Can’t load Windows after crash, can’t reinstall from Flash Drive

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So me and my 5-year-old son were playing a game on my PC when it froze up. I went to restart it and it turned off, then immediately went into a bootloop for some reason. It would load to the black screen with the Windows logo and the spinning dots. I read on some forums that you needed it to go to Automatic Repair, so I powered it down three times until it said “preparing Automatic Repair” but it would flash a window for a millisecond then go to a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. I did this probably about 10 times from both unplugging the power cable and toggling the power switch to no success (no joking, it was really that many times)

So I accepted my loss and decided that I’d just reinstall Windows from a flash drive (which is how I installed it when I built the machine) and just sacrifice everything to have a functional machine. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and proceeded to boot it from my BIOS and now it’s stuck on a purple screen with a moveable cursor. I’ve tried it from both just the “normal” flash drive and the UFEA partition and both end up in the same place which is the purple screen. So if I try to load it from my SSD I get the black screen, and if I load it from the flash drive I get the purple one.

Now I have essentially an expensive brick in my office that I can’t load anything on nor can I wipe the system clean. Did my SSD fail? Why can’t I reinstall Windows? Why did House Flipper brick my $2,000 PC? I’ve spent over 6 hours trying to fix this and I’m just about ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m attempting to run Windows 10 Pro 64 but and my system specs are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HYpWb8

Thanks for the help!
 
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Hi,

try the following and read from " If you can't boot Windows 10 ". Try using the troubleshoot options or at worst, reset the computer but make sure you click on keep my files (you will lose any non standard apps that aren't from MS!). I hope it helps. :cool:

 
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So me and my 5-year-old son were playing a game on my PC when it froze up. I went to restart it and it turned off, then immediately went into a bootloop for some reason. It would load to the black screen with the Windows logo and the spinning dots. I read on some forums that you needed it to go to Automatic Repair, so I powered it down three times until it said “preparing Automatic Repair” but it would flash a window for a millisecond then go to a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. I did this probably about 10 times from both unplugging the power cable and toggling the power switch to no success (no joking, it was really that many times)

So I accepted my loss and decided that I’d just reinstall Windows from a flash drive (which is how I installed it when I built the machine) and just sacrifice everything to have a functional machine. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and proceeded to boot it from my BIOS and now it’s stuck on a purple screen with a moveable cursor. I’ve tried it from both just the “normal” flash drive and the UFEA partition and both end up in the same place which is the purple screen. So if I try to load it from my SSD I get the black screen, and if I load it from the flash drive I get the purple one.

Now I have essentially an expensive brick in my office that I can’t load anything on nor can I wipe the system clean. Did my SSD fail? Why can’t I reinstall Windows? Why did House Flipper brick my $2,000 PC? I’ve spent over 6 hours trying to fix this and I’m just about ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m attempting to run Windows 10 Pro 64 but and my system specs are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HYpWb8

Thanks for the help!
 
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Try booting from a "Live" linux usb or cd image (iso). A linux distro like Linux Mint or a dedicated Rescue distro like Systemrescuecd (you can boot it from a usb too). You may have to adjust your bios uefi settings.
If your hard drive and computer are ok you should be able to access your files.
 
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First of all don't go off the deep end and 'toss' the PC. Its like a car that needs an alternator or carburetor...you don't toss the car you just fix the part.
If you are comfortable taking the side panel off then look for the CMOS battery it's size is the size of a nickel (CR2032) take it out for about 2 minutes (after the battery is out hold the power button down to discharge capacitors) then put it back in; then reboot to your BIOS settings and reset the clock. You did not mention if you could POST which means be able to go into your BIOS settings. What taking the battery out and putting it back in (replace it if it's old btw) is it resets your BIOS settings to default mode just like it came from the factory.
When you get into your BIOS settings look for Boot mode and select the Windows Boot setting. Not knowing which type of motherboard you have it would be hard to say just where that is on your model but it is there if you come across Legacy & UEFI do select that combination also and always make sure when you Exit the BIOS to select Save Changes and Exit.

This is a preliminary stab at getting to the bottom of that constant loop thing.
 
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If you have another computer I would make a linux live flash drive and boot that then run memtest, it comes with linux mint last time I got it.
While running that got find something to do and check from time to time, depending on the speed and ram of your computer. Bad ram can cause you to boot to the logo and reboot, even during attempts at reinstalling. I have run in to this a few times on used units I bought and the first time I thought it was scrap. Then I had one that worked till I added ram and it started doing the same thing, I swapped the ram and was golden, then I pulled the other from scrap and it was fixed with new ram. If you're like me h=and have boxes of ram, try replacing it.
If it is bad, and crashes and loops, it may fail memtest right off and you won't have to wait, then you pull out all but one and test till you find the one that's bad.
 
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So me and my 5-year-old son were playing a game on my PC when it froze up. I went to restart it and it turned off, then immediately went into a bootloop for some reason. It would load to the black screen with the Windows logo and the spinning dots. I read on some forums that you needed it to go to Automatic Repair, so I powered it down three times until it said “preparing Automatic Repair” but it would flash a window for a millisecond then go to a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. I did this probably about 10 times from both unplugging the power cable and toggling the power switch to no success (no joking, it was really that many times)

So I accepted my loss and decided that I’d just reinstall Windows from a flash drive (which is how I installed it when I built the machine) and just sacrifice everything to have a functional machine. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and proceeded to boot it from my BIOS and now it’s stuck on a purple screen with a moveable cursor. I’ve tried it from both just the “normal” flash drive and the UFEA partition and both end up in the same place which is the purple screen. So if I try to load it from my SSD I get the black screen, and if I load it from the flash drive I get the purple one.

Now I have essentially an expensive brick in my office that I can’t load anything on nor can I wipe the system clean. Did my SSD fail? Why can’t I reinstall Windows? Why did House Flipper brick my $2,000 PC? I’ve spent over 6 hours trying to fix this and I’m just about ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m attempting to run Windows 10 Pro 64 but and my system specs are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HYpWb8

Thanks for the help!

Based on your description, a very real possibility is that the hard drive (HD) that Windows is on (probably your SSD), has died (or has suffered problems in the area where Windows itself is stored). As a PC Technician, I see HD failures often and the symptoms can vary widely, but if the failure occured in the area on the HD where Windows itself is stored, the symptoms are often similar to yours.

The resolution is to replace the HD and re-build Windows. It's not that difficult -- if you've done it before -- but usually is beyond the abilities of the normal computer user. Take the PC to a repair shop, tell them what you've said here and let them do it for you. Significantly cheaper and easier than buying a new PC!

-- Gary Richtmeyer, C&G Computers, Zephyrhills, FL
 
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All the above are going in the right direction. If you can not boot into a USB nor access your BIOS then it very well could be a RAM issue.

I had a issue with a friends PC and found by taking the RAM cards out and swapping slots and booting that he had a bad slot.

Thing is it's all about the process of elimination. If it is the Hard Drive then you still should be able to boot to a USB and to do that you must be able to access your BIOS to make sure you enable USB Boot mode...If you can not access BIOS, then it could possibly be the RAM or RAM slot gone bad...if a slot goes bad and has a card in it it will not Boot.
 
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First before spending a lot of time check your BIOS backup battery. Had this happen to me also,
as soon as battery was replaced. worked fine
 
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said that in Post #7 and agree it could be something very simple like that or even a loose connection.
 
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So me and my 5-year-old son were playing a game on my PC when it froze up. I went to restart it and it turned off, then immediately went into a bootloop for some reason. It would load to the black screen with the Windows logo and the spinning dots. I read on some forums that you needed it to go to Automatic Repair, so I powered it down three times until it said “preparing Automatic Repair” but it would flash a window for a millisecond then go to a black screen with a moveable mouse cursor. I did this probably about 10 times from both unplugging the power cable and toggling the power switch to no success (no joking, it was really that many times)

So I accepted my loss and decided that I’d just reinstall Windows from a flash drive (which is how I installed it when I built the machine) and just sacrifice everything to have a functional machine. I downloaded the Media Creation Tool and proceeded to boot it from my BIOS and now it’s stuck on a purple screen with a moveable cursor. I’ve tried it from both just the “normal” flash drive and the UFEA partition and both end up in the same place which is the purple screen. So if I try to load it from my SSD I get the black screen, and if I load it from the flash drive I get the purple one.

Now I have essentially an expensive brick in my office that I can’t load anything on nor can I wipe the system clean. Did my SSD fail? Why can’t I reinstall Windows? Why did House Flipper brick my $2,000 PC? I’ve spent over 6 hours trying to fix this and I’m just about ready to throw the whole machine out the window. Does anyone have any ideas?

I’m attempting to run Windows 10 Pro 64 but and my system specs are here: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/HYpWb8

Thanks for the help!
 
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Same here.
I am struggling, don't want to take my computer to a repair shop due to COVID, and I definitely do not want to lose the contents of my computer. Thank you for any suggestion, good luck to the two of us, and the many that seem to have this problem.
 
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It wouldn't hurt to go to YouTube, if you can, and present the issue(s) as you see it at least there you'll get mostly hands on advice.
 
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I've had similar problems and have 2 other posts in here about my journey. One thing I can suggest is to buy an external HD case for your SSD and hook it up to another computer to see if you can salvage any of the files on it before you end up with a brick like I did. I was lucky in that I was able to get my files off before some of the suggestions wiped it clean. Then you might try some suggestions I got. It took me a week but I'm almost back to running Pro again. Good luck. :)
 
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Based on your description, a very real possibility is that the hard drive (HD) that Windows is on (probably your SSD), has died (or has suffered problems in the area where Windows itself is stored). As a PC Technician, I see HD failures often and the symptoms can vary widely, but if the failure occured in the area on the HD where Windows itself is stored, the symptoms are often similar to yours.

The resolution is to replace the HD and re-build Windows. It's not that difficult -- if you've done it before -- but usually is beyond the abilities of the normal computer user. Take the PC to a repair shop, tell them what you've said here and let them do it for you. Significantly cheaper and easier than buying a new PC!

-- Gary Richtmeyer, C&G Computers, Zephyrhills, FL
What is the test to the harddrive to know it has failed. l used sfc /scannow from the command prompt and got the response that Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. I have the same problem.
 
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What is the test to the harddrive to know it has failed. l used sfc /scannow from the command prompt and got the response that Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations. I have the same problem.
Navigate to the disk you want to test, if it's an SSD enter the command chkdsk /f /x, if it's an HDD enter the command chkdsk /r /x. You'll need to reboot after chkdsk has completed.

FYI. The /x switch closes all open handles to the drive, that's needed to allow chkdsk to run and it's why you'll have to reboot afterwards. The /f switch tells chkdsk to just check and repair the filesystsem, the /r switch tells chkdsk to check and repair the filesystem and to to search for and replace any bad sectors.
 
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First of all don't go off the deep end and 'toss' the PC. Its like a car that needs an alternator or carburetor...you don't toss the car you just fix the part.
If you are comfortable taking the side panel off then look for the CMOS battery it's size is the size of a nickel (CR2032) take it out for about 2 minutes (after the battery is out hold the power button down to discharge capacitors) then put it back in; then reboot to your BIOS settings and reset the clock. You did not mention if you could POST which means be able to go into your BIOS settings. What taking the battery out and putting it back in (replace it if it's old btw) is it resets your BIOS settings to default mode just like it came from the factory.
When you get into your BIOS settings look for Boot mode and select the Windows Boot setting. Not knowing which type of motherboard you have it would be hard to say just where that is on your model but it is there if you come across Legacy & UEFI do select that combination also and always make sure when you Exit the BIOS to select Save Changes and Exit.

This is a preliminary stab at getting to the bottom of that constant loop thing.
Yes I had the same problem with my reasonable new build, the USB solution did'nt work the recovery CD did'nt work either but a friend commented on the CMOS battery trick and Hey Presto it all came back up, easy to do too.
 

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