I'm in a bit of a panic here! It's 1 PM and I have a crucial meeting at 3 PM, but my desktop gaming rig is stuck in this loop where it says, "something didn't go as planned. No need to worry - undoing changes. Please keep your computer on." This issue came out of nowhere with these long reboots, and now it's perpetually stuck.
To give you the rundown: when I boot up, I see the BIOS screen and am prompted to hit F1. After that, I hit F8, and the only drive available for booting gets scanned and repaired; it reaches 100% complete before showing me the dreaded message again. I've already tried disconnecting unnecessary USBs, like my webcam, to help speed things up.
I'm really worried about getting this fixed before my meeting! Can anyone help me troubleshoot this?
4 Answers
From what you've said, it sounds like the drive with your Windows Boot Manager is visible when you boot. That's a good sign, but you'll need to troubleshoot further if the recovery options aren't working.
You might want to download a boot image from the Hiren's BootCD site. It's a handy tool that can help you check the drive without logging into Windows.
When you see the "Undoing changes" message, try to force shutdown by holding the power button. Do this three times in a row, and on the third boot, you should land at 'Preparing Automatic Repair' and then get access to the Advanced Options. If that doesn't work, you’re probably going to need a Windows setup USB to move forward.
Here are a few quick things you can try:
1. Do a hard restart: hold the power button until it shuts down, then unplug it for about 30 seconds before booting it up again. This can sometimes break the "undoing changes" loop.
2. Force Safe Mode: if you restart your PC 2-3 times while it's showing the Windows logo, you should eventually see the Recovery menu. From there, go to Troubleshoot → Advanced Options → Startup Settings, and select Safe Mode with Networking. If you can get in, at least you'll have some stability for your meeting.
3. Use recovery tools: in the Recovery menu, try running Startup Repair first before moving to Command Prompt to run a chkdsk command (be sure to replace ‘C:’ with the correct drive letter if needed).
Also, what brand of motherboard do you have? Key combos can differ for Safe Mode and Recovery depending on that.
Thanks for the tips! I'll start with the hard shutoff first. I'm using SSD drives, and my motherboard is Asus (it says Tuff Gaming on boot). I’d like to force Safe Mode if I can.
I can't even get into Windows to start that.