Windows 7 invaild username / Password

BigR

New Member
I have a user with a Dell desktop running Windows 7 Pro with a wired USB keyboard / mouse

She reported to me yesterday that she was getting an invalid username / password when logging on. After some basic trouble shooting it was time for us both to go home. Next morning I received an email that she was able to login. IF she used the on-screen keyboard for the password, the USB keyboard would give her the invalid UN/PW. Tried different keyboards and USB ports. Typing the PW in the username field looked correct. Tried different UN/PW combinations. After logging on the keyboard is working fine (long email she sent me) . She went to login into a different system (Citrix) Same problem with PW only the on-screen keyboard would work for the PW.

Again, after logging on the USB keyboard is working fine. Seems to only fail while typing a password? I have not seen the problem only talked to her over the phone. 3 hours from my location

Thoughts from the well of knowledge ?

Thanks
 
Hi and welcome to the forum:up:

Sounds like the first thing we should know is whether or not your user is on a Corporate network (LAN) or not. I've used Citrix in corporate environments as a Network Manager so that's why I mention it. User logins on a server-based domain network are controlled by the server (PDC) in a Microsoft Server network; and the local passwords are stored in either the Local Profile on the user's computer or in a Roaming Profile if you've setup multiple Users who login to the Domain, and then into the Citrix database. That being said here are some things you can try.

***If you're user is NOT on a domain based network, but rather using a private logon over the Internet such as VPN, that requires more advanced network troubleshooting and we should then move your Post to the Win7 Networking sub-forum for further help.***

1.) Have you had tried your User's login from a USB keyboard on a completely different PC on the network? For example, a computer at a neighboring workstation in her office? If this works; the problem is most likely on HER computer, and not her network domain account. You should then perform full hardware testing of Mobo, RAM sticks, and Hard Drive to determine if there is a hardware failure causing this login issue. (I'll provide a troubleshooting link for you further down in this response).

2.) Have you tried logging in with your User's network credentials (Domain UN/PW) on your Computer? If you haven't done this, and you are in a different location, it's a good idea to do this test, as it will tell you a lot about if it's a Domain account issue specific to her location or subnet on your network. The fact that she can login using the on-screen keyboard, tells me her Domain account credentials are probably Ok. Of course you won't know that until you can log in using her credentials on your computer. Or if you have physical access to the Domain PDC server itself, you can login with her Credentials on the Server console. That's foolproof to check her Credentials. Either will tell you what you want to know. Should this test fail on the physical server console, you've got some major network issues such as GPO policy out of sync between servers/subnets that could take weeks or even months to fix on a big network (WAN).

3.) Have you tried backing up the Usér's data to external media, and re-imaging her hard drive yet? If you have a spare SATA hdd you can temporarily remove her drive in her computer, pop in the spare hdd, and re-image onto that spare hdd (assuming you know for sure it's a good drive and has fully passed hardware testing (see my Troubleshooting Guide link). If she can now logon using the USB keyboard, your failure is due to a faulty drive and it should be replaced immediately. Problem solved. :up:

4.) Have you scanned her PC for viruses/malware yet? It sounds like you might be an IT guy or at least a Consultant performing IT tasks on an outsource basis (I've been doing this for 29 years); am guessing here. More info from your role with your User's computer would be helpful. Use her installed AV and scan/remove all viruses found. Then download and install free MALWAREBYTES from malwarebytes.org to scan/remove all spyware viruses found. There are many spyware viruses that specifically target network logins and even other spyware viruses that target network-based database repository programs such as Citrix and Oracle. MBAM will find and remediate most of these. Finally, you'll need to check for Rootkits and Bootkit type viruses using a good Rootkit program such as ROOTKIT BUSTER from trendmicro.com.


Most likely you haven't tried all of these yet, eh? Well, if you have, then you still need to perform Hardware Testing of that computer in my opinion before proceeding further. Ýou will really need to use some high level troubleshooting methodology to isolate this problem from a network credentials issue on the network from a simple hardware failure, windows corruption issue, on that PC, and that's what the above suggestions are. This won't fix advanced network problems, especially on an enterprise-sized network say with 500 users or more. On smaller networks, if you've missed doing some of these things, doing them now will very likely produced a fix for this one User's difficulties. BTW, if you or your company is using a Trouble Ticketing system, have you used that knowledgebase to search for similar Credential login failures on the network say in the last 90 days? Many ticketing systems written in SAP or ORACLE will let you search for problems using keyword search and AI algorithms. It only takes minutes. Your own IT department's Help Desk database can often lead to a solution, if your User's problem has already been solved by another Tech or Network Engineer somewhere in this history. If you don't have access to this, but you find it exists, you'll need to talk to the IT Director, CIO, or other senior IT executive to get access. In very large firms, this requires opening up a Ticket and possibly filling out a data access requisition. This may be new to you, or old hat; in either case; after 35 years in IT, it's worth mentioning as finding an existing solution to your problem that's already been solved by another Tech in your organization can save you weeks or months of troubleshooting to fix it.:applaud: Why re-invent the Wheel when you don't have to? ;) It will make you look good--and even better, if you've never been in touch with the IT people who run that Citrix server before, it will be very handy the next time a user has a similar issue logging into their App Server. :nerdie:

Here's the link to my Troubleshooting Guide for the hardware testing I promised you earlier: Windows 10 - Unclickable Task Bar

Let us know how it goes and if you get stuck feel free to post any further questions you have along the way.


Best of luck,:encouragement:
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>
 
thanks - log answer and good thoughts
I too have been do I/T stuff for a very long time (same gray beard but shorter)
she is a stand alone, no VPN
malware / a keylogger not running correctly is some concern
she just received this computer a couple weeks ago that had a fresh image on it
I will try your suggestions. Thanks again
 
Does this user have this issue often, almost 100% positive they're just typing in their password wrong. You wouldn't believe how many times I've seen that happen.
 
Back
Top