Factory reset failure stuck on reboot loop

[Nykol]

I attempted a factory reset on my HP Stream. Its been acting up and no space available even tho nothing additional is installed on it. Each time I try the resetting stalls and errors, and then the computer refuses to boot, stuck in bootloop. I F11 it till menu pops up but I have no idea what my password is to go other routes. I always just put in 4 digit pin. Any ideas? I've been googling for a while and nothing is working yet.

[WAWood]

@Nykol 

You should NOT have done that.

This is NOT a criticism directed at YOU, but I really wish folks would quit routinely doing Factory Resets in attempts to repair an ailing PC. Not only does it rarely fix the PC, if there is an underlying hardware issue with the PC, it will make matters worse by leaving the PC in an unusable state.

The HP Factory Reset function relies critically on the contents of the Recovery partition being intact. If those contents get corrupted, which can happen either due to hard drive failing or due to Win10 Upgrade from an older OS, the reset simply will not work -- and will TRASH the PC in the process.

So, you go from having a SLOW PC, to having NO PC. That's not an improvement.

There are routines we could have linked you to that would have freed up a LOT of space on your drive -- and left your PC intact and working.

The 4-digit PIN is for logging into Windows, are you saying you are getting a password request when you try to get into the BIOS settings?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @Nykol 

Unfortunately if you don't know the Windows password, and there is no space, you can't reset the PC.

But you can make it usable again as follows...

With another working Windows PC, use the media creation tool to create a bootable W10 installation flash drive from the link below.  You will need an 8 GB USB flash drive, and you want to create the 64 bit installation media.

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

Boot from the flash drive, and when you get to the screen that asks 'Where do you want to install Windows,' delete every partition on the hard drive, leaving just one partition of unallocated space.

Click Next, and W10 will install.

After the installation has completed you can install the drivers and available software from the notebook's support page.

[Nykol]

When I get into menu hitting f11 I've tried the trouble shooting and it requires a password. I have no clue what it is. I purchased this laptop over 4 years ago and have lost all paperwork for it with the multiple moves over the years.

[Nykol]

I will have to see if I can find someone to create the USB for me. I have no other computer to this. With Michigan shutting everything down there are no computer stores open to fix these issues.

[Nykol]

This did not work. Any other ideas or is this thing garbage now?? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

It should have worked, so if it didn't work, then either you are not doing something right, and I will assume you did, or the motherboard is shot.

The drive is part of the motherboard, so the motherboard would have to be replaced.

Not worth the expense, IMHO.