Not quite your typical login issue

[LuckyLuke]

Hey everyone!

New to the forums after having the biggest headache of a time trying to search google for a particular login problem when it's just spamming the fresh install login problem. Decided I would send it to the forums. So, I had a Microsoft office update recently and it told me that I needed to install and reboot, I delayed the rebooting for a day or so and the eventually decided to do it last night. Upon waking this morning to boot my PC for work, it took slightly longer than usual. After getting a coffee and it not being on loading screen I began to wonder "why was this taking so long?". After watching for a decent amount of time I realized that it would boot into the login screen after taking a significantly long time to get there. I would type in my password, press enter and then nothing. Literally nothing - just a flash of the password 'bar'. First thing I tried was then to see if maybe I can type it in on the onscreen keyboard. Wasn't able to even get that far - by clicking on the ease of access button, nothing would happen. Repeatedly pressing enter would not do anything either. After sometime (1 min or so), the login screen would freeze and then restart the process (reboot again). Haven't been able to find anything like this so I'm hoping posting this will help me and people with the same problem in the future. Also important to note is that last night The PC rebooted after shutting down and on the reboot I just turned the power off without caring too much. Might have been that?

Otherwise thanks in advance.

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
First of all, what are you using for input devices? Are you using a USB Dongle that supports either a wireless keyboard or mouse or both?
IF so, have you tried substituting a USB wired mouse and or keyboard?
Also, sometimes this behavior is linked to a "language / regional" setting. Do you see a link on the sign-in screen that might support adjusting your input language?
Inside the password box, where you type your password there should be an "eye" icon on the right side of the box, can you click and hold that and confirm that your password is being entered exactly as you are typing it (case sensitive)?
Are you using a Microsoft Account ID or are you using a local computer account to login? Is there a second account on the computer?
IS the account on the sign-in screen the account you would expect to be using? Are you certain that it is asking for a password or is it perhaps asking for a PIN?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
First of all, what are you using for input devices? Are you using a USB Dongle that supports either a wireless keyboard or mouse or both?
IF so, have you tried substituting a USB wired mouse and or keyboard?
Also, sometimes this behavior is linked to a "language / regional" setting. Do you see a link on the sign-in screen that might support adjusting your input language?
Inside the password box, where you type your password there should be an "eye" icon on the right side of the box, can you click and hold that and confirm that your password is being entered exactly as you are typing it (case sensitive)?
Are you using a Microsoft Account ID or are you using a local computer account to login? Is there a second account on the computer?
IS the account on the sign-in screen the account you would expect to be using? Are you certain that it is asking for a password or is it perhaps asking for a PIN?

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I was using a USB dongle for my headset that was connected to a hub (Logitech G930 headset). Everything else is wired. I disconnected it and restarted the PC, nothing different (gets to login screen and then when I type in the password nothing happens. And then it eventually goes black and reboots again). I've been caught with the password using a different keyboard setup before and I've made sure it's not the problem this time. I took out my LAN cable as well to make sure that the problems were local (which I discovered they were). I used the system restore program and the first time it got terminated because there was not enough space. So I decided to go and boot into safe mode and then copy files over from my C-drive (just extra downloads) to an external hard drive. I ran a system restore again and it looked like it was working - I was able to login without the usual error and then it just turned off and repeated the original process. Either way, I am now doing the same thing as it was the most successful attempt. Also, I must add some strange things I found that might identify what the problem is - if I shift-clicked on my power button on the login screen it gave me an option to restart or shut down. But, if I tried type in my password first, then it would only show an empty grey box when clicking (or shift-clicking) on the power button just where the "restart or shut down" button was supposed to be. Very odd.

And when this was confusing me, it asked me to sign-in using a username and password (I am the only user) and it would also have a random picture on the screen before the login screen (think it was a default pic of a mountain or something) on it making me think it was not registering my account at all.

Anyway, giving the system restore another go right now.

 

[Trouble]

Definitely sounds a bit stranger than normal.
Do I understand correctly..... the computer seems to work OK if booted into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking, consistently without exhibiting any of the symptoms you've described?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Definitely sounds a bit stranger than normal.
Do I understand correctly..... the computer seems to work OK if booted into Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking, consistently without exhibiting any of the symptoms you've described?

Yes, that is correct. So in order to boot in safe mode (haven't tried safe mode with networking) I need boot it up to the login page, not type in my password and shift-click the power button to get the PC to boot into options, select the safe mode option and then boot it up again. It will then boot and I can type in my password normally, except it's in safe mode then, so my abilities are limited. Also another thing I've noticed is That it doesn't say my password is incorrect or correct, the little white rectangle just flashes.

 

[Trouble]

Curiouser and curiouser.
That, to me, would suggest that a service, process / program or driver is somehow interfering in normal boot and is not in safe mode boot.
Have you considered perhaps using Safe Mode to configure the computer to "Clean Boot"
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Easily done, easily undone.
Basically you're just disabling all the Startup Items and All non-Microsoft services.
Be sure to check the box to hide Microsoft Services, as you don't want to accidentally disable any of those.

 

[LuckyLuke]

Curiouser and curiouser.
That, to me, would suggest that a service, process / program or driver is somehow interfering in normal boot and is not in safe mode boot.
Have you considered perhaps using Safe Mode to configure the computer to "Clean Boot"
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/929135

Easily done, easily undone.
Basically you're just disabling all the Startup Items and All non-Microsoft services.
Be sure to check the box to hide Microsoft Services, as you don't want to accidentally disable any of those.

Man, this is becoming such a problem - I can't even get into safe mode anymore with the shift click - boot option. And there really isn't anything else I can do to start it in the advanced settings (light blue screen with all the options). I'm stuck. I can send a video if you need.

 

[Trouble]

I can send a video if you need.

Not necessary, I'm pretty sure I know what you mean and it sounds like you have a good idea as to what you're doing.
At any point during the past events, did you happen to add a second account as a member of the local administrators groups, or.....
Perhaps enabled the normally disabled (hidden) administrator account?

Not sure what might have happened that would now have extended the initial problem into now, not being able to boot the system into safe mode or safe mode with networking.

I can't even get into safe mode anymore

What exactly happens when you try?
It sounds a bit like what I thought might have been some third party software or profile issue, might have actually been some Operating System file corruption which is becoming gradually worse.
Do you have any reason to suspect an issue with the physical hard drive in the system?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Not necessary, I'm pretty sure I know what you mean and it sounds like you have a good idea as to what you're doing.
At any point during the past events, did you happen to add a second account as a member of the local administrators groups, or.....
Perhaps enabled the normally disabled (hidden) administrator account?

Not sure what might have happened that would now have extended the initial problem into now, not being able to boot the system into safe mode or safe mode with networking.

What exactly happens when you try?
It sounds a bit like what I thought might have been some third party software or profile issue, might have actually been some Operating System file corruption which is becoming gradually worse.
Do you have any reason to suspect an issue with the physical hard drive in the system?

I an quite confident I didn't mess with any of the settings - in fact the only updates to any main software that seemed a little odd in my mind was the Microsoft office update (maybe it updated the operating files?). Honestly don't have any idea.

Well when I try, my computer kind of "stutters" on the login page. So, if it comes up as my local account login, I am able to type my password in (it won't work at all though), I can change between my 2 regional language keyboard settings, and now I can't even use the power button. I am deciding to download win 10 ISO and then see if I can boot up a repair through a USB.

 

[Trouble]

I am deciding to download win 10 ISO and then see if I can boot up a repair through a USB.

Sounds like a reasonable next step.
You should be able to reach the same Advanced Trouble Shooting tools by using the installation media and sometimes they work better when using them "off-line" like that, then they do when using them from within an Online OS. Startup Repair, System Restore, Startup Setting (to get back into Safe Mode).
Do you have backups of all your critical data?

 

[LuckyLuke]

Yeah, I don't have too many pieces of critical data that isn't saved which is quite lucky. But I'm going to see if I can start in safe mode and copy everything important accross before I try anything permanent. Thanks for your help so far Trouble!