Stuck in auto repair loop

[madditalian22]

I have some kind of Toshiba laptop. I'll start it up and it will stay on the Toshiba logo for a while. Then I get a blue screen saying something like your PC ran into a problem then the screen goes away. And it starts automatic repair. Then the screen goes black. Then the cycle starts over again. I cant even get to the login screen.

 

[SchizTech]

Which version of Windows is it running?

 

[madditalian22]

8 I think

 

[SchizTech]

OK. We can try booting into the factory recovery utility that came built into the laptop. Is there information on that laptop you want to recover? If so, it may be possible but it will add some complexity to the process.

If you have nothing urgent to get back, try hitting the '0' key on startup to initiate recovery mode.

 

[madditalian22]

Alright I'm giving it a try.

 

[madditalian22]

Its just doing the same repetitive cycle over again as described before 🙁

 

[SchizTech]

Do you have another PC you can use, and a flash drive of at least 4GB capacity?

 

[madditalian22]

Unfortunately not.

 

[SchizTech]

Alright. Well going by the assumption that it's Windows 8 or 8.1 it gets a bit harder to access internal options if the 0 key isn't working (that was the number zero, not O, just to make sure). Microsoft began to address complaints that previous versions of Windows could take a while to boot, and part of the speedup resulted in making it harder to get to startup options. Windows 10 tweaks this by automatically entering a problem solving mode after three failed boots.

In windows 7 you could press F8 to access some troubleshooting options. Technically you still can in 8.x but the window to get in before Windows takes over is much smaller. Before moving on it's worthwhile to try F8 (or holding down SHIFT while pressing F8) on bootup a few times. Just keep pressing it repeatedly until you either get to a different menu, or just recycle again.

If F8 does work, one of it's options should bring up the built in recovery mode (if that's not just broken too): you may see an option "repair this PC" in the menu.

 

[madditalian22]

I've attemptef all these stions multiple times with no results.

 

[SchizTech]

OK, it sounds like you'll need to format the drive and start fresh. You'll need either an install disk or flash drive, which you can make yourself so long as you can use another PC. A copy of Windows 10 can be downloaded from here:

https/www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

The media creation tool in the link can make an installer from either a blank DVD or a flash drive (min 4GB). It can be activated with the key that came with the laptop: if the laptop has a windows 7 sticker on the bottom you can enter that when prompted, and if it came with 8 or higher the key is embedded in the system and Windows will automatically read it.

If you're able to make an installer, pressing F12 at bootup will give you a menu of boot choices from which you can choose the installer created and go through the install process.

If this is too much, or you can't get to another PC, you may need to go to a repair shop.