Not sure what's going on with your user/password problem, but you can make a Mandrake boot disk while in Mandrake that should work fine for you. I can't remember where it is right now, but just look in your menu thoroughly, and you'll find the Mandrake utility for creating a boot disk. Once you have one made, (or two to be safe). Check it by going into BIOS and make sure your boot order has floppy before hard disk. Then reboot with the boot floppy in and see if it works OK. If so, you can then nuke and pave the MBR. I would also make Windows boot disks as well!!
 
On the usr/password problem, run as root:
drakconf [enter]
 
This is your Mandrake Control Panel. Again, I can't remember exactly where it is, but look around in there and you'll see a utility to change users and passwords. Delete the existing users and passwords completely, and create a new user/password. There is also an option in there somewhere that will allow autologin. You may want to enable that until you can get it sorted out.
 

thanks ill try it and get back
 
fun fact: half the time windows doen't boot up with a problem, the other half it won't shut down properly

Is that unusual??

the boot disk worked fine, (after a minute wait) but the autologin did not. i deleated the users i had created and created a new one. The same thing happened i loged in and a second later it automaticly logs out. I turned on autologin and it did the same thing. So the only way i can login to linux is though boot.
 
What a very secure operating system, i can't even login in. Any help?

Please tell me, (step by step), the steps you are taking to log in as a regular user. Let me know what the screen looks like too, whether the "log-in manager" is up or not. Thanks.

incredibly detailed steps of how i boot up:
1. Turn power on
2. wait for a couple of sec till the computer boots up from hda (linux on hdc)
3. From the blue linux menu (possibly lilo) I scroll down using my keyboard to the option “linux” and press [enter]
(the options are linux secure, linux, linux (something), windows, failsafe)
4. I wait until the progress bar finishes and a gray box appears’ surrounded by a blue background
5. in the box there is a: user field, a password field, a login button, a dropdown menu of the interfaces (kde, gnome, window maker, ice wm, and failsafe) and a menu button (only one option: restart X-login)
6. I type in my user name and password (correctly) and the box disappears and the mouse pointer turns into a clock.
7. the screen then goes turns off for a couple of seconds (like when your changing the resolution of your monitor) and then turns on again with a blue screen and that login box again
note: I’ve tried to login with all the interfaces
 
If I login as root, kde starts up and everything’s normal.
If I type the wrong password all that happens is the words “login failed appear”
 

Yes, that is incredibly detailed..
 
I'm not sure what could be causing this problem, except you are somehow either putting in the wrong user name or password, and that doesn't seem to be the case.
 
Are you getting any errors at all? If so, can you post them here?
 
Do you have any compunctions about doing a re-install? Would you have any objections to trying a new distro? I had a pile of trouble with Mandrake 9.2, only exceeded by the problems I had with Mdk 9.1. If a complete re-install of Mdk 9.2 won't help you, you may want to consider Fedora Core 1 which is very stable after all the updates.

thanks dapper dan, ill try that, shivers, no error messages no warning, no nothing

yay linux is up and running, and it only took four installs.
 
ok i think i found the solution... In the installer if i didn't add morethan one user the selection collum for the users dosn't appear in start up
 
thanks for your help dapper dan

<insert mad scientists laughter> it's alive it's alive and it hasn't stalled yet (i'm running six high usage programs)
 
fun fact: i one booted up windows 98 with 6 consecutive stalls the last time it wouldn't start at all

Don't worry about how many installs. It may seem like a pain at first, but the more you do it the more you learn! I think I did about four installs the my first time out with Linux with Mdk 8.2! It's hard to believe how far the Linux desktop has come in just two years!
 
I guess I should have said, if you've got the disk space, install everything! It makes things easier in the long run. Did you put /home on a seperate partition?

yes i did