Windows 10 Sticking at Welcome Screen Even After Reset?

[LABFE]

The PC was getting stuck at the welcome screen and would not go passed it. I rebooted a couple times, but issue persisted. I checked the HDD smart data and it looked okay. I attempted Startup Repair and it failed. I attempted System Restore and it failed. The customer informed me that the last time that the last time he could log in his antivirus software was running a scan. With these indicators and the customer having his license keys he concurred to proceeding with resetting Windows (Windows 10); electing to "keep personal files" during the reset. The reset completed successfully and I proceeded to install his other software, restarting the PC a couple times during the process. Sure enough just as I thought the job was done I rebooted the PC one more time and back to Windows sticking at the welcome screen with the circles just circling and circling. I did a hard shutdown a couple times to see if the issue would clear, but no and it eventually began running Disk Check.

What say you? I'm thinking that the two most likely possibilities are that malware had infected some of his personal files and now propagated to the new installation of Windows or there's some hardware issue going on.

*Windows 7 was the original OS for the PC and it was upgraded to Windows 10 quite a while back.

 

[LABFE]

Anybody in the helpful mood?

 

[glennd]

safe mode?

 

[LABFE]

safe mode?

Okay, I'm listening. Enter safe mode to see if there is normal functionality? And if so.. I can tell you that the software the customer has installed is MS Office, Quickbooks, and Norton.. all of which have been installed for some time. Only hardware connected is a Bluetooth mouse and a printer via USB.

 

[glennd]

Okay, I'm listening. Enter safe mode to see if there is normal functionality? And if so.. I can tell you that the software the customer has installed is MS Office, Quickbooks, and Norton.. all of which have been installed for some time. Only hardware connected is a Bluetooth mouse and a printer via USB.

Then you know it's a software problem. A driver I'm guessing or a service installed by office or quickbooks or norton or printer or nvidia. If you can get in via safe mode then you'll want to check out the event logs, system, application. If nothing jumps out, set up a clean install via msconfig and reboot. Could also be a dodgy driver installed courtesy of Win 10's unstoppable background updates.

 

[LABFE]

Then you know it's a software problem. A driver I'm guessing or a service installed by office or quickbooks or norton or printer or nvidia. If you can get in via safe mode then you'll want to check out the event logs, system, application. If nothing jumps out, set up a clean install via msconfig and reboot. Could also be a dodgy driver installed courtesy of Win 10's unstoppable background updates.

Okay, thanks for your input. I'll need to dig into this more tomorrow.

 

[cypress]

Safe Mode and check if recent Windows Updates were installed. Especially driver updates. If so remove and reboot going one by one until you can narrow down the issue. Seems to be a conflict that is throwing the PC into a loop. You said you restarted the PC a couple times were updates installing after the reboot?

 

[johnrobert]

System restore via Win 10 boot disk

 

[fincoder]

checked the HDD smart data and it looked okay

This doesn't rule out a HDD problem. You need to run a full surface scan (e.g. Seatools long test).

 

[HFultzjr]

Check the logs and see if it recently did the "Anniversary" Upgrade.
If it did, try and roll back to previous build.
Clone it 1st, in case things go South.

 

[Diggs]

This is where I might use Lazesoft Suite "One Click" boot fix (after the appropriate backups are made). I haven't had a case yet where it didn't reset Win10's boot problems properly. I don't mean to plug their product so much but more and more it has become one of my main tools that is also handling all my drive imaging.

 

[Captain Spaulding]

No point in doing anything software related until you have done a proper scan of the hard disk to rule that out, I've come across lots of computers with bad sectors that will start fine in safe mode but have problems in normal mode.

 

[HFultzjr]

This is where I might use Lazesoft Suite "One Click" boot fix (after the appropriate backups are made). I haven't had a case yet where it didn't reset Win10's boot problems properly. I don't mean to plug their product so much but more and more it has become one of my main tools that is also handling all my drive imaging.

Diggs,
I'm going to have to check that one out. You seem to like it a lot.
Thanks.