Windows 10 Frozen at spinning dots and windows icon - USB and HDD

Hi All,


First time here but I have been unable to solve this issue today and I can not find any info on google. MY sister was unable to boot her laptop (Dell P55F) today. The bot process gets to the large blue windows 10 icon and there are usually spinning dots below it. In this case the dots spin for about 1/4 of a second, then become frozen in place and nothing happens for many hours after that if the computer is left on. Here are all the things I tried:

-switching bios options. Secure boot on/off, legacy and uefi, processor features disabled, other hardware disabled, etc.
-memtest86 - passed
-all dell diagnostics - passed
-swapped in different RAM - no difference
-booting to USB created using windows media creation tool - also gets to the same place (spinning dots) and freezes. Tried this after removing hard drive and still does not boot. I tried three times with 3 different USB flash drives.
-booting to Linux/Ubuntu USB, works successfully, able to open and browse hard drive and all files.

The part about booting into USB windows not working, but also all of the hardware tests I can think of passing, is really baffling to me! Does anyone else have any other idea I have not thought of?

Appreciate you reading!
Thanks

sona1111 said:

Does anyone else have any other idea I have not thought of?

Is it possible to run Windows in Safe Mode?

F8 during startup does not present any options and I cant boot into any windows 10 so far, so how may I try to access safe mode?

Maybe this guide will help you enter Safe Mode.

Boot into Safe Mode on Windows 10 - Windows 10 Performance Maintenance Tutorials

Hi TrustMe,

The only option in that list without being able to boot into win10 is the "powering off and on to get the advanced option screen" (option 6 here Boot to Advanced Startup Options in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials ) I was never able to bring up that screen.

Besides this, I have only ever tried USBs created with the media creation tool (installation USB) not recovery USB, but I do not have another windows 10 to create recovery USB, is it possible to download it somewhere?

Thanks!

You can get into Advanced Startup Optiions with your media creation USB drive. Just use option 5 in the guide you linked.

Boot from your Win 10 installation USB flash drive
Click next on the first screen to appear
On the bottom left of the next screen, click Repair your Computer
Click on Troubleshoot
Click on Advanced Options.

Hi TrustMe,

As I mentioned in my first post, I can not boot with the Media creation drive. I get to the same screen (Large Blue windows 10 logo with rotating dots) and it freezes the same way. I am not able to have any options before this freeze, unless you know of some special keys I can press to access extra options.

Thank you

Hi simrick,

I have received no further suggestions, and have thus not been able to make any additional progress.

Thank you