Computer Disaster! Help needed!

Try this:

1. Start with the computer completely shutdown.
2. Press the Power button.
3. Immediately, start pressing the F8 key once a second until the Advanced Boot Menu appears. ...
4. Press the Up Arrow or Down Arrow key to highlight Safe Mode with Networking, then press Enter.

Safe mode uses minimal drivers and may allow the computer to start properly with limited functionality if it's a software issue.

Neil

Just an observation fwiw that with recent versions of Windows (V8 and up) "Shutdown" and "Restart" are not the same thing.

Shutdown saves/reloads the windows kernel allowing Windows fast boot to operate.

Restart doesn't save the kernel and starts Windows from scratch

In the case of a flakey system it would be best to use Restart.

Hi All

SOD: possible progress! Pressing F2 has brought up the screen! What do I do now please?

You have a PM

Martin

OK, F12 brings up a screen with a diagnostics test. Ran that and initial result is that all is OK!

Running the “thourough test now to see if that is Ok also.

what next?

Martin

If your diagnostics show no hardware faults, then maybe consider re-installing the OS. It may have corrupted files. If you have access to another PC, then Windows 8.1 disc image can be downloaded to a USB stick from the Microsoft website, your current licence will be legit. for installation.

An alternative for you would be to install Windows 10 by downloading the Windows Media Creation Tool, again from Microsoft.

Although the period for this free upgrade is nominally finished, it's widely reported that MS are still allowing it for W7 and W8. That way you get a better, fully supported system for free.

Edited By Clive Brown 1 on 24/08/2020 10:36:15

Martin, the best place to start is to get into the Windows recovery environment. Neil Wyatt outlined the standard way of accessing it, but if you can't get into it by using the keyboard during the boot process (and with FastBoot enabled, you really can't), then you can do it by interrupting the startup process 3 times.

When your system is booting, press and hold the reset button on your computer until it restarts. Do that 3 times, and the 4th time just leave it to boot. It should show you a screen with the words 'Preparing Automatic Repair'.

You should then see a screen with Automatic Repair across the top and a couple of buttons: Restart and Advanced Options.

Click Advanced Options, then click Troubleshoot. From there you will have a few options that you can try such as System Restore (if you have a previously saved restore point), System Image recovery (if you have a system backup), Startup Repair, Startup Settings, and Command prompt. I'm kinda doing this from memory so forgive me if I'm missing anything.

What I would recommend is to try the options in this order:

Startup Repair - If that doesn't work (sometimes it does, usually it doesn't), you'll need to get back to the Automatic repair Screen again and try another one.

System Restore - if you don't tinker with your computer much, you should have some restore points. Chose this option, then select the most recent restore point. You may have to repair/reinstall any applications that were added after the last restore point.

Startup Settings - this will let you try booting into safe mode. There are a few options, but I'd suggest safe mode no networking, and at the very least back up your important files. You can recover them anyway even if Windows is completely toast, but this will make you feel better and is a nice, easy option.;

If startup repair or system restore don't work, there are other things to try but they're a little more involved. If you get back to use with an update after trying them, we can move on to other things if you're still having issues

He should be able to as long as he does a reboot (and not a shutdown) since then the fastboot doesn't operate. See above.

When you say a green screen with only your cursor, was your original desktop green? I mean, could it be the desktop with no icons? If so it may be a problem with Explorer.exe. This happened to me last year. As the computer was on a work network, I was able to connect via a share to the hard disk and backup everything. Unfortunately, none of the repair or reinstall Windows options worked and eventually I had to reformat the disk and reinstall everything.

Another thought, does control-alt-delete bring up a menu with TaskManager on it?

Edited By Noel Murphy on 24/08/2020 15:00:13

Frances,

sorry about ur friend.......all the nice ones go early.....

lost a few good friends recently but managed to buy most of their tools....

only today I used some gear and brings a lump to your throat....memories....

I hope someone will remember me.....hahaha...for good reasons....

take care.......

Noel, original desktop background image was a photo of mine, this comes up briefly before going to the green scree as explained in opening post.

My neighbours son who is a MicroSoft software guy is taking a look at it for me this evening, lucky he is visiting for a few days!

will update what happens.

Cheers, Martin

Hi All,

Back up and running with all new Windows 10 system. Trouble was something to do with Outlook 2013 which had been flaky for a while. This had somehow corrupted something on the HDD stopping a full start up.

The actual computer showed up as 100% OK on testing.

Took just over 5hours to sort out and a medium pile of £10 notes for his trouble!

Worth every penny, all files were back as they should be and now my printer even prints remotely which it never did before!

Many thanks to all for the great help on this.

Regards, Martin