with a

"System error lsass.exe:
When trying to update a password the return status indicates that the value provided as the current password is not correct. "

(that is a lower case L in lsass, not an I as I had first thought when I started doing searches on it.)
It would leave the failure dialog box up for about 3 seconds then shut itself off. It would then try and restart,by itself. It would go through the Emachines logo page, then the Windows XP logo page with the small scanning activity box on it that makes you think XP is loading, then it would show the Isass.exe failure again for about 3 seconds.
It would restart a new loop about every 30 seconds.

I pressed F8 (safe start) and tried EVERY available option on the Safe Start page. The lsass.exe failure showed up on each one. In addition I tried the option of restaring at an earlier working configuration. This also failed and went into the lsass.exe bootup error loop again.

I have gotten in contact with Emachines at least 6 times. Each time they start out by telling me I need to back up my data. That is great but since I cannot get the thing to boot I am at a loss as to how to do this. One of them, on the live chat assistance site, told me that I could not be having this failure then disconnected from me. They then tell me that after backing up my data I need to reinstall xp from the restore disk.

I got in touch with Logitech. Logitech suggested I get in touch with Microsoft. Apparently they didn't read the part about this being OEM SW and Microsoft doesn't want anything to do with it except to get money from selling it.

It almost seems to me that these help places are populated by part time people that have no expertise. I think they have scripts for common failures and when you call with something that falls out of the scope of that script they refer you another company or tell you to reformat and reinstall.

I Put in the Emachines Restore CD. I selected Restore XP. It is not a retail version of XP, it is the OEM version that came with the computer and it is a Ghost image. It told me that I would lose all of the data on the HDD. This is not acceptable. I have some very important files that I really want to save.

I tried both a bootable CD and booting off of a floppy. I gave it a "C:" command to try and read the HD. It told me that C was an invalid drive.

I tried puting the 60 Gig HD from this machine into others to see if I could read it:

I have a New Trend 466 Celeron with 10 Gig HD that is running Windows ME. I tried to read the Emachines' 60 Gig HD with this computer. The New Trend would not boot up when I had the 60 GIG hooked up as a slave or as a master on IDE 2. For a few anxious moments I thought I ******* up this computer too. The RAM in this one decided to **** out after I took out the 60 Gig and put this one back to it's original configuration. I took one of the bars out of the Emachines and put it in here. It fired up and ran well. I thought that maybe the dying RAM caused it not to be able to read the 60 Gig so I tried it again with the same results, It wouldn't boot up.

I tried the 60 Gig HD in an IBM 300GL that has a 333 Mhz PIII and two 3g HD's, Running Windows 98. The IBM would see it when you looked in the setup page but after Windows 98 was booted up I could not see the 60 Gig HD in either "My Computer" or "Windows Explorer "
.
I don't have access to another computer running XP.

How can I save my data or preferably, get this thing to quit looping and boot properly?

 

Here is a report of an identical issue with a packard bell system and a fix (but may only apply to PB systems).

And Here is another incidence of the same issue when upgrading a Hewlett-Packard Pavilion or a Compaq Presario desktop computer.

Sorry neither one is specific to your situation but they may give you some other ideas.

The only realistic fix I can see for you is to do a reinstall of XP. It should leave your existing personal files intact as long as you don't format first.

 

 
 
Aren't those restore disks great? They cure an illness by returning the patient to infancy.

Without the ability to reinstall on top of your present installation, you should try to cut your losses (as if you haven't tried) and focus on recovering your files.

This freeware app will allow you read access to your NTFS drive (in the IBM, I guess) so that you can try to copy your files from the HD:

http://www.sysinternals.com/ntw2k/freeware/ntfswin98.shtml

 

The answer seems to be Linux

I've gotten a few emails from people wondering if I found a fix to this problem it seems to be a fairly common problem. This is for the information of anybody else that has to deal with the lsass.exe error . I didn't find any way to get the computer back into operating condition. I hope you have better luck.

This is the only way I found to deal with this problem.
I was able to get ahold of an older 3 gig HDD. I installed the 3 gig into the Emachine as the primary and then I ran the resore disk on this to install Emachines version of XP. I had thought I would copy the information from the 60 gig to the 3 gig but the installation took about 2.5 gig of space. I installed the failing 60 gig as slave. I was able to read the data on the 60 gig in Windows explorer. I networked the Emachines to my New Trend. I then was able to find and copy my much needed files to the older machine.

After that I put the 60 gig back as the primary and restored it. It seems to be working now.

I think that having to do this to a machine with the "Latest and Greatest Windows" to save one's data is BULL$HIT. I have never had to deal with a problem like this with Win95a, 95b, 98, 98SE, or ME. And the "support" from micro$oft is shameful.

I have been on the Internet for the past week finding and installing the XP drivers for the printer, scanner, camera, burner, modem, and all of the hardware that didn't come with XP drivers. It is a real pain in the a$$. I wish that the money grubbers at Micro$oft would support their product and spend some time refining the functionality of their op sys instead of figuring out how to keep a homeowner from putting a copy on their kid's computer.

The soulution seems to be to try a different operating system or to make sure you have a spare computer and hard drive around so you can save your data when XP craps on you.