Problems logging into Windows 10 RPC Server Unavailable

faastlane · 17 Aug 2018

Hi all,
My son has a Lenovo ideapad 110 running Windows 10 which he uses mostly to play Minecraft. He had a friend round the other day & they were messing around with the laptop. Now he cannot login to Windows (RPC Server unavailable displayed on blue screen). In addition to this we cannot power the laptop down or get anywhere past the login screen. I am by no means an expert in these things & I am struggling to help him. We would both be happy enough to reinstall Windows at this stage even if he loses all his data & has to start again. If someone could give me an idiots guide as to how to do this it would be very much appreciated!!!

dalchina · 17 Aug 2018

Hi, unfortunate. From the sound of it a clean install is the most straightforward approach for several reasons as you can imagine.

First, it would actually be useful to know the build of Windows currently installed- why? The current build has a reputation for being problematic, so if for some reason, the PC was running an earlier build ok but doesn't run 1803, we know where we are.

You can get to the login screen, so please try clicking the power button bottom right, then SHIFT + left click Restart.
Navigate through the prompts and a restart to Safe Mode.

If unsure, there are tutorials with pictures in the Tutorial section, and plenty of guides on the internet.

If you can get to Safe Mode, you can then relatively easily rescue any data - copy it to a USB disk for example.
(If not and you need to recover data, there are other ways).

Now to discover the Windows build,
Windows key + R, winver

Note the 2 build numbers and post them.
If the build is 1803, that's the latest build and you can proceed when ready.

If it's an earlier build then you have two options:
- install the same build (I can tell you how to get the appropriate iso)
or
- try installing build 1803 and see how it goes.

Clean installation
This will result in all partitions related to windows being deleted, and all data in them being lost.

Clean Install Windows 10

Note; to do this you need (as per links in tutorial):
- a bootable Win 10 installation medium - e.g. flash drive or external USB disk - or a DVD if the laptop has a DVD drive

You will need to be able to boot the laptop from that medium.

How do you prepare for such a catastrophe? And give yourself a way to recover to a previous working state relatively quickly and painlessly?
We constantly urge users to use disk imaging routinely. E.g. Marium Reflect (free) + large external disk for disk image set storage.

Disk images are (typically) compressed copies of the used parts of the selected partitions. M Reflect can automatically select all the partitions needed to image and so restore Windows. Any disk can be imaged.

faastlane · 17 Aug 2018

Hi dalchina,
Many thanks for all the info. Unfortunately I still cannot start in safe mode. Shift + restart informs me that "other users may lose their data" & when I click on "restart anyway" (with & without pressing shift) it just returns me to the login screen. If I wait until the power dies and try to restart from there would this be likely to make a difference?

Ztruker · 17 Aug 2018

Did the Lenovo come with Windows 10? If so, use the Onekey Recovery System.
See here: https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/f...pad-26226.html

Step 1

Turn off the computer and press the Novo button, located to the left of the power button on the front of the PC.

Step 2

Select "Lenovo OneKey Recovery System" using the directional keys and then press "Enter" to boot into the recovery environment.

Step 3

Click "OneKey Recovery," select "Restore From Initial Backup" and then click "Next."

Step 4

Click "Start" and choose "Yes" at each prompt to reset the Lenovo IdeaPad to its factory default condition.

faastlane · 18 Aug 2018

Many thanks to you both. I located the Novo button which when pressed gave me the option of starting normally. tried this & everything seems to be working as it should. We will now take the advice given & go with the disk imaging so as to hopefully make events less stressful in the future should problems occur. Once again, many thanks you have made a 10 year old & his dad very happy!!

zbook · 18 Aug 2018

When the disk imaging is performed it will record at that moment in time and then perform incremental updates per the settings chosen.

The best time to create a recovery image is immediately after clean install, installation of computer manufacturer and component manufacturer drivers. You can also install applications and files. Then this image is saved on another drive or in the cloud. If there is malware, an operating system or registry failure, failure to boot, etc. you can be back and running quickly with a restore.

Sometimes the operating system can become corrupted and cannot be fixed on the incremental image. In these cases the backup image cannot be used without problems.

So none of the backup methods are perfect but knowing the pro and con of each is important.

Before you make an image perform some basic steps to make sure that the operating system and drive file system are ok:
1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
a) sfc /scannow
b) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
c) chkdsk /scan
d) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

2) After the above steps create a brand new restore point
Create System Restore Point in Windows 10