A Win10 problem

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A customer with a laptop, and what looks like an online upgrade from Win7 to Win 10 in the past year.

I was asked to check a fault with the printer, and having found out the HP software inside was corrupted, removed it to reinstall with the latest suite off the HP site via a USB stick.

The laptop then went into an upgrade of the o/s - which was probably required since it then took the best part of three hours to download and update etc. eventually starting without problem once finished.

The AVG antivirus, installed previously but has never been used, threw up nothing after a full scan but having turned the thing off, now when it is switched on, the desktop screensaver image (of an Indian temple) masks the logon screen (it can be seen briefly if I press 'enter'), but nothing I tried would allow me in.

The following advice is the closest I can find on the official site

Creators update screensaver freezes

but if I can't get into the screensaver in the first place, I would be stuck.

I don't want to go down the safe/win recovery mode unless absolutely necessary, but is it the only option I now have, or is there a two / three button combination in Win 10 that is beyond those normally used that lets me past the locked screen image first ?

Thanks in advance




(The printer software did appear to be working once installed btw, so this is unlikely to have been a cause, it was strange that the laptop went straight into o/s upgrade, though from the time taken, it was needed)
 

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There is a known issue with the recent discovery that for 20 years most cpu processors had a vulnerability, which when patched can cause these exact problems. In particular HP laptops are known to not like the patches and exhibit such symptoms you describe indeed IIRC there is a disclaimer on the HP website
Meltdown and Spectre Intel Processor Vulnerabilities: What You Need to Know - Security News - Trend Micro USA
Meltdown and Spectre Fixes Arrive—But Don't Solve Everything
How to protect your PC from the major Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws

As for getting into the semi locked laptop, I unfortunately do not know of a way based upon what you describe
Are you suggesting that pressing enter does not get you to the login screen?
 
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This is an ACER laptop (model I didn't write down, but it was shipped with Win7 and has 3GB ram as standard). The Meltdown vulnerability was mentioned in one of the releases I saw zip past on the screen as it was updating, but from memory it patched OK and the laptop was able to restart at least twice before this problem occurred, though I am aware the final patch is still in the manufacturers pipeline.

Pressing enter allows a brief view of the login page (user name) behind the desktop image, but it cannot be accessed and disappears immediatey on the release of the button.

What is slightly odd is that the is the Win10 25 character authorisation code is different to the Win 7 authorisation code that is on the official sticker under the case.
 

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Sorry, could not resist :O)

rizQWwQ.jpg


About getting help for tricky w10 problems, try Windows 10 Forums
 

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Just out of interest I did download another piece of HP software for a different copier today, on another laptop, one with Iobit Malware fighter installed.

Even though it was taken from the HP site directly, MF throws up a 'trojan' warning on the .dll installation file.

Yesterdays install did not have MF inside, only AVG virus check, so perhaps the scanner/copier suite is to blame.

Anyone else had warnings flag up with HP downloads ?
 
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I was working on a friend's laptop last week and after various updates none of the Fn keys were working so I had to reinstall the software from the HP site for that model and a message came up advising that they were aware of 'issues' after installing Win10 updates but no more than that.hpwarn.PNG
 
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Simplest way to get past the W10 login when the m/c is like that is to reboot the m/c 3x (IIRC but it could be 2x) times but then switch it OFF very early during the boot sequence - next time you start it up then it automatically boots into Safe Mode and you take it from there semi-manually.
(Successfully used this trick several times after reading all the other various ways you can do it :rolleyes:)

IIRC, that method is about No 6 in the W10 Forum thread - should be No1!
 
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Simplest way to get past the W10 login when the m/c is like that is to reboot the m/c 3x (IIRC but it could be 2x) times but then switch it OFF very early during the boot sequence - next time you start it up then it automatically boots into Safe Mode and you take it from there semi-manually.
(Successfully used this trick several times after reading all the other various ways you can do it :rolleyes:)

IIRC, that method is about No 6 in the W10 Forum thread - should be No1!


Thanks and yes, Im already going through the safe mode options as there is no access in normal start beyond the screen image

I've just completed a system restore, (only one restore point in there) and it has failed with the notice '
System restore failed to extract the original copy of the directory from the restore point,
Source ..........Windows Apps
Destination - AppXstaging
Restore point damaged or was deleted during the restore


So next is going to have to be an advanced recovery method, not good

I did see another icon in safe mode for 'start up' issues, will see if that does anything
 

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Reimage the drive and upgrade it to win7 :D
 

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Reimage the drive and upgrade it to win7 :D

It's not mine, otherwise I would.


Currently the laptop is 'attempting repairs' following a disk error check, but I'm not holding out much hope since I don't think it is hardware related (the original issue was the printer with a 7 year old HP all-in-one suite that has been dragged into the modern age with the upgrade to Win 10. I assume that when the involuntary Win10 upgrade happened yesterday, after I deleted the suite, the new Win 10 version may not have installed correctly, or one of the patches isn't designed to be universal.

Anyhow, after this finishes there is another option in safe mode to roll back to a previous version, though whether that is the earlier Win 10 or not I cannot tell yet.

I do have the .iso Win 10 disc I burned last week here, maybe I should look for a repair option on that first., but really I want to get the customer's folders onto a DVD before trying anything like that. There doesn't seem to be an option to pull files off in safe mode though., So I might have to slave the drive onto this laptop and burn a disc through it.
 

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Next time you boot up in safe mode try running msconfig.
It sounds like a nasty little virus, where they've hidden the start up screen, so that you can't access the login option.
 

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Next time you boot up in safe mode try running msconfig.
It sounds like a nasty little virus, where they've hidden the start up screen, so that you can't access the login option.

Can't run normal mode, I suppose it should be in c:\windows\system32 as per normal ?

A virus is possible of course, but a boot time scan with AVG didn't bring up anything (though I now recall I had to stop it as it was taking far too long)

I'll take out the drive tomorrow morning for the important files and carry out a full AV
 

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I would try Malwarbytes and set it to look for any root kits.

On troubled systems I remove the hard drive and use it as an attached USB drive to my diagnostic computer, (I have a multy connection interface box, it takes ether IDE or SATA type drives) then scan it with Avast and Malware bytes, the combination of the two find all sorts of hidden things that can't be found when the OS is running in the computer.

You can also run recovery software to see if the OS is reparable.
 

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Can't run normal mode, I suppose it should be in c:\windows\system32 as per normal ?

A virus is possible of course, but a boot time scan with AVG didn't bring up anything (though I now recall I had to stop it as it was taking far too long)

I'll take out the drive tomorrow morning for the important files and carry out a full AV

You should be able to run msconfig from Safe Mode, which I thought you could access.

Had one other thought, as I don't run Windows 10, but I have seen it, don't they regularly alter the splash screen image, where you login?
If so the update might have become corrupted, stopping the login option appearing.
If so you should be able to remove the Windows 10 updates, again from Safe Mode, by going into the control panel, and accessing Programs & Features, if this is still an option, in Windows 10.
Hopefully it was one of the updates, that's caused the problem, and by uninstalling it the laptop will boot normally.

I would still check msconfig, to see if anything unusual is running in startup and services.
 

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I've never used malwarebytes, is it so much better than other methods out there ?
 

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I've never used malwarebytes, is it so much better than other methods out there ?
Can't say if it's any better than "other methods" but I routinely install the free version so that I can run that in addition to my normal AV when I have any suspicions that "something" has affected a m/c, and it does sometimes find things that the normal AV does not - but you have got to be careful that you don't sign up for the free trial of the paid-for version as you can only get rid of that by completely uninstalling it and then reinstalling the free version.
 

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Thanks

I have been running the hard drive, slaved onto the main PC here overnight and so far it hasn't thrown up any nasties using AVG and Malware Fighter, though there is still about an hour or so to go. I did mention in the first post whilst AVG had been installed previously in the laptop, it had never been used for scanning the content, only the incoming data from the wireless network.

So many personal files in there though, about 50GBs worth in two partitions.
 

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Can't say if it's any better than "other methods" but I routinely install the free version so that I can run that in addition to my normal AV when I have any suspicions that "something" has affected a m/c, and it does sometimes find things that the normal AV does not - but you have got to be careful that you don't sign up for the free trial of the paid-for version as you can only get rid of that by completely uninstalling it and then reinstalling the free version.


OK I will get a copy online.
From the reviews I read this morning it sounds like it's very much like the original version of AdAware that I used a few years back, brilliant in finding things others couldn't, until they 'improved' it.

Now copying the large amount of personal files to a storage drive with about 50GB spare capacity.......
 

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...the only virus that's making trouble and you'll have to battle with will be the one that was intentionally downloaded, it's called w10 :O)
btw, good that the pc does not boot properly, the virus then not being capable of taking over the machine and transfer tons of personal details to the control lair in Redmond :O)

Usually the 1st course of action is making a complete image of the hd (all partitions incl. hidden boot etc), put the removed hd in a usb box. Run a disk test program on it to eliminate the possibility of physical damage etc. Run the backup program (Reflect!) to a backup hd. Then make the bootable Reflect usb stick, then make a bootable usb Windows installation stick. Then all tools are available, for now and future tasks.

Refit the original hd in the pc, boot it off the windows stick and go trough some of the windows repair routines (with some reading and research about what to do). In case of catastrophies one can boot the pc with the Reflect stick, reload the backup image through usb and start all over with zero harm done. Maybe seem a lot, but compared to all the days and nights passing doing all kinds of things, it's fast with good chance of success. imo.

If no luck and w10 completely destroyed itself with it's update, revert \ restore not available, the only thing to do is a fresh install, then restore as much as possible\needed of important files from the mentionned 50G user files backup. Good luck.
 
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