Computer is frozen, won't accept input from keyboard or mouse

Computer is frozen, won't accept input from keyboard or mouse.
I am incapable of obtaining the Windows Version number or any other info.
That is where it is now.

Background: purchased July 3 2019: Shinobee SSD Ultra 8-Core Gaming PC/Multimedia Desktop Computer - FX 8300 8 x 4.20 GHz - AMD Radeon RX 460 2GB DDR5 Graphics - 8GB DDR3-240GB SSD - 500GB HDD - Win10 Pro - CD/DVD±RW - WiFi #6006

Since purchase, computer has crashed on three different occasions that I can remember.
On each occasion, a great many programs were running simultaneously.
I suspect mandatory Win10 updates have been a factor in these crashes.

After latest crash, this is what I tried:

1. Hard reboot, showed only blue MS logo, stuck there. All keys unresponsive.
2. Hard reboot. Blue Logo with "Preparing Automatic Repair". Stuck there doing nothing, all keys and mouse unresponsive.
3. Hard reboot. Stuck on just blue logo again.
4. Hard reboot. Again same results as number 2 above.
5. Workmen in the apartment proceed to idiotically trip the circuit breaker three times in a row. They couldn't speak English, so hard to get them to understand to use another outlet instead.
6. Hard reboot, same results as number 1 again.
7. Hard boot, same as number 2 again.
8 Disconnected DSL cable, removed commercial DVD from drive, hard reboot, back to number 1 again.

This is the second or third time I have gotten stuck on "preparing automatic repair".
Searching a solution, it says "just hard boot three times in a row" but that isn't working this time, as you can see from the list above

I have some kind of USB drive I made for Win10 recovery, but I never bothered to
write down where I got it or what it is named or how to use it. Stupid.
One thing I DO remember is that the instructions stated that the USB drive had to have
a minimum capacity of 16 GB, and I used a brand new empty drive of that size.

Looking at this USB drive, it appears to contain this

Folder named EFI
Folder named sources
Some kind of thing named reagent.

EFI folder contains:

Folder named Boot, which contains "bootx64.efi"

Folder named Microsoft contains:

Folder named Boot
Folder named Recovery


I have tried to use this USB recovery drive to boot.
Somwhere I read I had to hold down Windows key + L, but that doesn't do anything.
The computer ignores it.

Contacted the manufacturer, and I'm scared that their "solution" is going to just wipe out
everything I have stored on my computer. As of the time of this post I
have NOT yet tried the following:

Dear Customer,

We are sorry to hear that the purchased item causes trouble.
It seems that there has been an issue with a Windows update.
Might it be possible to reinstall Windows completely?
You can download the image from this site.

"https://www.microsoft.com/en- us/software-download/windows10 ISO"

Here is a tutorial which will guide you through the steps.

How To Create Windows 10 Installation Disk Or Bootable USB

To boot from DVD/USB you need to press F9 immediately after turning on the device. Than you can choose USB or DVD. Than the Installation starts.
Remove all current partitions and create a new NTFS partition.

You would not need to reinsert the activation key, as the system will activate itself when connected to the internet.

Feel free to contact us for any further requests.

Regards

Shinobee Customer Service


Update: As I wait for someone to answer this forum post, I'm researching.
The damaged machine supposedly has two drives, one SSD, one HD.
I know nothing about the subject of "partitions" but I get the impression that it might be possible to
preserve my personal files by simply putting the OS in a brand new partition on a drive that does not contain my files.

Unfortunately, I really dont' know how to do that.
I think when I've stored things, I haven't chosen where to do that.
I think it force-defaults to the SSD, and I think that is where the OS is installed.
So.....have to install fresh OS on HDD, then move personal files to HDD from SDD.
Then move OS to the now-blank SDD.

I'm afraid I'm going to get confused and mess this all up.

More info: Before the blue logo, with or without message Preparing Automatic Repair"
a large logo appears "6+" and below that something like:

TAB to show Text
DEL to enter Bios
F9 to select boot drive
F12 to enter flasher utilty

None of these keys do anything, and this screen only stays up maybe five seonds, then locked on
Blue windows logo again.

Hi, I'm going to guess the first thing you want to do is make sure you can get a copy of your personal files.

I'm guessing you
a. don't have a backup of your personal files on the PC - or do you?
b. haven't discovered the value of using disk imaging and so don't have any disk image files- if you had a disk image of your PC in a good working state, you could have restored it from that relatively easily.

(The image files also act as a full backup from which you can extract files). E.g. Macrium Reflect free/paid.

What should you do first?

As your PC won't boot, I suggest you create a good live boot disk so you can boot your PC from that rather than the internal disk - assuming other hardware is ok.

Please download the iso file from here:
Downloads - Win14393PESE-X64 - ToolsLib
Description:
Toolkit Item: Kyhi’s Rescue Disk – Win10.Guru

If you have problems with the download failing some people have found using a program called FDM (Free download manager) helps (it's good at resuming interrupted downloads).

Then create a bootable disk from that (burn it to a DVD or see:
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10
Option 2 or Option 3 - but use this iso file (you're not creating a bootable Win 10 install disk!)

Try to get your PC to boot from that - you will need to change the boot priority in your BIOS.

If you can do that, you will have a familiar Win 10 desktop and lots of utilities available and hopefully be able to access your internal disks.

Thank you for your advice.

No, I do not have an ISO of my personal files. I tend to save a lot of material, so it would likely be out of my budget to buy a third party hard drive large enough to store them/back them up.

As stated in the original post, I do already have some sort of USB emergency thing.
I have listed what it says is on it.
I don't know how to use it, or if it is useful to solve this problem.

As stated in the original post, the F keys are not responsive, so I don't understand how I
could follow your suggestion to get into the BIOS to change boot priority.

I will, however, use the link you suggest and try to boot from the media you suggest, then post back.

Update: Page does NOT give the size of Does it HAVE to be on a USB? It won't fit on a 16 GB empty USB, the largest I have!

The page says...."Extract ISO to Fat32 Formatted USB Stick"

What is Fat32, and and how would I format a USB to it?

Evidently I'm going to need SUPER detailed baby-step instructions to use this thing.

Can I put this on a DVD?

download manager) helps (it's good at resuming interrupted downloads).
Then create a bootable disk from that (burn it to a DVD or see:

It should fit on a 16 Gb USB easily- you can burn it to a 4.7Gb DVD...

You can follow either Option 2 or 3 of the tutorial as I said.

What is Fat32

, - Google can help.. you don't really need to know..

Then create a bootable disk from that (burn it to a DVD or see:

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ TUTORIAL ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

It was in my post.....

I tend to save a lot of material, so it would likely be out of my budget to buy a third party hard drive large enough to store them/back them up.

There's good buys on the 'net for 500GB External USB drives for less than $75USD or even less, pocketable/portable. Larger sizes also cheaper than earlier. It seems that as larger drives are introduced the smaller capacity ones get a bit cheaper.

FAT32. NTFS, exFAT and other terms refer to the formatting of a drive. The USB Thumb drives up to 64GB come from the factory as FAT32 [haven't checked 128GB and larger yet], can be used with different Operating Systems, NTFS not so much. A downside to FAT32 is the Windows limit of 32GB partitioning and formatting and FAT32 has a file size limit of 4GB, this is where NTFS and exFAT are better for storing large files of more than 4GB such as movies.

Easiest for you is to burn it to a DVD.

I suggest you ask a friend who is more familiar with this sort of thing to give you a hand. It's a lot to take on first time.

I then tried to put it on a USB, using copy-and-paste, and it won't fit.
I really don't know any of this stuff, need SUPER detailed directions.
What makes logical sense to me is that any type of download, from anywhere, would FIRST ask,
where do you want to store this? Why not download it directly to a USB?

The tutorial IS the 'super detailed' instructions.

A bootable USB drive is NOT a disk with a copy of the iso on it. That's just a data disk. IT WILL NOT BOOT your computer.
To create a bootable flash drive you follow the instructions in the tutorial.