Hey everyone! I've been struggling to boot up my Dell PC running Windows 10 for about a week now. Whenever I power it on, it shows 'Preparing Automatic Repair,' but eventually it just goes to a black screen with only my cursor. I've tried a bunch of things like reseating the RAM, replacing the CMOS battery, resetting the CMOS settings, and even creating bootable USB drives using the Media Creation Tool. However, the Win10 USB just brings me to a blue screen with my cursor, and the Win11 USB gets stuck on a loading screen. Currently, I have Linux Mint running from a USB drive, but I can't connect to the internet since my wireless adapter needs drivers in .exe format, and I don't have an Ethernet cable. I'm looking for any tips on how to get Windows 10 booting again without internet access on Linux, or other ideas in general to resolve the boot issue. Also, I noticed I had installed a few updates right before this all started. Thanks!
4 Answers
Sounds like you might be dealing with a hard drive failure or a corrupted Windows install. Since you can boot Linux Mint, you could try running some hard drive diagnostic tools from there. If you have access to the drive information, check its SMART status. If the drive is failing, that could explain the boot issues. As for Windows PE, it might not work with your older hardware. Trying to run diagnostics from Linux is a good start!
You can't run Windows 11 on that old hardware, so stick with Windows 10 for now. For a more hands-on approach, download a Windows PE version from the Techsupport Live Sessions and create a bootable USB. That should help you troubleshoot better. Also, don’t forget to check if your hard drive is still in good health, as that could be a main culprit.
To get internet on your Linux Mint, just connect your phone to your PC with a USB cable and enable "USB tethering" in your phone's settings. This should give you temporary internet access to download necessary drivers or tools for better diagnostics!
It really sounds like something critical is not right. If Linux Mint is booting up, you should consider backing up any important files from your hard drive just in case. You never know when a drive could completely fail! In case your Windows install is corrupted, you might want to look into a fresh install of Windows 10 after securing your data.
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