Hi. I have a 1 1/2 year old Dell Inspiron 1721 laptop.
A week ago, when I boot, I get the regular Vista profile screen. I choose my main one. Enter the password, and the screen goes black with a white, movable cursor. If I hit the power again, I get the sign on screen saying my profile is locked. Eventually, with enough random button pushes, I get into Windows, normally. I even tried System Restore, to no avail.
Any ideas?

Russ

Perhaps you have hardware issues. It doesn't sound like a Windows thing.

I have run virus, spyware, and rootkit software. I have a firewall. Chdsk seems okay. Other ideas?

Russ

Odd one - profile locked ? or do you mean the PC is locked under your log in - if you don't have a password (tut tut :p) you simply click on you and you should be back in.

I'm thinking this could be related to something odd with hibernate/ sleep/ lock/ shutdown options especially when you say "when I hit the power button" as that wakes up Vista.

Can you get in via safe mode ? If so check those settings first.

If that doesn't sort I personally I would do a system repair - full instructions here (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial148.html) just to ensure it's not Vista itself. You'll have to download service pack and update you've downloaded before (unless you've saved them locally).