Windows 10: No login prompt appears so can’t access computer, otherwise boot is ok says diagnostics...

This is a long post that I’m copying from my other post on the Alienware forum. It includes “updates” as I worked through things but no dice. tl;dr = login prompt is not there anymore. Safe mode boots ok. All diagnostics come back clean. Tried win recovery startup fix, ran once for 3 hours but no fix. Now won’t run.

Read on for ALL the details on everything I’ve done...

Laptop is Alienware m15 and about 6 months old. Running Win 10. Did not update with feb 11 update but my computer does do automatics like once a week- so it may have done it on its own and that may be the issue.

This morning my laptop began giving me trouble as it had seemed to turn itself on last night and restart on its own- I had left it "asleep" over night. This morning when I opened the lid it was on and had at some point turned off and back on because it was at the login screen that is supposed to be when you boot up. Except the prompt to login and my user information were not there- just the wifi, ease of access, and power buttons in the corner. The background screen was my same login screen splash as usual but fans running loudly.

I tried typing in my password anyway and pressing enter, but nothing changed. I tried pressing ctrl+alt+delete but nothing changed. I tried typing ctrl+r but nothing changed. The computer was not frozen- I could use mouse and click... but fans were on MAX running speeds. I selected restart from the power options at the bottom.

No change after a restart, so I powered it down completely. No change upon that restart. I tried again with my headphones, mouse USB, and charger unplugged but still would get to the same login screen with no prompt. I tried to follow online instructions to force a safe mode boot by holding "shift" while restarting but it seemed to be a normal boot and got me to the same no-prompt-login screen. The fans run extremely high and constantly on that screen, it's like the computer is trying really hard. No amount of waiting changes the fan's intensity or makes the prompt appear.

After that, I turned the computer off and turned it on with the power button. A few seconds into the boot, I turned it off again with the power button. I did that twice to force SupportAssist to wake up and it began running a hardware scan automatically. It said it had no problems and began running OS Recovery.

SupportAssist OS Recovery (v4.4.1.9851) said it detected a failure during system startup (description: OS_BOOT_FAILURE) and let me click "repair now." It then began "scanning for potential issues" and said no issues detected. It asked me to back up and restore, but I did not want to back it up when I knew there were issues happening at boot. So I clicked "exit" and went to the main page of the support assist os recovery tool. I clicked "Repair System" and ran two scans, both said no issues detected.

At that point I moved from SupportAssist to the Windows Recovery Environment. In that program I chose "Troubleshoot" and then "Startup Repair." It launched into that and spent a LONG time "attempting repairs." I waited 45 minutes but it did not change the screen from attempting repairs so I went away to work. I came back about 3 hours later and it had finished attempting repairs because the screen was black as if it had been on for a while. I wiggled the trackpad and it woke the screen up, but was AGAIN ON THE LOGIN PAGE WITH NO PROMPT!!!

So then I turned the computer off and on again and went into BIOS and everything appeared to be normal with hardware and such. Then I followed the instructions in a post on Alienware forum to press f12 and ran a PSA/Diagnostic test from the boot menu. I did notice that in that prompt it told me that Secure Boot was "on."

The first ePSA test said "Testing completed. One or more errors were detected." (I knew that I had skipped the charger diagnostic because it was unplugged, however the system health page confirmed that my charger was functioning normally) but when I went into the results pages, it said that everything on the test passed and did not tell me what the errors were. The event log showed one error that I didn't write down the full name of, but was listed as DIAG... did not think to write it down.

UPDATE: The PSA fail was error 2000:8135, validate code 121197. Charger could not be detected... but I skipped that test intentionally because I did not have my laptop plugged in. The other PSA test was a pass with validate code 71529.

I then went back to the diagnostic page and clicked to run it again. It said that it completed the diagnostic testing just fine and asked if I wanted to have it test ALL memory. I said yes and now it is testing memory. It says 3 hours left. In the ePSA system I do have the ability to click esc to end the testing, if someone responds before the test finishes. Otherwise I'll let it finish and try to boot some more...

UPDATE: After 3 hours, all tests passed with ePSA 4306.26, validation code is 104340. I clicked exit and it rebooted... let it run its full boot instead of jumping to SupportAssist or BIOS. Same issue persists. No login prompt on the login screen. As per another commenter's fix, I tried turning on the On Screen Keyboard from the login screen but it froze the screen up and did not open the keyboard. Could still move mouse. I then rebooted and still had the issue. I tried running SupportAssist OS Recovery diagnostics again but it found no issues. Another reboot and I went into the Windows Recovery Environment and selected to restart with Safe Mode with Networking. THIS BROUGHT THE LOGIN PROMPT BACK!!!! I followed this YouTube clip and changed Credential Manager service to an automatic start at startup. Then I did a regular restart, not in SafeMode. The login prompt disappeared again... so STILL NO FIX. I am going to disable the user login entirely at this point and see if that helps. I am the only user of this computer, so I do not need the login.

UPDATE #2: I disabled the need to log in and it did not fix the problem. I could not get into the "Sign-In Options" settings in regular Microsoft Settings (that page continuously loads.) I tried using DISM to scan for corruption like this article on microsoft.com says but it cleared all scans in SafeMode. Safe Mode still boots fine. In Safe Mode I tried disabling all non-Microsoft services for a clean boot and it did not make a difference. (I could not disable services from Avast, Malwarebytes, and KillerNetwork.) When I restarted and re-entered Safe Mode it still had all those services still selected to start at startup... I tried to change Avast settings to disable it but Avast does not start in Safe Mode. I ran a Malwarebytes scan and nothing was detected. Tried to change its setting not to open on startup but it didn't change the boot services.

Another boot not in SafeMode and I am still having the problem. Not a single scan has been showing ANY errors or returning ANY corrupted files. SafeMode boots just fine. I am going to run Windows Recovery Environment Startup Repair again while I go to sleep for the night because it takes a few hours to run. I have spent HOURS on testing many fixes for this problem and I have had no success aside from using SafeMode...

Update: Now trying to run Startup Repair from the Windows Recovery Environment returns the error "Startup Repair couldn't repair your PC" almost instantaneously after starting it. "Advanced Option" prompts me to try Resetting my PC. I am not willing to do that just yet but will do it tomorrow if I still cannot get into my computer.

I also went ahead and ran the SupportAssist OS Recovery tool again for what seems like the millionth time. It STILL returns "no issues detected" in partition table, boot files, and windows health. Still no hardware issues detected.

There is clearly an issue somewhere and I have no idea how to fix it.

submitted by /u/alternatecode
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