My Computer Locks Up and Won’t Boot. What Do I Do?

⌛ There are a few things to take a look at if your computer locks up and won't boot.

⌛ Computer won't boot
-- Freezing after sign-in can be a sign of a corrupt profile, hard disk error, application error, or malware.
-- Freezing before sign-in but after the Windows logo can be a problem with Windows itself, drivers, or malware.
-- Freeing before the Windows logo but after BIOS messages typically indicates a problem with Windows, drivers, or hardware.
-- “Operating system not found” usually means there’s a USB stick inserted that the system is attempting to boot from.
-- Missing hard disks, BIOS beep codes, and complete silence or inactivity all tend to be hardware related issues.

Chapters
0:00 Computer won't boot
1:10 Freezing after sign-in
1:50 Corrupt user profile
2:40 Freezing before sign-in
3:10 Boot into Safe Mode
3:45 Freezing before the Windows logo
4:45 Operating System? What Operating System?
7:10 BIOS & POST

More Ask Leo!

#askleo #computer #boot

[askleonotenboom]

What happens next depends on how far it got.

[Referee]

I think that having a good, honest, very competent computer repair shop on speed dial for the scenarios described in this post is the best idea. I am in no way shape or form a competent competent computer technician and I am concerned that I would cause more problems if I would try to diagnose and fix my computer that won't boot.

[ionu]

ALWAYS start from the software side vs. hardware. Have found that 98%+ of the time, that is your start-go; 25+ years [Windows 3.1] of playing on that lesson, TYVM.

[davidmartin]

I had this issue and the boot partition was corrupted. Used linux to find the issue. In the end, Replaced the drive and reinstalled.

[waltermitty]

If the initial steps do not resolve the issue, it can be useful to determine whether it is a hardware issue rather than a software issue. One convenient way to do this is to boot from Linux "live" USB flash drive (there is guidance on the Web as to how to create such a live Linux flash drive - and it is pretty simple). If the boot problem or other problem is not manifested when running from the Linux drive, then you can usually rule out the possibility of a hardware issue. There can be exceptions, but they are not common.

[markanderson]

Sometimes it's not a beep some newer motherboards will have built in post diagnostics by light display. Like the MSI b450 motherboard, if there is a hardware issue it will light up.

[mark-skdo]

I was getting a blue screen a few weeks ago when booting into Windows, I used the automatic repair function in Windows recovery mode to fix it. I am a techy so know what I'm doing anyway

[kevseb]

And this is why Geek Squad to fix my computer. I get it.