Windows 10 start-up hanging at desktop screen load after login...

Well, I'm back to where it all started... and baffled.

Last night, before finishing up the troubleshooting session, I figured it would be a good idea to run the disk defrag. This way if there were any bad sectors still floating around, they would be cleaned up. I had her run the defragger. Well, when bed time came around for her (she's 3 hours behind me), she decided to shut off the computer. She did it normally, using the desktop menu option, and I'm presuming that it normally aborted the defrag utility at whatever point it was working.

Well, today when she started up the computer, it's as if the troubleshooting never took place. Square One.

My first thought is, go back to Safe Mode. So I had her select that. But unfortunate upon rebooting, Windows detected a problem and started automatic repair. That failed. Restarting kept triggering the automatic repair, which would fail. Endless loop. So I had her go back to the command prompt and enter "bcdedit /set {default} recoveryenabled No". Rebooted. And unfortunately, Windows was still detecting some problem... just not automatically trying to fix it. Had her go back to the Windows Restore menu and run the "Refresh PC". That didn't help. Then took her to Advanced Options and System Restore. The previous restore from 3/31 was gone and now there's one from 4/4. I had her select that. Attempting to restore it failed.

I was starting to wonder if there was some sector error causing this, so I had her run ChkDsk. It ran... and completed without errors. But rebooting resulted in a failure to start normally.


I'm stuck. Any advice on what I should try next?

Or just buy a new laptop, you can get a basic laptop for $300.

Hi,
This as said is a software issue for sure, since it is working fine in Safe Mode and HDD test also passed. I would suggest you to perform a clean re-installation of OS from the recovery partition. HP laptops comes with inbuilt recovery partition. She can launch it by tapping on F11 as soon as she power on the unit.
(NOTE: OS re-installation will wipe out all the data from the hard drive, so take a backup before proceeding with recovery.)
How to RUN RECOVERY on HP LAPTOP WINDOWS 10 - YouTube

Jaxon said:

Hi,
This as said is a software issue for sure, since it is working fine in Safe Mode and HDD test also passed. I would suggest you to perform a clean re-installation of OS from the recovery partition. HP laptops comes with inbuilt recovery partition. She can launch it by tapping on F11 as soon as she power on the unit.
(NOTE: OS re-installation will wipe out all the data from the hard drive, so take a backup before proceeding with recovery.)
How to RUN RECOVERY on HP LAPTOP WINDOWS 10 - YouTube

Hi Jaxon, there are actually 2 issues... one being the display resolution and now the other being normal boot-up. The latter is definitely a software issue, whereas the former may be hardware.

The recovery is not working. It starts and then fails early on.
At this point, it's looking like Reset PC is the only viable fall-back. If I could be there in person, I'd be able to use the Media Creation Tool and load that from an SD card slot or USB.

"run the "Refresh PC". That didn't help."
I think you went too far to fine tune after you got it to boot and the only issue left was the resolution, Windows defrags itself. What happened with 'Refresh' ? If Refresh didn't work, the files for Windows are corrupted. You can test if Reset works, next.
If not, you need to do an In-place Repair, using Option 4, mounting ISO (only feasible if her internet is good speed, dl=4gb), and only IF you can get to the desktop - Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Lastly, wait until she comes back and use MCT to create a bootable usb (can do this in meantime), change boot order in BIOS, power off, plug in usb and either clean install, wiping everything incl partitions or reinstall basic version of Win10. Good Luck today.

@Jaxon -- it's impossible to switch accounts if boot-up won't even get as far as presenting a login

mrgeek said:

"run the "Refresh PC". That didn't help."
I think you went too far to fine tune after you got it to boot and the only issue left was the resolution, Windows defrags itself. What happened with 'Refresh' ? If Refresh didn't work, the files for Windows are corrupted. You can test if Reset works, next.
If not, you need to do an In-place Repair, using Option 4, mounting ISO (only feasible if her internet is good speed, dl=4gb), and only IF you can get to the desktop - Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade Lastly, wait until she comes back and use MCT to create a bootable usb (can do this in meantime), change boot order in BIOS, power off, plug in usb and either clean install, wiping everything incl partitions or reinstall basic version of Win10. Good Luck today.

I hear you, but I used the built-in defrag utility... no risky 3rd party utility. Windows only does some minor defragging. The utility will manage bad sectors that it comes across. That's what I was hoping to clear up.
At this point, it's too complicated to have her mount an ISO. So I'm afraid any further remote troubleshooting is finished. The laptop is an HP Pavilion G7Z-2200, which I've now learned is close to 7 years old. She's due for a new laptop anyway. I'll have her go to a local store like Best Buy when she's home and get a new one. They may be able to access her hard drive and copy over all her personal files.

Anyway, thank you for all your help!

"I'm afraid any further remote troubleshooting is finished."
I hope she appreciates your hard work.

"They may be able to access her hard drive and copy over all her personal files."

Don't go thru the expense just to access personal files ! Download Khyi's pre-boot rescue disk here (small usb 2gb or > required) - Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Change boot order in BIOS to usb priority. Then you can access all the personal files via File Explorer in the taskbar and copy them over to an external drive to transfer to new computer. There are also some test utilities included too, like rebuild boot mgr, HDD tester, etc.

mrgeek said:

"I'm afraid any further remote troubleshooting is finished."
I hope she appreciates your hard work.
"They may be able to access her hard drive and copy over all her personal files."
Don't go thru the expense just to access personal files ! Download Khyi's pre-boot rescue disk here (small usb 2gb or > required) - Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk
Change boot order in BIOS to usb priority. Then you can access all the personal files via File Explorer in the taskbar and copy them over to an external drive to transfer to new computer. There are also some test utilities included too, like rebuild boot mgr, HDD tester, etc.

Well, somehow, some way, Windows recovered. When she got home, on a lark she decided to try turning it on. The start up display informed her it was busy completing repairs. And somehow it did. She was able to get to her desktop. I was able to access it remotely. The screen resolution on her side is still messed up. She has an external monitor, but misplaced the cable. So I'm seeing if she can purchase one locally and then plug it in. If the display looks fine, then it's all about the connector from the screen to the motherboard.

In any case, I was able to talk her into buying a new laptop. This one has served its useful purpose. I'm going to see about having her get a new external drive too, as her current one is too small.

Anyway, thanks for all of your suggestions on this. I learned some new tricks as well.

"some way, Windows recovered."
So, Windows just needed a vacation, lol ?

"She has an external monitor, but misplaced the cable."
Could also try HDMI to TV, with spare or temp disconnect from cable box.

"I was able to talk her into buying a new laptop."
She'll probably be amazed how much more she can get for the money these days, in memory and drive size. Hope she'll reward you for all your skills and help.