I've had my PC for almost two years, and it's been running smoothly until now. I'm a high school student preparing for finals, so I haven't used my PC much lately—only logged in today to update one of my favorite games. However, when I reach the desktop, nothing loads. Clicking on any app or game makes it briefly appear before it shuts down again. I even tried searching something on Google, but the page just keeps reloading for an hour.
My internet works perfectly fine on other devices, so it's not an issue with the Wi-Fi. Since this is a pre-built PC, I don't have a strong grasp of technical stuff. It's been over 10 hours since I turned it on, and I've attempted several troubleshooting steps: I checked for updates (which wouldn't load), restarted and unplugged the system multiple times, but nothing seems to work. I'm starting to fear there might be an internal problem, but I really have no idea how to check. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
2 Answers
Sounds like it could be a corrupt OS, a virus, or even a failing hard drive. If you can get into Command Prompt, try using the command "shutdown /r /o" to boot into the Windows Recovery options. There, you'll find various recovery settings to try and fix the issue. Only think about reformatting if you're okay with losing your data. If you're unable to access Command Prompt, restarting the PC a few times while Windows is loading might take you to that recovery menu automatically!
You might want to try running some commands to fix any potential issues. Open the command prompt as an administrator (you can search for "cmd" in the start menu, right-click it, and choose "Run as administrator"). Then, type "sfc /scannow" and hit Enter. This checks for corruption in system files. If that doesn't work, you can also run "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" after that. Just make sure to reboot your PC if either of these commands fix anything!
I tried the Scannow command, but it says I need to be an administrator to run it. I'm really lost with all these commands and how to use the Command Prompt.
I can get to the Windows Recovery options, but everything looks really confusing. I seriously have no idea what any of those options mean.