am running xp pro and on a cold boot get the following error message

STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error} The session manager initialization system process terminated unexpectedly with a status of 0xc000026c (0x00000000 0x00000000)

after about 4 attempts the pc eventually kicks in

i've had a nosey around via google and found a few things but it don't mean much so i'm really looking for some expert to lead me by the hand and give me the simple solution

any help would be appreciated

:beer:

I would first suspect a change of user security policy, but if you can kick in after a few attempts, then I may suspect a corrupted user account/settings.

HTH

duffy90210 is likely on track see here http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=318666

but if you have GoBack installed this might also be your problem. The solution is to uninstall GoBack then visit the roxio site to see if there are any updates for it before reinstalling.
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316503


BTW when you report that you've poked around and found a few things but they didn't work it would really be helpful if you could tell us what you've tried otherwise we might be simply suggesting things that are known not to work for you.

cheers for the help, i'll give it a try

sorry for being a bit vague in the post
when i say "poked around" i mean that i've done nothing more than have a look at a few google results pages, i've not yet got up the courage to actually try anything through fear of making it worse!!

:beer: