Admin has no privileges, cannot create user account

[A/CPC]

I'm working on a machine that has an admin acct that doesn't seem to have privileges. One issue is that I'm unable to create a user acct **(specified acct name not valid, cannot contain the following characters: **( |[]”:;|<>+=,?*)**

The new user name contains no such characters.

So I enabled the hidden admin acct, which seems to have privileges, but gets the same error when trying to create a new acct.

various virus, malware and rootkit detection utilities don't find anything. Outside of the admin issues and account creation, the system runs fine.

This system is a Dell XPS 410, upgraded to win 7 Pro x64 SP1 from XP.

The owner says a tech did it, and given that he seems to have no techinical knowledge whatsoever, I'm inclined to believe him. Another interesting detail is that Produkey states that the product key can't be found (it is activated).

I checked user accts, and there is an unknown acct. Accounts 1-3 are expected (one is the hidden admin). The guest account is turned off. Screenshot attached.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Larry Sabo]

If it were my problem, I'd start by running Tweaking.com's AIO Windows Repair to reset permissions and tidy up things....after taking an image and checking the hard drive's health.

 

[phaZed]

Another vote for AIO. That usually sets the permissions back for you very well.

 

[A/CPC]

Thanks Larry and Aaron. I did try AIO...no luck. Baffling that even from safe mode, not even the hidden admin acct can create another user.
Progressive images are on ice, so no worries there. Originally, the HD was bad. I had a bit of trouble getting that 1st image, but I was able to get it and restore to the new drive. I'd reinstall if he can get the key. Might a repair install fix this?

 

[nlinecomputers]

Event logs?

 

[A/CPC]

Odd...I decided to create a custom filter to list all events within the last hour and then try to create a new user (still from hidden admin) to see what was logged. Darned if it didn't allow me to create a user! And then I created a user from within the newly created (admin) user acct., and I was able to create one there as well. Oh, and I restored an image to the pre-tweak.com state, so it can't have been that.

But I'm still unable to copy a file from C:\ to the system32 folder. Access denied. And the security tab won't allow changes. The owner's admin user acct is there, but the options are dimmed out. I'm creating another image now (since I can create accts.) and then I'll try AIO to fix permissions again. See what happens.

 

[A/CPC]

I can still now create new users all day long. I can't say why. Also, take ownership is able to restore the admin permissions, so there is that, albeit a bit tedious to use system wide. I'll update.Thanks for the input (and of course, further comments welcome).

 

[carrcomp]

I can still now create new users all day long. I can't say why. Also, take ownership is able to restore the admin permissions, so there is that, albeit a bit tedious to use system wide. I'll update.Thanks for the input (and of course, further comments welcome).

Probably a stupid question but did you fully test the hardware.

Long shot but I've seen issues like this be the hard drive ... and if you restored your backup it would have likely skipped bad sectors.

 

[A/CPC]

Hi carrcomp. Not a stupid question at all. The fact is that the original HD was bad, but the troubles I posted about took place after I replaced it (I ran chkdsk on the newly imaged drive, then did the normal cleanup and optimizing).

I still don't know why the admin can now create users when it couldn't for days. That's a mystery. Nor why the permissions were such a mess. None of the malware I found could have been responsible. But I was able to get permissions straight and it's running like a champ. So, while I don't like open-ended resolutions, I'll be happy to return the machine to its owner in good shape.

Thanks to you and all for your responses. Very much appreciated!

 

[wardoursecure]

Dd you try creating a new user from a command prompt?

 

[A/CPC]

Honestly, I didn't. Meant to, but had so much going on, it slipped my mind. I don't know if it would have been successful, but it's moot now, given that the issue just 'went away'. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Cornerstone Technologies]

What did you use to enable the administrator account?

 

[Deetech]

think it's "net user administrator /active:yes"

 

[A/CPC]

I couldn't enable the hidden admin via an admin user dos prompt. I enabled it in regedit launched from a winre dos prompt.

 

[carrcomp]

Did you get this one solved?

Sounds like you had a bad run with a corrupted OS copy with that old bad drive ... might need to run a repair from a Windows disk at this point.

 

[A/CPC]

Well, not so much 'solved', as the reason why I couldn't create a new user is still unknown. But as mentioned earlier, I did straighten out the permissions mess, and between replacing the bad drive, cleaning, and streamlining the system, it's running great. The owner has it back and is happy. Thanks for checking in.