J
JohnDeM
After updating Windows 10 on my Dell 5404 laptop PC with SSD with the 20H2 October Update, the PC continually restarts. Just when the Windows desktop background picture begins to paint, the PC restarts. This cycle does not end and occurs in rapid fashion. The only way I can stop it is by doing a hard stop by holding down the power button for 10 seconds. After two times of doing a hard stop, I get a blue 'Recovery' screen. On it, I have tried the F1 option to go to the 'Recovery Environment', but it just repaints the same screen. The F8 option takes me to a page titled 'Startup Settings'. I tried the F4 option there to boot to 'Safe Mode'. That yields a black screen with a mouse pointer. I can move the mouse, but nothing else works, even ctrl-alt-delete. After several minutes when nothing happens, I hit the power button again and I briefly see 'Hibernating' flash on the screen before the PC shuts down. I then turn the PC back on and a blue screen appears with 'Windows is resuming' on it and circling dots are above the message. This status and picture never ends. After several minutes, I have to do another hard stop. As soon as I hit the power button, 'Hibernating' appears quickly on the screen before the PC again shuts down. Even the back-to-back hard power offs do not break this cycle.
To break this cycle, I hit the F12 key when the Dell logo appears when starting the PC and that permits me to see a boot menu. When I choose the 'Windows Boot Manager', it starts the 'Windows is resuming' cycle. When I choose the 'Diagnostics' option, the hardware tests all pass. When I insert a bootable copy of Windows 10 on a USB thumb drive and choose the 'Boot by USB' option, I get the 'Windows Setup' screen where I hit the 'Next' button and then choose the 'Repair your computer' button. From there, I can choose the
- 'Turn off your PC' or
- 'Troubleshoot'.
If I choose 'Troubleshoot', it gives me a new page titled 'Advanced options' with five options:
- 'Startup Repair',
- 'Command Prompt',
- 'Uninstall Updates' provides two options,
- 'System Restore', and
- 'System Image Recovery'.
The 'Startup Repair' gives me a message stating that 'Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC', and I can choose 'Shut down' or 'Advanced options'. I choose the 'Advanced options', and 'Troubleshoot'. I then tried the 'Uninstall Updates' option and that lists two more options 'Uninstall latest quality update' and 'Uninstall latest feature update'.
The 'Uninstall latest quality update' gives me a message 'We ran into a problem and won't be able to uninstall the latest quality update of Windows'.
The 'Uninstall latest feature update' gives me a message' gives me the same error message, but adds 'Try resetting your PC instead'.
The 'System Restore' option produces a pop-up window 'System Restore To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore. Restart the computer, select an operating system, and then select System Restore. Close'. That is not possible to do.
I did not try the 'System Image Recovery' option as I do not have a recovery image.
When I choose the 'Command Prompt' option, I get an elevated command prompt window. I ran a 'chkdsk c: /f' and saw three 'Deleted corrupt file record segment' and seven 'Deleting index entry . . .' messages. I then saw a 'Windows has made corrections to the file system. No further action is required.' I then ran 'SFC /scannow' and it displayed 'Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.' I then rebooted and got back into the Windows restart cycle as soon as the desktop background picture painted.
From the 'Command Prompt' in a subsequent restart, I rebuilt the boot record in the EFI partition, restarted and no progress.
From my last attempt to get a good working Windows 10 environment, I booted from a Windows 10 installation USB thumb drive. I chose the 'Install Now', I accepted the license terms, clicked on 'Next', and chose the 'Upgrade: Install Windows and keep files, settings, and applications' option. That yielded a 'Compatibility report' pop-up with 'The upgrade option isn't available if you start your computer using Windows installation media.' Since I can't run this from the Windows environment, I do not know else to try.
Suggestions are appreciated.
Continue reading...
To break this cycle, I hit the F12 key when the Dell logo appears when starting the PC and that permits me to see a boot menu. When I choose the 'Windows Boot Manager', it starts the 'Windows is resuming' cycle. When I choose the 'Diagnostics' option, the hardware tests all pass. When I insert a bootable copy of Windows 10 on a USB thumb drive and choose the 'Boot by USB' option, I get the 'Windows Setup' screen where I hit the 'Next' button and then choose the 'Repair your computer' button. From there, I can choose the
- 'Turn off your PC' or
- 'Troubleshoot'.
If I choose 'Troubleshoot', it gives me a new page titled 'Advanced options' with five options:
- 'Startup Repair',
- 'Command Prompt',
- 'Uninstall Updates' provides two options,
- 'System Restore', and
- 'System Image Recovery'.
The 'Startup Repair' gives me a message stating that 'Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC', and I can choose 'Shut down' or 'Advanced options'. I choose the 'Advanced options', and 'Troubleshoot'. I then tried the 'Uninstall Updates' option and that lists two more options 'Uninstall latest quality update' and 'Uninstall latest feature update'.
The 'Uninstall latest quality update' gives me a message 'We ran into a problem and won't be able to uninstall the latest quality update of Windows'.
The 'Uninstall latest feature update' gives me a message' gives me the same error message, but adds 'Try resetting your PC instead'.
The 'System Restore' option produces a pop-up window 'System Restore To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore. Restart the computer, select an operating system, and then select System Restore. Close'. That is not possible to do.
I did not try the 'System Image Recovery' option as I do not have a recovery image.
When I choose the 'Command Prompt' option, I get an elevated command prompt window. I ran a 'chkdsk c: /f' and saw three 'Deleted corrupt file record segment' and seven 'Deleting index entry . . .' messages. I then saw a 'Windows has made corrections to the file system. No further action is required.' I then ran 'SFC /scannow' and it displayed 'Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation.' I then rebooted and got back into the Windows restart cycle as soon as the desktop background picture painted.
From the 'Command Prompt' in a subsequent restart, I rebuilt the boot record in the EFI partition, restarted and no progress.
From my last attempt to get a good working Windows 10 environment, I booted from a Windows 10 installation USB thumb drive. I chose the 'Install Now', I accepted the license terms, clicked on 'Next', and chose the 'Upgrade: Install Windows and keep files, settings, and applications' option. That yielded a 'Compatibility report' pop-up with 'The upgrade option isn't available if you start your computer using Windows installation media.' Since I can't run this from the Windows environment, I do not know else to try.
Suggestions are appreciated.
Continue reading...