Boot Device not selected, Desktop Icons greyed out, Chrome wont load

Hi guys,

Returned to my PC to see blank screen reading "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot..."
Restarted into Boot menu, selected the boot drive and started fine. Next startup same issue, however now it continues to boot ok.
But now most of the desktop icons are 'greyed out' except the three that were installed in the past day. They do however continue to work - except Chrome.
Chrome will not launch. Uninstalled and reinstalled. Installation appears to go fine, but Chrome will not open. Other browers (Opera, Edge work as per normal).
Thought I would try a System Restore - selected account, however neither my system password nor Microsoft account password will work so cannot proceed. Have to then reboot, but it goes back to "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device or Insert Boot..."

Have run a scan with Malwarebytes but nothing picked up. My concern is Chrome is my main browser - and chrome not working, intermittent boot issues plus the mysterious 'greyed out' icons may be symptoms of a bigger issue. As can be seen in the pic, only Malwarebytes, Thunderbird & Chrome are not greyed out (these three were all installed in the past day). Windows Pro build 10.0.18362. PC about 2 months old . Stock standard used for my business. Trying to avoid a reinstall which I did about a month ago due to weird issues with screen freezing and mouse lagging which i cold not get rid of.

Check Reliability History to see if there are any flagged entries.If there are,then use lines 1and 2 in 'view tech details' to search for possible solutions.
Run ---sfc /scannow--- and ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth---which should repair any corrupt system files.
If you are still experiencing freezing,look in Device Manager to see if if there are any flags,specifically Display Adapter.

Check the order of the boot drives in the BIOS.

If it's correct, I would run chkdsk /R on the boot drive.

joeandmarg0 said:

Check Reliability History to see if there are any flagged entries.If there are,then use lines 1and 2 in 'view tech details' to search for possible solutions.
Run ---sfc /scannow--- and ---dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth---which should repair any corrupt system files.
If you are still experiencing freezing,look in Device Manager to see if if there are any flags,specifically Display Adapter.

New issues. Cannot get to command prompt as administrator. Type in search - no result other than web. Enter cmd.exe and it opens - but not as administrator. Right click start - no power user options. Under Windows System only option task manager. Device manager can only be accessed via run menu. Search brings up nothing. No conflicts.

Under Reliability History, appears Google helper uninstalled and reinstalled.

I would suggest running System Restore in the Recovery Environment, or in Safe Mode, and roll back to a recent restore point before the issues occurred.

Otherwise, do a repair install using an in-place upgrade.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Turn off Torrents.

OldNavyGuy said:

I would suggest running System Restore in the Recovery Environment, or in Safe Mode, and roll back to a recent restore point before the issues occurred.

Otherwise, do a repair install using an in-place upgrade.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

Turn off Torrents.

Did the in-place upgrade. Deleted and reinstalled Chrome and all appears to be good to go.

Many thanks to you all for you assistance - very much appreciated!