This was first posted on the win 8.1 forums.

Have a laptop computer I was trying to connet to a wse 2012 r2 evaluation trial.

Having set up the server, I loaded the connection software on to the laptop,  HP G6. This machine has been connected to a windows home server 2011, during the install the reboot has got in to a loop, using "_clintsetup_$ as the user id, and the error message - "The User Profile Service  service failed the sign-in" / User profile cannot be loaded.

Have tried to restore but the clientsetup id is auto-logon and can not get to admin to do a restore.

Have tried to get in to safe mode no way to do so. (have tried the usual tricks from win7 but this not working ie f5 / f8  even stopping the boot process by pressing power switch  to get windows to think it has failed during start up.

Any Ideas.

Hi Peter,

Based on your description, Im a little confused with this issue. Before going further, would you please let me confirm something more?

1. Please let me confirm if the client computer was Windows 8.1?
2. You descript This machine has been connected to a windows home server 2011,. I just understand that you join the client computer to Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials via connector software. Based on this sentence, did you mean the computer was connected to WHS 2011 before connecting to server 2012 r2 essentials? Or anything I misunderstand? Please dont hesitate to let me know.

Please check if you can open a command prompt at boot. Then enable the built-in Administrator, restart the PC, and sign in via Administrator. Meanwhile, please refer to the following KB and check if can help you to solve this issue.

You receive a "The User Profile Service failed the logon error message

If any update, please feel free to let me know.

Hope this helps.

Best regards,

Justin Gu