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Repair Your Own Computer 

Have you ever had problems with your computer? The black/blue screen after startup, the blue spinning circle, slowness, freezing. I have too and have been able to fix it. I am going to share with you what happened to me recently.

It all began several days ago when I went to start my work from home job. I turned on my computer and was not able to get to the login screen.  The only screen I could see was the Windows screen that has the day and time on it. I restarted the computer, pressed ctrl+alt+delete at the same time, moved my mouse upward on the screen and nothing worked. So using my working laptop and cellphone, I turned to my favorite remedy…Youtube videos. I typed 'can't get to login screen' in the search box and a plethra of items came up. In order for me to help the computer repair itself (yes, the Windows operating system does have the ability to repair itself), I had to find a way to make that occur.

If  you cannot log into Windows, you have to get into the recovery environment (WinRE). The recovery environment is designed to reboot your system, put it back to a previous date where you could login, or recover your data (files) by copying them unto a USB or CD rom. This process is tedious and takes a great deal of time and patience. Most people don't have either the time or the patience to do what I am about to the describe so they take their computer to a repairshop or buy a new one.

In order to get into the recovery environment you have to turn your computer on an off repeatedly three times until you see the words 'automatic repair' on your screen.* This leads to a recovery envirnoment blue screen with various boxes you can click into, like System Repair and System Restore.  The boxes that appear on the blue screen depend on the type of problem you have.  You can also install Windows again using the Reset Windows option. Try each step (box) and see 

if you are able to boot up and log into your pc. If Windows cannot find the recovery environment, the file which allows you to go into the recovery environment, has to be repaired and once repaired you should be able to follow the steps and boot into/log into Windows.  I watched a Youtube video to get to the Reset PC button, only to find out I was not able to reset my computer. None of these fixes worked for me ither. I was not able to login, do system restore or get into safemode.

I relied very heavily on the command prompt to fix my problem. The command prompt is a black box that you can type into to perform functions you would normally do in Windows if you were able to log in, like copy, delete and move directories/files. There is even a notepad to use for typing on and accessing your files. The majority of the articles I read were written assuming the person reading the article could login to their computer. Since I could not log into Windows none of the solutions worked for me. I had to do everything through the command prompt. The command prompt has to be used very carefully. If you type the wrong command, you can do serious damage to your computer. It is very important you become familiar with the command prompt and its' functions before you read any further because the videos and articles in the links are based on the command prompt*. I found the videos extremely helpful. There was terminology in them I did not understand however. When this occurred, I paused the video and looked up the meaning of what I did not understand. 

There are multiple commands that are used within command prompt to repair your computer like chkdsk, sfc /scannow and DISM. I thought by using these commands I could see the login screen.

• The chkdsk (Check Disk) command and its various functions can be used in conjunction with the sfc scannow comand to find and repair errors. This is the command I used every morning, sometimes twice a day. This maybe all you need to do to repair your computer. 

• The sfc /scannow (System File Checker) command will scan your disk for errors and repair them if possible. You can tell the computer what to scan by the specific cammands you choose. After this command is run, close the command prompt and restart your computer. The different commands will appear by typing sfc /scannow /? into the command prompt. The sfc /scannow command can also be run offline. You can try the DISM* command  which stands for Deployment Image Servicing and Management to check the health and restore the health of your computer.  After these commands are run, restart your machine and see if you can bootup/login to Windows. Now these did not work for me. The error message returned "resource protection could not complete the requested operation, or could not repair all the errors." There was also an error message associated with DISM. These error messages can be repaired so the scan can run suuccessfully. 

I had a blue screen after rebooting from the scan command. After watching a video on the blue screen error, I was able to boot into my computer but I still was not able to get to the login screen. So I was back at the screen with the initial problem I started with several days earlier, minus disk errors and what I believed to be malware. Eventhough the computer booted up to the Windows screen more quickly then in the past, there were videos I watched to check for viruses and remove them. When I ran the commands on my screen, it showed the shortcut links were missing. That means apps on my computer were not connected to their corresponding programs, those apps could not be opened in command prompt. From my computer's manufacturer's website it showed the drivers and bios needed updating, which I thought would solve it all. The bios is like the brains of the computer and it needs to be updated from time to time, as new patches and fixes come out. If you want to find what bios version you have, you can either use the command prompt or go thru Windows*. This information was very helpful to me as it helped me learn about the computer so when I went to my computer's manufacturer's website, I knew what I was looking at and why I needed to download it.

Sometimes you need to update the computer's drivers, like graphics in order to boot into Windows or get rid of the blackscreen that you see after booting up. The Windows utility used to install drivers via the command prompt is called pnputil.exe. The utility adds, deletes and updates drivers. The DISM cammand can also be used to install and unistall files. Although I was able to install some drivers, I could not install the bios this way or by using a bootable usb.

The command prompt is used on many computers but some people like to use powershell. Powershell came out with Windows XP and it is expected to replace the command prompt although I still see both options used in Windows PCs.  If you can log into Windows, you can get to both by opening the search box and typing command prompt or powershell*. For command prompt right click on the app and click 'run as administrator' then click yes. A second command prompt window can be opened by typing 'start' (without quotes) when the black box opens and hit the enter key on your keyboard. I am more comfortable with command prompt, but the same results can be achieved in powershell.  

When I rebooted the computer, nothing had changed I still could not get to the login screen.  So I got the bright idea of changing my username and password by the net user command. Thru this process I  discovered my user  name (profile) did not match my computer (host) name and neither were listed under net user.  If  your command prompt does not accept the net user command, you can try the WMIC command.*

In doing research as the days passed, I discovered the reason I could not get to the login screen. When my desktop computer was working I downloaded windows updates*. There is a particular windows update with a bug that changes your login name so you cannot log in, and causes other problems. Although Microsoft is aware of the issue, their updates still cause problems for users but there are workarounds to fix them. If you find that a windows update caused your blue screen or black screen error, you can remove the update at the command prompt in the recovery environment. The windows updates can also be started if they are not working.

Now I was intrigued about all these things I was learning and all these 'aha' moments I was having…..I became determined to change my username and password so I could login. In my pursuit to find a solution the blue screen errors came back. After another few days of what I call "surgery" on my computer, it booted to a thin black screen and I could see flashing behind it. This gave me the impression that it would reboot into the windows screen if I could install the manufacturer's graphics driver. If I could install the graphics driver than I could login into Windows and install the bios update. However when I tried to install the graphics driver, the message came back stating there was not enough space. I moved some files from my hard drive to my usb drive. I still received the not enough disk space error. In my frustration I used the WMIC command to check my computer's status*, and was shown the message that my hard disk was failing. 

I knew there was a problem with my computer because there were folders I could not delete. After several days of trying to delete the folders and inquiring (in a computer group I joined) as to why they could not be deleted, I was informed that those folders were from the operating system* trying to recover data. The folders (found.000, etc. ) are not deletable. I was able to finally delete the folders.

It is a good thing I had a laptop computer with at least 2 usb ports that I could work from. I used this laptop computer to do research, download files and transfer them to my desktop computer where I could copy them using command prompt, if necessary*.

In the end, I thought the best thing to do was to buy a new hard disk, since it was failing*. I took the risk and successfully installed the hard disk myself and installed Windows 10 on my computer. I had help from youtube videos and a friend who talked me thru it. When you are working inside of your desktop computer tower or laptop be extremely careful, any static electricity can fry your computer's motherboard, making your computer unusable (you must be grounded). 

If none of these methods I discribed above work for you, the last resort is to reinstall Windows using the Windows Media Creation Tool on a USB stick or CD rom* 

*Additional Notes:

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At some point during this process, my computer stopped going to automatic repair (turning the computer off three times). I had to use the Windows Media Creation tool to get to the command prompt and click the repair my computer link (See paragraph 16 and click the 'here' link) 

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If you  cannot get into the command prompt, click here.

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The DISM video mentions Powershell. Please see paragraph 9 for an explanation of Powershell.  

If you run the DISM restore health command involving the 'install.wim' file, you may discover your computer does not have an 'install.wim' file but an 'install.esd' file. The two files are the same. They both contain the Windows information for your computer. The 'install.esd' file can be converted into the install.wim' file here. 

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If you want to find the Windows version you have, you can find it using the command prompt. If that  does not work you can try another method using the command prompt. 

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If you cannot log into Windows, you can get into Powershell using the command prompt.

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WMIC command - The Windows Management Instrumentation Command Line (WMIC) can be used to get all the infornation about your computer. The notepad was used in the video. To get to the notepad, type the word 'notepad' (without quotes) after the greater than sign when the command prompt is open and click the enter key on your keyboard. I did not know the notepad could be opened in command prompt, so this really helped me.

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If you would like to download the Windows Updates, clibk here.

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When you are checking your computer's status, if you put a comma after the word status and type the word 'model' (without quotes) after the comma then hit enter, you will see the model of your computer.

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If you receive an error message saying your operating system could not be found click here. 

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If you cannot get into Windows and need to install software using the command prompt, you can do it here.

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I discovered that my hard disk was so small it fit inside of the area containing my computer's hard drive.  

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If you cannot get the Windows Media Creation Tool onto a USB, click here. 

Disclaimer: I learned a lot more about my computer then what is posted here. I am using Windows 10. What I wrote about in the above posting is based on my own experience. You may try what I discuss to repair your computer, but I cannot guarantee that it will work for you. If you would like to keep your computer clean, you can get the cc cleaner software I use. I have owned three desktop computers in my life, the one I am currently using and two others that each lastest 10 years due to my computer repair know-how. The $70 I paid for my hard disk was alot cheaper than the $700 I paid for the computer.  

I sincerely hope reading of my experience and the information I have compiled is able to help you repair your computer, or at the very least gain an understanding of how your computer works. This process would be costly if your computer was taken to a repair shop or you purchased a new one. If you would like to make a donation you may do so here or use cash app $StressFreeU2. 

I would like to thank all of the creators of the videos which I included in the above posting. If it were not for their willingness to share their knowledge, people like myself would really have a problem.  I would also like to thank the great people I met through computer groups and community forums for answering my questions.