Black Screen after boot on Envy 4-1030US Ultrabook

[TerryQ]

I should add that after "adding" a new account, when it came back up, I used the contrl-alt-del and selected the button and went to the "Switch User" and it only gave me the original account, Joann.

I'm going to try the second idea you proposed.

[TerryQ]

David,

I wanted to show you a copy of the error that is happening when it does not make the second account.  So I set up for that to happen again.  But on my most recent attempt, the computer froze, but not with a black screen, but rather with a "Windows blue" screen with a progress circle spinning in the middle of the screen.  It has been stuck there for about a half hour.  

I only mention it now because that has not happened before.  A couple of hours ago, when I was doing a reboot trying to get the second account going, when the computer came up, it reported something wrong with the hard drive, and it spent 1 to 2 hours fixing that.

But I still don't have the second account that you think might solve the problem. 

Terry

[TerryQ]

Dave,

I've attached some photos.  As you'll see, I've gotten to the command prompt following your instructions.  But even though I am now there, the system has not allowed me to create another account.  At first I got error messages that sounded like it wasn't the right instructions.  More recently, it is giving me trouble about not having resources.

I also found an option to do a Windows startup repair.  Windows if less hot and humid.

terry

[TerryQ]

That's odd, I thought the photos were uploaded.  Here they are:

error message not enough memorynot enough memoryWindows trying to fix startup

[TerryQ]

David,

Time to summarize status:

I've made several attempts to create a second user account.  The earlier attempts failed to produce the new account, and the message indicated that I was using the a wrong form in the command line.  But I checked it more than once against the form you sent me, and I think I was duplicating that.

The more recent attempts have given the error in shown in the photos above, stating that there was "Not enough memory resources  are available to process this command."   That shows up there even before I enter any command.  That is strange, given that I had just restarted the computer.

Based on this, unless you have an obvious alternative suggestion, I think going in this direction isn't going to work.

The good news is that the method you suggested of holding down the shift key while restarting the computer, not only produced a way to get to the command line, but it also gave some other options.   One of those was something called "Startup Repair," which sounded very relevant to my problem.  I let the computer do that, and it took quite a while with the message shown in the last photo of the set I just posted.   Unfortunately, that failed to fix the problem.  I'll upload a photo showing its message next. 

[TerryQ]

The photo here shows that the Windows Startup Repair failed to work:

Startup repair failed to work

[TerryQ]

David,

The other good news is that using shift while restarting approach you suggested, there are a number of options provided by Windows.  One of those is to apply a Windows system restore point.   I had made a Windows Image backup for her computer in February 2018, and put it on a USB drive.  For a long time, the Windows restore point recovery function in Windows 10 did not work (not just for me, but for all users . . . there is a long discussion about that on the Internet).  

So I think the next step would be to see if I could get that Windows system restore point to work.  Do you agree with that?

If that fails, I have one more tool.  After the Windows Restore point stopped working, I purchased Acronis True Image software and made a system restore with that for her computer at the same time in February.  Acronis is reputed to be very good for this type of recovery, but since I've never tried it before (other than to pull up backups of individual files), I'll have to figure that out.  But at least that is another option.

I wait before I try the restore point options until I hear back from you if you have any other ideas. 

Terry

[TerryQ]

One other possibility.  The restore point was not recognized by the computer.  However, it did recognize a systems image for recovery.  I've never done that before.  Is it risky?

[iomare]

Hi Terry, 

At this point I would try to recover the image you have (is it Windows 10?) I would not worry about if it works or not. The only thing is if you have important personal files on the PC which you do not want to loose? If that is the case you can either remove the hard drive and use a SATA to USB adapter to connect the drive to a different PC to copy the files. Another possibility is to use command prompt (which you were able to reach earlier) and use command xcopy to transfer your personal files to an external drive.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/xcopy

I said above not to worry as you can always perform a clean install of Windows 10 on the PC. I will explain how you can do this.

by downloading media creation tool from Microsoft on different PC, running and creating a bootable pendrive with the OS on it. (there is explanation on the Microsoft web page on how to create the pendrive) Windows will automatically activate once installed and connected to Internet as your digital licence will be recognized by Microsoft., so if prompted during installation just click on "do not have product key"

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

So, insert the pendrive in the PC,  turn off PC by holding power button. Press power button and immediately keep pressing ESC  until startup menu appears and then press F9 and choose the pendrive in boot menu. Once it boots from pendrive follow the procedure to install Windows. Choose custom install and delete all partitions on hard drive and then use the unallocated space to perform the install.  You do not need a product key as it is in the firmware. Windows will automatically activate once installed and connected to internet.

When finished installing allow Windows to completely update and find all or most drivers. You can follow this process by going into settings > Security and update > click on Verify for updates. You might need to reboot a couple of times. Once completely updated you  can go into device manager and see if there are any missing drivers (there will be yellow exclamation mark next to the device). You can find these drivers and software on HP support page for your product or by asking on this forum.

Here is also a good guide. Start from "How to Get Installation Media and Do a Clean Install of Windows 10"

https://www.howtogeek.com/197559/how-to-install-windows-10-on-your-pc/

Let me know,

David

[TerryQ]

Hi Dave,

The Windows on my wife's laptop is Windows 10 64 bit.  I don't think it was a professional version, because I have that on my other two computers, and my recollection is that hers is different . . . maybe a home version.

I mentioned (I think) that I made a system image and a recovery cd for the computer I'm having trouble with, and I have that in hand.  I labeled it as "Recovery Repair Disc Windows 10 64 bit" for my wife's laptop, that was burned on April 15, 2016. 

I have a WindowsImageBackup folder for her computer that was made in Feb of 2018.  Its contents are only about 1/2 megabyte.  All of this was copied from the computer's USB outlet, so shouldn't I be able to do a system recovery into that outlet? 

Am I correct that if I use the recovery repair disk with the system image, that it will not delete data files on the computer? 

I did the command prompt, and could not file her email database files.  (looking for two)  I've forgotten my knowledge of old DOS commands.  Is there a directory command that would allow me to find a file with a particular extension anywhere on the hard drive?

I'm a little nervous about doing a clean windows 10 install.  The Windows 10 I have came from Microsoft when they gave free upgrades.  After doing that, all of my Microsoft Office 2003 continued to work with a few minor exceptions.  I'm agraid if I install Windows 10, I won't be able to get them back on the computer.  

Terry