Weird problem. The referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on. Why?

S

sram

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
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Sorry I'm typing this in my smartphone. This is just too weird. I was just using my pc normally when i had a little problem with vmware client workstation. I needed to restart the pc to make sure virtualization is enabled in the bios. I don't restart very often as my pc is very stable. Maybe once a month. Anyways, i got back to the windows login screen, entered the correct password for the only user account i have for this machine, and strangely enough i got the error message you see in the title:

the referenced account is currently locked out and may not be logged on to .

And I'm left with nothing to do. I didn't mess with user account configuration or anything similar so I don't know why such message pops up in my case. This is windows 8 clean installation which i have been using since 2013 with no problems whatsoever.

Now, how can get into windows and unlock my only account? I know there is a deactivated admin account which can be used for such purposes, right? The login screen doesn't allow me to select other users. The pc isn't part of a domain. I just have 3 pc's in a workgroup configuration. It has been some time since i last used recovery cd's or live cd's . I remember there were many types with linux flavors as well. Or maybe a windows 8 installation DVD will suffice?

I have made an image of the bootable drive with macrium reflect probably 8 months ago. I can reload that but I don't want to. This is a stupid problem that i need to fix. I installed so many programs since then with lots of configuration changes and customization. I hate to do that again.

What do you recommend me to do first? Why did this happen in the first place anyways? Too weird.

It is hard to type in a smartphone

Thanks.
 
Was the account a Microsoft account or a local machine account? If MS you would probably have to go to MS to reset the password. If it's local machine you will probably need to use something to gain access to the SAM file and reset/unlock the account (Hiren's boot CD works well for this if you can get to another computer with a CD burner).
 
Sorry I didn't come back. It was actually a local account. And like I said, it just happened with no warning.

Anyways, weird problem is weird. It just came back to work without doing anything! I just came from work and entered the password normally and I was in !!! Why? How? I don't know. Sounds like the account got locked for some reason temporarily. I was lucky that I didn't have actual work to do during the lock out period.

If I go check event viewer, what things should I look for?

Thanks.
 
Strangely enough, the problem is back. If I knew, I wouldn't have restarted. It was to finish itunes update(very marginal). Damn it. I don't know if I'll have to wait few days before it fixes itself again!

This is sickening
 
Check Event Viewer's Security logs for anything that tries to unsuccessfully log into your account.
 
Snowknight26 said:
Check Event Viewer's Security logs for anything that tries to unsuccessfully log into your account.
Click to expand...

I checked the logs, and couldn't find anything last time. I made an updated image last time this happened. I don't know if I should load the image with macrium. I don't think it will have an effect though.

A pc that I can't restart unless I want to lose few days of computer usage. Combersome.
 
So make a second admin account to use to log on and unlock the other account.
 
Okay, the pc came back to life. I checked the logs, I'm not an expert when it comes to event viewer, but this got to have something to do with it.

125os37.jpg


2nib0iq.jpg


So, what's that supposed to mean? It says a user account was locked out. Why? Who did that?

And yeah, I was ganna make another account last time but I didn't thinking that the problem will not come back. I'm creating an account now.
 
Is there another computer on your network with the name "QX9650" ?
its trying to connect to '2700K' with the wrong password, but it looks like the same account name, 'Saoud'
 
dbwillis said:
Is there another computer on your network with the name "QX9650" ?
its trying to connect to '2700K' with the wrong password, but it looks like the same account name, 'Saoud'
Click to expand...

Yes I have another computer with that name and same account name. It has used to have the same password but I changed recently. But, what does that have to do with 2700k account being locked out? And why would QX9650 try to connect to 2700K? I usually access QX9650 from 2700K using remote desktop but not vice versa .

Could it be because of the shared drives?
 
Yes, the other (QX9650) has to 'log on' to the 2700K to access the shared resources, and someplace on the QX9650 machine, it has the old password.
 
After fixing your share issues, change the account lockout policy in the local secpol (or just disable account lockout completely).
 
dbwillis said:
Yes, the other (QX9650) has to 'log on' to the 2700K to access the shared resources, and someplace on the QX9650 machine, it has the old password.
Click to expand...

Biznatch said:
After fixing your share issues, change the account lockout policy in the local secpol (or just disable account lockout completely).
Click to expand...

Wait. I changed the password of the QX9650 user account. The QX9650 system trying to access shared resources from 2700K shouldn't be affected. Anyways, I changed it back now. This is a workgroup, not a domain. What disadvantages could happen from having two systems with the same username and password?

I'll check about account lockout policy
 
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