Windows 7 'Logon failure: Unknown user or bad password' *solved!*

[rlincolnh]

Hi All,

I thought that I would share a fix that I found for the persistent username/password failure when trying to access shared folders on a second machine. In the last two days I have searched hundreds of forum/help posts from people encountering the same problem, and for the most part the responses were unhelpful/assumed_in-depth_technical_problems/assumed_the_OP_was_a_bit_thick, and so on. As with so many problems, the cause and the fix (in my case) were dead simple. If the system error message had been a bit more on point, the fix would also have been quick!

My system: A new i7 running Windows 7 RC1 64-bit, an older Athelon running Win2k Professional, both wired to a Linksys wireless router, and several laptops (XP, etc) with wireless connection to the router.

The Win7 installation was the most pain-free Windows installation I have ever done, and getting everything talking and sharing was but a few minutes work. A few days later I embarked on some fairly complicated tests involving a couple of virtual machines on the Win2k system, and manipulating their VHDs from the Win7 machine (mounted via DiskPart). While the tests all went well, when I shut the VMs down I discovered that the network was broken, Attempting to access anything on the Win2k system from the Win7 system prompted the dialog box asking me to enter a network username/password. Anything I entered was rejected with the error 'Logon failure: Unknown user or bad password'. Cutting a long story short, I eventually realized that the Win7 workgroup name had reverted to the default 'WORKGROUP'. I corrected that, but the dialog error persisted, although the message changed slightly to 'The specified network password is not correct'. While I was pondering that, Win7 reset the workgroup name back to WORKGROUP (I've no idea why). The error message reverted to the original, so that immediately alerted me, and I set it back to the correct name again.

While looking for clues on the Win2k system I realized that the date was wrong (I had set it forward ten days as part of the tests that I had been doing). I set it back to the correct date AND ALL PROBLEMS DISAPPEARED. Win7 prompted me for a username/password which I entered and which was immediately accepted, and I had full access again.

In forty years of working with computers I've seen some pretty misleading error messages, but I think this one comes close to taking the cake!

I hope this helps someone.

Regards,

Roger

 

[kemical]

Hi Roger and welcome to the forum
Thanks for sharing and I'm sure it will come in handy for someone one day... As your aware many come here looking for solutions so it's great to have form of reference..
I hope you enjoy your time in the forum...

 

[kewell]

could you please tell me how you corrected it as having same problem

 

[rlincolnh]

kewell, as I said in my initial post, the fix in my case was simply to synchronize the date/time on the two machines. That was all that was required. Judging by the number of other people who are reporting problems with the same error message it would seem that there must be other causes (besides the obvious one of not having a matching username/password on the other machine), although I didn't see any useful alternative fixes being offered.

The reason I posted the fix that worked for me, even though it was so trivial, was because I was so irritated that a simple date/time mismatch generated such a misleading error message. I'm not a network guru, so I'm afraid that I can't offer anything further. When you *do* find the solution to your problem, please post it here, because I'm sure that there are still a lot of people having similar problems.

Roger

 

[rlincolnh]

kewell, I just read my original post and realize that I had forgotten about the default 'WORKGROUP' name. You didn't say what the OS is in the other machine on your network, but I guess you realize that if it's not Win7 then your win7 system has to join a workgroup (not a homegroup), and that the workgroup names in the two machines have to be the same. IIRC there was a subtle difference in the error message in the dialog box when the workgroup names didn't match (and the time difference also existed), and when there was only the time difference. I never bothered to investigate further once it was fixed.

Roger

 

[kewell]

i have netwrked my win7 and my hdd media player box i can see my workgroup on the media palyer menu but when click on it it asks for net user id and password i think its win 7 asking for it,running it wireless and everything seems okay i dont need password to log in on my pc so dont know where this user id and password is coming from
my settings in sharing are
turn on network discovery
turn on printer and file sharing
turn on sharing so anyone with network access can read and write files in public folders
media streaming is on
use 128-bit encryption on tried the other one
turn off password protected sharing
allow indows to manage homegroup connection on
and have also allowed everyone to share my folders

 

[rlincolnh]

I know nothing about media players. But on the win7 side, I would think that you must be operating under some form of username (even if it's some sort of default) and password (even if that is null). Maybe I'm wrong, but it might be useful to look at the user account control in W7 and see if you can deduce anything.

Have you had the player working on W7 before? Or on another OS?

Roger

 

[kewell]

they work on xp okay so must be something in win 7

 

[lkocsis]

Hi All,

I had the same problem as Roger. I haven't found solution elsewhere. Finally I found Roger's post.
So, thank you Roger!
lkocsis

 

[rlincolnh]

You're welcome, Ikocsis.

Here's another tip that may be useful for anyone having username/password hassles:

I was recently reminded that I'd also had the username/password problem when I initially set up my W7 system and couldn't access it from my win2k machine, even though I had set up an account on the W7 system with the same name and password as my account on the win2k machine. It turned out that it was necessary, but not sufficient, to have the same usernames with the same passwords on both the win2k and W7 systems. I also had to be logged in to both systems with the same username/passwords at the same time. Then when I tried to access the W7 system from win2k I was once again asked for a username and password which I supplied (for what seemed like the 1000th time!), and lo and behold, it was accepted.Since that time it is sufficient to have matching account/passwords on both machines, but it is not necessary to be logged on to both machines simultaneously.

Roger

 

[hoopz111]

Are you suggesting that I change the date on my server, try to login from the workstation (login will fail), then change the date back to the correct date on the server, login from the workstation should be successful?

The date on my server right now is accurate and login from Windows 7 workstation does not work.

Thanks.

 

[lkocsis]

Hi hoopz111,

No, this is not a workaround method. The incorrect date and time is just one possible reason of unsuccessful login. There could be many others.
lkocsis

 

[BMan5570]

Wow. Thanks alot Roger. Your post justed saved me possibly hours of endless reads of Microsoft Knowledgebase Articles that are totally unrelated to this issue. I've never experienced this issue before. Possibly it's something new to Win 7? At any rate, when I first encountered this problem, I had already noticed that the time setting on my Win 7 machine wass off by a few hours. Even after correcting that though, I still got the same "unknown username..." error. I checked my time again and realized that the AM/PM was wrong. Changed that and immediately was able to login.

Just a side note: I have several Win 2000 Servers and 2003 Servers that I connect to at the office. This only seemed to affect the 2000 Servers. I could still connect to the 2003 Servers, but when attempting to access shares on any of the 2000 servers, I would get the "unknown username..." error.

Thanks again.

 

[biomy]

Hi Roger

Hi Roger

I have to thank you for your profistional fix post, although i am still confused looking for ages to fix this problem without any solution found till now! , i am new Windows 7 user , i installed it on all the work computers , everything working great except one computer which is not appeared or able to be seen in the network..

I did everything as you said on this computer, updated time, disabled network passwords, firewalles, even guest account, I did all as i can do, but still not letting me open shared computer folders and printers, when i try to open the network on any other computer and double click this computer i want to open it gives me a box asking for user name and password, i put computer name and password when i use to login , still not allowing me to enter or see its shared folders !

Some strange things happen:
this pc which is not appeard in the network can see other computers on the network but other computers cannot see it..
this problem is not being for all time, its being for some days, then its working fine for another days and then come back .... etc

I don't know what can i do for this, its very important to me using sharing files and printers and Public folder at work.. wish there is any solution its really disappointing me with windows 7 , too much complicated and not user friendly !

Sorry for my english mistakes,

Thanks all..

Ahmed Biomy

 

[meekal]

Hi All,

I thought that I would share a fix that I found for the persistent username/password failure when trying to access shared folders on a second machine. In the last two days I have searched hundreds of forum/help posts from people encountering the same problem, and for the most part the responses were unhelpful/assumed_in-depth_technical_problems/assumed_the_OP_was_a_bit_thick, and so on. As with so many problems, the cause and the fix (in my case) were dead simple. If the system error message had been a bit more on point, the fix would also have been quick!

In forty years of working with computers I've seen some pretty misleading error messages, but I think this one comes close to taking the cake!

I hope this helps someone.

Regards,

Roger

thanks so much dude. battery went dead on the OTHER computer and the date was wrong... especially since i could reach the OTHER computer w/XP and w2000 computers no problem, ONLY the w7 computer would not connect.

this is about as weird as error messages you get when you run out of disc space - totally whack

thanks again!

 

[emergence]

I had this problem when trying to connect two win 7 desktops and needed a different solution.

Background: when I first tried to network them I accidentally had given them the same name(don't ask). I fixed this and discovered the wonderful world of 'Logon failure: Unknown user or bad password'. I tried all the fixes suggested on this thread to no avail then...

I found my fix was to create a new user on each machine with a new username AND a different password (when i first tried this with the new user and original password it did not work) then login as the new user on each machine and try to connect to the other. This failed as before but when I logged out and logged back in again as the old user the network was fully functional! go figure...

 

[Rotenburo]

Roger, thanks greatly for this solution. I just got back from Afghanistan a month ago, and hadn't changed the time back to CST for one of my two laptops (running Vista). Yesterday I upgraded routers from a Dlink 600 to a Netgear WNDR3700. Three of the four laptops in the house made the jump (and the change to WPA2) with no problems, including my control laptop on Win7 Starter. However, my Vista computer just would not connect to the Netgear system, even though the password was correct, when I had the computer at the other end of the house. Strangely, when I brought it into the same room as the router, the password worked, but when I took it back to the bedroom, it again gave the bad password message. Reading your post, I went back to my bedroom and changed the time from Kabul standard to CST (a difference of 10 1/3 hours only, same date) and voila, the password was recognized and the computer is now on the system. Too simple a solution, and too obscure an error message, for sure. Thanks again. Rotenburo

Roger's original post (edited): I thought that I would share a fix that I found for the persistent username/password failure when trying to access shared folders on a second machine. ... As with so many problems, the cause and the fix (in my case) were dead simple. If the system error message had been a bit more on point, the fix would also have been quick!

...

While looking for clues on the Win2k system I realized that the date was wrong (I had set it forward ten days as part of the tests that I had been doing). I set it back to the correct date AND ALL PROBLEMS DISAPPEARED. Win7 prompted me for a username/password which I entered and which was immediately accepted, and I had full access again.
Roger[/QUOTE]

 

[Nandhu]

'Logon failure: Unknown user or bad password'

I have to copy/move the files from windows 7 to the server machine (windows server 2008) manually, when i do it manually means it takes too long time,,so i created an batch file to move it automatically ,In batch file i given the credentials and the move command , Once the batch file is running - the server windows is opening but the move command is not working i get an message in command it showing as ( " Logon failure: Unknown user or bad password " )

The Server time is in EST and My windows time in IST
Can anyone help with this problem ,

Thanks in advance