"Logon Process has failed to create the security options dialog." Error Message

Another thread on this problem has closed. I am adding this in case it
can help someone with the same problem. I have just had 3 days of hell
trying to get my HP dv9500 Notebook working again. (Vista Home Premium
32 bit)

I tried most of the suggestions listed in the other thread although I
could never complete a successful restore to a previous date even though
I tried a dozen times or so from both safe mode and normal windows.

I disabled my PC Tools Spyware Doctor early on. I used Reg Cure to
disable all startup programs. Most attempts to do these things were
aborted when the lock up condition appeared anywhere from 3 to 7 or 8
minutes after power-on - during the procedure. The timing to lock-up
varied each time so I kept trying. I must have hard-stopped my computer
by holding the power switch depressed for 5 seconds or so - at least 50
times and restarted it again trying different ideas.

Finally, during one initial boot, I hit the F11 key which diverted me
to some diagnostic screens before Windows had a chance to start loading
its files. While there I ran a CHKDSK under the virtual DOS service
which took about 2 hours. That process found and corrected numerous
errors on the hard drive.

(I have no idea if one of those errors was causing the windows logon
process to fail or if those disk errors were caused by my many
hard-stops, some combination of or none of the above.)

I tried rebooting normally after that with no expectations that I had
done anything to make things better. However, I've been running without
any problems for about two hours now exercising all my usual programs. I
restarted PC Tools Spyware and ran an Intelliscan which showed no
infections and I have re-enabled Spyware Doctor's Immunization and On
Guard Protection. So far no problem with lock-up or that error message.
I'll keep my fingers crossed and update this thread if the problem
re-appears.

Hope this helps somebody out there as none of the threads I was able to
find offered any clear solutions to this problem. This is a very
insidious and discouraging problem because it effectively prevents you
from using your computer to solve it.

Same message here. Bought a Medion Akoya less then a week ago with Vista Home
Premium preinstalled. Yesterday Vista simply froze less than a minute after
logging in. No CTRL-ALT-DEL worked, couldn't shutdown, programs would not
close. All I got was a repeated black screen with the message "Logon Process
has failed to create the security options dialog.". I have been running XP on
another machine for years and I get the impression that Vista is just another
step away from the originally stable NT. Couldn't find any useful information
in a google search or Microsoft.

I ran CHKDSK which did not find any errors. Ran a virus scan with no results.

I could remove 2 programs that I had installed but it did not make a
difference, Vista keeps freezing after 1-2 minutes.

i'm really confused by this problem because I haven't used my laptop
for a week, it's just been idling running, I occasionally use msn on it
and I watched a dvd, but apart from that it hasn't been used. However
this morning I started getting this problem.

I'm not really that good with computers, i've run a chkdsk and it has
shown errors but I can't work out how to fix them haha... it says "Run
chkdsk with the /F (fix) option to correct these" but i'm not 100% sure
what that means and don't really wanna just start playing around with
it.

incase it helps, the errors it found were -
The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect.
The Volume Bitmap is incorrect.
Windows found problems with the file system.

any help will be much appreciated...

What I meant was I wasn't sure how to do it. I typed in "chkdsk /F" and
it came up with a command asking whether or not I wanted it to correct
these on restart, I typed Y... then restarted and nothing seemed to
happen.

The strange thing is, the laptop seems to run fine, it's only when I
open something like Firefox or msn that it starts running into problems.
I've run the startup repair thing as well and that says it found
problems with the system files, but I'm not sure if it's fixed them
either.

I'll run another chkdsk soon, but what I really need to know, sadly, is
what I need to be typing in to get this sorted. I'm not computer
illiterate, just stuck around the 'cat sat on the mat' sort of level
haha.

Sorry to see you're having this problem. I did allow CHDSK to
correct the errors. That worked for me. I'm not sure but it seems to me
that if important system files have errors that could cause the problem
you see. From watching the "Processes" window in Task Manager I have
found that winlogon process runs continuously. If an important system
file becomes corrupted I suspect that could cause winlogon to hit a bump
in the road.

It's your choice but I wouldn't worry about having CHDSK correct any
errors it finds.

Maybe someone who knows more about that procedure could chime in. I
don't remember exactly what prompts I responded to but I don't remember
doing anything particularly scary at the time. I mean, I was almost
ready to set it down and run my truck over it to put it out of its
misery.

[Phatkow]

I had the same problem with a Dell Studio 1535 with Vista Premium Home edition.

Here is my story:
Symptoms: Regardless of users actions; (1) opening or using an application or (2) if the system sits idle, after approximately 1 to 4 minutes the system will become
Unresponsive and any windows that were currently opened will have “Not Responding” across the menu bar. The mouse pointer icon will get the whirling load icon, although the mouse “may” (not always the case), continue to move, any attempt to open Task Manager to shutdown processes or log off end in failure due to non-responsiveness. At this point the mouse will generally stop functioning as well.

From this point, one of two things may happen:

(1) The machine will freeze in its current state or (2) The screen will go black and display the following message:
Error Box titled: Login process has failed to create the security options dialog - with a dialog message of: Failure - Security Options

In either case, any normal standard attempt to shut down the machine gracefully is not possible and a hard shut down is required to get the machine to respond to user input.

Due to the non-graceful shut down, check disk will usually run (although not all the time) and repair or fix any issues caused by the shut down.

At this point, attempting to logon again only repeats the above scenario above 100% of the time.

Because of the short amount of time that the system is accessible for user input, attempts to diagnose the problem using the windows vista tools have met with limited and frustrating results.

A Pre-boot System Assessment test shows an error:
TEST – Hard Drive – DST Short Test
Test Results: Fail
Error Code 2000-0142

Error Window displays the following:
ERROR CODE: 0142.
Msg: Error Code 2000-0142
Msg: Hard Drive 1 Self Test Unsuccessful. Status: 79

The HDD is a Western Digital (WDC WD3200BEVT-73ZCT1).

Since the machine was only 6 weeks old, I contacted Dell. After spending an hour and a half in chat working on the problem and at the point where they had me attempt to restore to the Factory install, it bombed out. The Dell rep said I had a bad HDD, I tried to resist it but I had to type "You Think?" in the chat window..
My research has indicated that this problem may be related to bad Hard Drives. At least it seems that mine was. In any case they are shipping me a new hard drive and hopefully that will resolve the issue. I'll post back after the new HDD is installed and running for a bit.

My HDD is also Western Digital. My model is:

WD1600BEVS-60RSTO

As a manufacturer myself I know that one always tries to use the same
components in different models of your product when possible. This
allows you to buy them in larger quantities and helps to simplify
inventory and purchasing, etc.

I wonder if there is a single component that is common to different
Western Digital drives that is failing - perhaps a proprietary IC. It
would be interesting to hear from others who have experienced this
problem what the make and model of their Hard Disk drive is. Some have
volunteered that information already and I can't remember anyone naming
other than Western Digital - but I'll go back now and check. It's also
useful to remember that Western Digital supplies very many Hard Drives
to the OEM market - possibly the great majority - so that could just be
a coincidence.

Fixed mine after contacting Medion support. They knew about the issue with
BullGuard virus software having a Vista compatibility problem and recommended
to completely reinstall Vista and all software. I applied some common sense
instead and removed BullGuard. Thanked support for preinstalling software
that should have been better named BullDust or BullS...

Frustrating though is that Vista is freezing and doesn't even allow a
shutdown or killing tasks. Would not happen in Linux.

[tend2kids]

I have a Dell Studio 1735 and have been receiving the the following error message upon start up "Logon Process has failed to create security options dialog". I contacted Dell multiple times and was informed several times that I had a virus and needed to contact pay support for assistant.

I mentioned that I ran virus and spyware scans and nothing was detected. After repeated attempts, I finally convinced them that I did not have a virus.

We ran A Pre-boot System Assessment and received the following error:
TEST – Hard Drive – DST Short Test
Test Results: Fail
Error Code 2000-0142

The Dell Rep had me remove the battery and disconnect the hard drive and then reconnect it. We ran the Pre-boot System Assessment again and received the following error:

TEST – Hard Drive – DST Short Test
Test Results: Fail
Error Code 2000-0146

At this point the Dell rep agreed that this was a hard drive issue and not a virus. They are sending me a new hard drive at no charge.

I believe this will solve the issue, but will post a reply once I have installed the new hard drive.

For what it is worth.
I run McAfee Security with built-in Firewall, Virus Control, etc etc.
and also Lavasoft Ad-aware for Spyware control on a Dell Latitude
Laptop. I had a regular update of Ad-aware a few days ago, and shortly
afterwards the PC slowed right down - painfully slow - and everything
was taking ages. CTL ALT Delete didn't work and it took almost an hour
to get the system monitoring tools up to look at CPU usage etc. Tried
to shutdown and restart but got the dreaded "Logon process has failed to
create the security options dialog ..." pop-up window on a black screen
during the restart. Proceeded on but PC still very slow.
I suspected a clash of Ad-aware and McAfee so I uninstalled McAfee and
then re-installed it from scratch in case ad-aware had screwed some of
the McAfee DLLs, but to no effect.
Restarted again but to no effect.
Finally decided to uninstall ad-aware and rely on McAfee for spyware
control - as soon as I did this and restarted, the PC returned to normal
operations and speed

[southsloper]

I'm going to add my story to this thread because there are several reports of disk errors seemingly having caused the "Logon process has failed to create the security options dialog" error (with all the typical symptoms too - apparently slow computer, seemingly hung up, reboots don't fix, etc - for us (opening Outlook seemed to bring it on quicker, sometimes Chrome or IE8 browsers)). So here's yet another report in the same theme.

The 1st time I ended up backing up all user data (I also had everything backed up on a WHS server) and restoring the system (HP Pavilion DV LT) to factory disk configuration. Worked OK for several months.

The 2nd time, I had noted several corrupt JPG's and disk errors in the System log, so I ended up running SpinRite to check/fix the HD before restoring to Factory. After most of a day (it seemed to spend a LOT of time on one particular area of the disk), it fixed it all up and the LT ran OK for several months. I didn't need to restore the disk to factory as planned. It worked OK for several months, then...

Several days ago my wife complained it was slow and hanging up again. After trying a few restore to checkpoints (something I'd tried before too), I ran SpinRite again and it again found/fixed 2 bad sectors. The data wasn't recoverable and I'm not sure what was affected but did note several apps (Norton 360 v4, Chrome & Opera so far) weren't coming up so I'm reinstalling those as they come up. The LT hasn't done it's expected hanging when rebooted since, although I still need to monitor for another day or so to be sure.

Bottom line -- HD problems seem to be causing the last couple of failures.

[jpro77]

I am getting the same error message, but it started happening after I let a child use my computer. I had to start it back up after the battery died, and I told him to come and get me when it was ready for me to sign on for him. I am thinking that he pushed some buttons or did some typing in the DOS screen as it was booting up. Does this change what the fix would be? His daddy knows computers, and said he would run some diagnostics on it for me this weekend. I just thought it would be helpful to give him some info on it.

I don't know if I can help, as I'm not any sort of techie at the
operating system level.
My problem - as you can see from my post - was cured by removing the
Ad-aware program. I'm assuming it was caused by a clash of spyware
check programs with/without the operating system, since removing one
caused the problem to disappear.
If you look at the thread of others with the same problem, they seem to
have it from two firewalls clashing, or two virus checking programs etc.
Maybe your child started a second virus check program or firewall
program?

[CrashBandits]

Here's yet another possible reason for this issue.
Two days ago my computer began freezing within 15 minutes of boot up. This would happen every time. When I tried to get the Task Manager the screen would go black and I'd get the "Logon Process..." message. Well tonight I got the dreaded blue screen followed by the shut down. When my laptop fired back up I got the Microsoft "unexpected shutdown help screen". It said that my Intel Memory Drivers had stopped working and gave me a link to the Intel site to download new driver updates. I have since installed them and have run without a problem for an hour now. Hope this helps someone.