ok guys, you've saved me before, see what you can make of this one:

    I'm working on a windows XP machine that will no longer reach the login screen on bootup. I'm not sure of the exact cause, but I know what it probably has to do with. My friends were trying to play a prank on someone, and they needed to login to the prankee's computer but didn't know the PASSWORD. Using a boot diskette and a program called NTFSDOS, they accessed and copied the computer's "SAM" file onto their disk. When the machine was rebooted it loaded through the big XP logo, and then shows a blank BLACK screen with a mouse cursor. It does not show the login screen. The mouse MOVES and the NUMLOCK light works. Any ideas?


reboot pc...and hit the f8 keyand chose the last good config...We TRIED that, but to no avail. Same symptoms. On a brighter note, it boots properly in safe mode, but this is of no help to us because we still dont know the password.the passwords are listed in the sam file...are you password cracking...

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q314503&ID=KB;EN-US;q314503That was the plan, but now we just want it to boot properly.http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm#How%20to%20Repair%20Windows%20XP%20by%20Installing%20Over%20top%20of%20Existing%20Setup:Passwords are there for a reason.. If you don't know what you're doing, don't even attempt to?From what I understand, you copied the SAM file?  Can you copy it back to the original location?