I turned on my laptop (yes, again) and it showed a lsass.exe System Error. The box says,

"Security Accounts Manager initialization failed because of the following error: The handle is invalid. Error Status: "0xc0000008. Please click OK to shutdown this system and reboot into Safe Mode, check the event log for more detailed information."

After I click OK, it reboots, and shows me the same message [NOTE: The message comes up before I get to my home screen, so I am not able to do anything]

I have clicked F8, and chosen the "last good configuration" and that did had the same depressing error message.

My laptop is a Compaq Presario 2100, 2.0GHz celeron processor, and 256mb ram.

THANK YOU if you can help me with my problem--I really don't want to reinstall windows again... It will take weeks to get back all the files I had.

Hey Mal,

Let me take a look at your other threads to see get a little background. I'll be back in a few.

TTFN

LGW

Hey Mal,

I'm back. I've read through all of your threads, and I am very upset to see how many of your posts went unanswered during the summer months. My most sincere apologies, and you have my word that it will not happen again.

Regarding the many issues that have come up with your laptop, it all points to malware related problems. At this time, the main thing is to get your lsass.exe file back so we can figure out what is corrupting it.

Since you have the XP CD, and since it is the copy that was installed on your laptop, the Repair installation is the smartest way to go. It will not affect your personal files, and you will not have to reinstall all of your programs the way you did when you did a full installation. Put the XP CD in the drive, and boot up the laptop. When prompted hit any key to boot up from the CD.

At the first screen hit Enter, then your F8 key to accept the license information, then at the next screen, hit R to begin the repair installation. Once it has finished, it will reboot your PC, and you should be able to get in. (The process takes about 10 minutes or so).

Please post back immediately, because I want you to run some scans on your laptop to determine what is causing this problem.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Okay, I tried the repair installation, and it finished, and rebooted.

But the lsass.exe error came up again! And now it looks like it wants to install Windows even though I did a repair installation (in the background, the widows installer is there. And it's already past "collecting information" "dynamic update" and "preparing installation." ).

You know, lsass.exe is really getting on my nerves! It's times like this that I wish I had a mac...

Hey Mal,

Make sure you cancel that installation or you're going to delete all of your stuff.

Can you please try to use the fix that Scouse gave you back in June? Make sure that the XP CD is in your drive, and that D is in fact your CD Rom drive.

Looking forward to your reply,

TTFN

LGW

Nope, that doesn't work either... the command thing has not time to come up before the error does...

I'm about ready to reinstall Windows (again). Or, alteratively, maybe Linux. I don't think Linux has an lsass.exe!