Stuck at Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) after start-up

[Balda]

Hi all!

First of all, let me apologize for any potential typos, misunderstandings or grammar issues that may occur. English is not my first language, though I can understand fully. I will be happy to rephrase or explain anything if necessary.

Also, I have searched the Internet (English & Czech), including this community of course, for the issue I have been encountering with no luck whatsoever. No similar problem entirely met my symptoms.

Problem: My machine won't boot into WIndows normally after startup. After I press the power button to turn on the computer, the system automatically goes into Windows Recovery Environment instead of loading Windows.
How it looks:
1) "F11 System Recovery" message pops up in the left bottom corner of the screen right after turning the PC on
2) HP logo appears and "Please Wait" message with rotating dots - loading sign
3) Clear blue screen appears and a few seconds later, Choose a language and Choose your keyboard layout screens appear)
4) After selection, the following screen follows (just standard WinRE).

If I select to continue to Windows 10, the whole thing starts over ending in the WinRE again. I find myself in a loop unable to proceed to Windows. However, rarely, it lets me proceed to Windows on many tries and everything boots properly. Most of the times it does not and I must find another way to boot into Windows, i.e. entering UEFI from the Troubleshoot screen in WinRE. I make no changes, just enter and leave UEFI Settings and then Windows boots normally every time.

Problem with entering WinRE had very rarely occured in the past (3 times in 3 years maybe), but a simple Continue to Windows button did the trick. Repeatedly it started occuring about a month ago, just a few days after I moved to Finland and started using ethernet cable (RJ45) for Internet access purposes. That might be just a coincidence, but who knows. The problem occurs no matter if the cable is plugged in or not.
Most of the times, Windows booted normally and no WinRE appeared, but when it did, I never found myslef in a loop in the beginning and Windows booted normally just by selecting Continue to Windows, maybe 3 tries were required, tops. This endless loop thing (at least for my nerves - 15 tries don't do the trick) on every single startup has been happening for a week now, so I can definitely say things got much worse. 
Note: When I finally access Windows, it sometimes performs disc checking on startup that I may skip.

Already applied solutions that did not work:

Before I've figured out a way to enter Windows:
1)  Startup repair - after diagnosis it said my PC couldn't be repaired.
2)  Sytem Restore from a past point - never successfully finished the process. I didn't expect that to help anyway though since the restore point was only a day old and the problem had occured earlier as I mentioned above.

After I've figured out a way to enter Windows (entering UEFI)
1) Windows Update to update Windows and all drivers. All drivers are up-to-date according to the HP Support page for my machine. - Necessary restart and update successful, turning off and on leaded back to the loop.

2) Chkdsk to check my hard drive for errors - no problems. Also checking from Properties of the drive > Tools > Check did not return any errors.
3) Executing  Sfc /scannow and dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth commands to find and restore corrupt Win files - some errors found and repaired. Second test completed with no errors.
4) Windows reinstall from ISO created by Media Creation Tool while keeping all the files and settings. Applying updates to the up-to-date 1803 build 17134.320 version.

5) HP Diagnostics Tool to run all possible tests of the system - all passed.
6) Successful BIOS flash to Insyde F.34 (I had cca 10 versions old BIOS. Some changelogs stated system stability fixes and HP recommended the install).
7) HP Assistant Tool to search for updates - updated Wireless Button driver and Bluetooth button driver. Even after a successful installation of both the drivers and restarting, HP Tool keeps finding the same Wireless Button driver update.
😎 Enabling Legacy Support and disabling Secure Boot in UEFI settings. - I experienced just a significantly slower booting, but still leading to the loop. On next startup, I entered Start-up options and tried booting from SSD - no luck, screen was black with a blinking underscore in top left corner forever. I turned the machine off and changed the settings in UEFI back. Never before had I changed anything in BIOS/UEFI.

I am aware of a possible solution through Reset to the defaults, but I would prefer to avoid that. After all, my machine seems to work just fine and passes all possible tests and does not show any signs of malfunction. Of course except booting Windows normally.

Actually, I recently ran into a problem with VLC Media Player and Spotify apps. VLC suddenly keeps restarting a video inside a few milliseconds all over again. Spotify does the same, just does not restart, it keeps skipping songs instead. Again, very quickly, the song does not even start and it gets skipped. This continues forever until I close the apps. I have no idea if that can relate to the main problem, but it is very similar to each other.

What I also find strange, all restarts (executed from Windows) work just fine, the issue seems to appear when turning on the computer after previous shutdown only. Again, that might be a coincidence as well.

Finally, I must stress the ethernet cable again. As I mentioned above, everything started just a few days after I started using the cable. Back at home I always used Wi-Fi. I also ran into another problem regarding network - my computer just won't go to sleep when mobile hotspot is turned on, icssvc prevents it from falling asleep, the screen goes black but the system does not sleep. Any button turns the screen back on. This might be normal though, I am not sure as I never used it before.

Thank you all in advance for any suggestions you might come up with. As I mentioned, I will be happy to rephrase anything or provide you with any further information needed.

[DavidSMP]

A warm welcome to the Hp community. A very good day to you. I will gladly assist here. Your fabulous troubleshooting skills and terrific application are greatly appreciated.

• DId you try running a recovery from HP ordered recovery media?

For now, You've tried all possible steps under the sun. So the only option is to order recovery media from HP and then run a recovery or reinstall Windows on your machine.

This might fix the issue. I will send you a private message to assist you with the next course of action. Check your forum private message box in the upper right corner next to the bell icon. 

Good luck and keep me posted about the developments. If this helps, please mark this as “Accepted Solution” as it will help several others with the same issue and give the post a Kudos for my efforts to help. Thank you and have a great week ahead. 🙂