Windows XP forum: "Windows cannot load the locally stored profile."

Does a new machine do this?

I'm encountering some places that won't repair or replace old machines. They lose even more time trying to reload the OS or search for a software cure when it's just a hardware issue. I can't explain it but I've found it's best to let them season until they are ready to repair the machines.
Bob

After decades of the "PC" you thought there would be better diagnostics but I find it still to lean heavily on repair staff that use past experiences to sniff out what it is.

Your issue sounds familiar with old machines that needed a cleaning or some other repair. But we have folk that can't maintain or clean heatsinks. What to do other than replace the cranky machines?
Bob

It's an older Dell Optiplex GX240 with XP SP3.. It hasn't always had the problem but for the last couple of years, the "Windows cannot load the locally stored profile" has shown up.. The normal user seems to have no issues but when I need to perform maintenance on the machine once a month, IF the computer has been sitting, unused, for a few hours, my attempt to login throws the error. It acts as if the profile is corrupted but a restart fixes it every time.

In my case, since it's a once a month issue, I simply restart the machine and the login then works fine. There have never been any viruses or malware on the computer, so that's not the issue. My guess is that the drivers for the various hardware items have lagged behind and as such, one or more are failing slowly. I've updated a few of the drivers but a few can't be updated as the hardware is no longer available. Eventually, we'll need to replace the computer but till then, we'll live with the minor annoyance and continue to make backups.

Hope this helps.

Grif

...or at least very few do. Software that runs the hardware, yes, but not the hardware itself. But as I've indicated, it's happening to our machine here and it's never had any malware.

Hope this helps.

Grif

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/812339

Is the only thing I have found that works most of the time and the key is Safe Mode.

Create all the new accounts to replace the existing ones but use different account names.

Re boot into the new accounts and use Windows Explorer to browse to C:\ Documents and Settings. Open the new accounts old profile folder and copy all of the sub folders from the old profile to the new profile and allow over writting the current ones.

This specific error is often a result of using "Registry Cleaners" or following advice to change certain file and directory permissions for various reasons.

thank you for providing me such a good information. but windows in very easy to use.