How to Fix a Non-Booting PC Remotely

My father's Windows 10 Pro PC v1607 build 14393.1715 won't boot and just shows the spinning circle. The computer just suddenly went off whilst using Windows (no BSOD) and hasn't worked since. I'm trying to fix his PC by talking to him from 300 miles away so you can imagine the difficulty! He should have an automatic Reflect full backup to an external drive so I can always recover from that when I next see him in several week's time.

His PC has a Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3 motherboard and SanDisk Extreme Pro SSD system drive.

We have done the following so far via telephone:

1. Entered the BIOS and verified the SSD is connected
2. Booted to the Windows Recovery Screen / Advanced Options and tried the following:

• Automatic Startup Repair - ran but didn't fix the problem
  
• Restore to a restore point a few days ago - ran but didn't fix the problem

I suspect the system disk or boot configuration is corrupted. I next plan to ask him to boot to the command prompt and run some commands including:

• chkdsk c: /f
• sfc / scannow

What other commands can I usefully run from the command prompt to repair his PC? What command prompts do I run to try and fix his UEFI boot configuration?

I've also sent him Kyhi's excellent recovery disk from the forum and could try using the Macrium boot configuration recovery tool. Is there anything else on this disk I should try?

The windows operating system is 1607.
Was there a problem that had prevented a windows upgrade from 1607 to 1703?
Or was this a failure of an automatic upgrade?

Another option is registry repair when in the bootable iso windows advanced troubleshooting menu.

zbook said:

The windows operating system is 1607.
Was there a problem that had prevented a windows upgrade from 1607 to 1703?
Or was this a failure of an automatic upgrade?

I defer updates for a while - I was just about to allow the PC to upgrade before this issue happened.

Are you using the bootable windows 10 iso command prompt: X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe?

What was the method that you had used to prevent upgrades?

dalchina said:

It's the Pro version... so I guess Defer Feature Updates... so whatever happened seems unlikely to be related to upgrade issues. 'Suddenly went off' sounds hardware related, so I wouldn't suggest trying to fix Windows as the first step. And I'd discount thermal cut-out as it should have rebooted if it had been that.

RAM tests, stress tests, disk tests... check out the hardware first.

Thanks. I thought there might also have been a power glitch which corrupted the OS. There is life in the SSD system drive and motherboard since I can boot to the recovery screen and the system restore command apparently completed. I've sent him Kyhi's recovery disk so will test the SSD in a couple of days.

I fear I will have to recover from the Macrium backup when I visit in a few weeks.

zbook said:

Are you using the bootable windows 10 iso command prompt: X:\windows\system32\cmd.exe?

What was the method that you had used to prevent upgrades?

Yes, I plan to use the command prompt under the advanced repair options. Updates are deferred under PC settings and group policy as advised in various posts on the forum.

What is the total RAM in the system? And how many modules?

zbook said:

What is the total RAM in the system? And how many modules?

He has 2x 4GB modules - these "Crucial Ballistix Tactical 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900 C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Kit BLT2CP4G3D1869DT1TX0CEU "

I might run these checks:

chkdsk c: /f
sfc /scannow
bootrec /scanos

Can I run a memory test from the recovery command prompt?

I might also try repairing the boot configuration (UEFI boot & UK build) like this:

diskpart
sel disk 0
list vol - note number with FAT32 (probably 2)
sel vol 2
assign letter = z:
exit
cd /d z:\efi\microsoft\boot
attrib Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD -h -r -s
bootrec /fixboot
ren Z:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD BCD.old
bcdboot c:\Windows /l en-gb /s z: /f ALL