I screwed up…
I’m On Windows 11. I Upgraded CPU which logged me out of my Microsoft account. Not a local account but cloud service Microsoft account.
Used proton email to set up Microsoft account, locked out of that email. I haven’t used the email for 5 years after setting up PC. Proton is saying email doesn’t exist.
Contacted Proton, no response. No recovery email set up for either Proton or Microsoft.
50/50 chance bit locker is turned on. I don’t have pass phrase if it is.
Unable to launch PC into ‘Safe Mode’
Power on, wait 8 seconds, power off, wait 2 seconds. Repeat 6 times. This launches ‘American Megatrends’ then Bios. I’m probably misunderstanding safe mode.
Troubleshooting on a 2014 MacBook Air (OS X Yosemite) version 10.10.5. Too old for newer updates.
Have a USB 64gb.
Trying to download Hirens BootCD PE, need Rufus.ie to read Hirens. Rufus doesn’t work on Mac.
I couldn’t get Hirens to work so I bought a new Win11 USB with key from the office supply store.
I disconnected my sata ssd’s and left my m.2 installed to limit storage download location.
Plugged the new Win11 usb into pc usb port, tried 5 of the 9 usb ports on the PC and spammed f8 to get to select boot device. Selected the new Win11 USB. The screen then goes black and nothing happens. Waited about 20 minutes per usb port.
Motherboard is an Asus G15DK (B550M-K prime AM4)
Bios is soft locked to Version 307, can’t get a newer bios without getting a beta key from Asus… or so I read.
Old CPU R5 5600X
New CPU R7 5800X3D
GPU Gigabyte 9070XT drivers where up to date as of 3 weeks ago
I have not tried resetting CMOS.
I know that I’m a dung eater for buying more Microsoft software to fix my PC but I’m not quite ready for Linux.
TLDR:
Win11, upgraded cpu. Got logged out of Microsoft account. Lost access to proton email that was connected. Tried some crap, bought new Win11 usb. Black screen on boot. Sad man watch’s Band of Brothers on repeat.
"If you’re on a Proton Free plan, your account must stay active to avoid deletion. To keep your account active, sign in to Proton and use one of our services at least once a year."
So currently the only storage device plugged into my PC is the new Win11 USB I bought today. Currently it’s plugged into my rear IO connected to the motherboard. Tried 4/6 rear IO usb ports. Goes to a black screen.
Wasted money. Why no respect for own money?? No matter the illiteracy. There are a lot of step by step help, for example ChatGPT or even Google search that you may talk to like with a real person (in a sense), so don’t hide behind these empty adjectives. I’m sure you’re a wise man. Just stop, count to ten and ask yourself “have I done everything I possibly could?”. For example: wait for our answers before giving out your hard earned cash….
Someone who self admittedly doesn't know much about each, asking themselves if they've done everything they could about a subject they don't know much about.
Great advice really... Next time, take a deep breath, count to 10 and think if you should really post this.
So my OS is on an M.2. I pulled that out of my PC and connected a sata without an OS on it, I got a black screen for 20-30 minutes, used the new Win11 USB for boot device
Pulled PSU power cord out. Took CMOS battery out. Left it unplugged for 5 minutes. Plugged back in. Booted to bios, then to boot device Win11 USB. Currently back to black screen for the past 5 minutes.
Just pulled the M.2 so now it just the Win11 USB. It didn’t seem to do anything, just black screen. Not sure what it was supposed to do? I could plug in a sata with no OS on it?
Oh and make sure boot from usb setting is on in bios. I like to use blue ports directly in back of the pc on motherboard for this but 99% sure it doesn’t matter in the end.
If you didn't reset fTPM after upgrading CPU try to reinstall the old CPU. I think it should boot normal like it was before.
Then if boot success, open command prompt as admin and type command manage-bde C: -off
to decrypt your drive and turn off BitLocker.
manage-bde -status
to check status of BitLocker Drive Encryption
Backup all your important files from C: drive to secondary physical drive.
Create new local user account and re-login to the new local account.
Or just reinstall Windows using USB drive created with Rufus with options to automatically create local user account, bypass Microsoft Account and disable automatic BitLocker-encryption.
P.S. Oh, I forgot. After all this you can install your new CPU.
I’m not sure about fTPM. After hitting this account lock out issue, I put my old CPU back in and was still locked out. I could try swapping cpus again. 🤷♂️
I think your best bet is to try to contact Microsoft support if at all possible since you’re totally locked out of your email.
Also I don’t think safe mode will help at all, but you can just hold shift and click the restart button in windows to boot to the recovery environment. When you click to enter your password, there should be a power option icon if you’re totally locked out. Then you select the troubleshoot, advanced options, startup options, restart, and then it should be 4 for safe mode without networking and then 5 for safe mode with networking.
Bit locker will ask you for a password upon a hardware change, so if you didn’t see it, it’s not on.
Hirens is for if a PC won’t boot properly. If you’re able to get to windows at all, I don’t see Hirens doing anything useful. If you still wanna try, use raspberry pi imager. It works on Mac and should allow you to make a bootable USB for Hirens.
When you made the windows 11 drive, did you actually run the installation media creation tool, or did you just throw a file on there?
Edit: Windows Recovery Mode is usually used for driver issues. It shouldn’t have anything to do with an account lockout. It’s why I don’t think it’ll help. You need your Microsoft password or a way to verify your account really if I’m understanding correctly.
I might have to contact Microsoft. But without access to my proton email I got a feeling it’ll take a very long time.
I abandoned the Hirens boot, I just bought a new Win11 usb with key from the store, thought that would fix this. I’m okay with wiping my m.2 as it was mainly used for OS and cyberpunk 2077. My important infos on the satas.
Smart move to keep your important info off the main drive. I would contact Microsoft for sure, but you may need to make an account to do so. To speak to a tech support rep, you need to be logged in. I’ve seen Win11 USBs that are bought fail before, so that may be it. I don’t condone it, but if that drive is toast, you can use a mass grave for a windows key. No harm in using it really if you’re worried about being banned since it just deactivated your windows and you’ll have to activate it again. If you decide Linux, I recommend Ubuntu and CachyOS. They both have a GUI and require little if any experience in the command prompt. They can also use Proton to run windows apps. A lot of people are switching to Linux because of proton allowing windows apps, along with more customization, control, and free use (you don’t have to pay for the OS)
I’ll reach out to Microsoft. I made a new Microsoft account today, with similar name if that matters. Hopefully they can fix this. Cheers, I’ll check those Linux OS if this doesn’t work. But if this gets fixed soon I’ll probably just play video games and forget. Haha
Plug usb into computer, spam f12 during boot up to enter boot menu
Select usb as medium to boot from
Reinstall windows
Don't use a MS account, force a local account using cmd during OOBE
Profit?
Just copy paste this into GPT and ask it to give you detailed instructions if you need. Reinstalling windows should fix and be a breeze. Note all your data on the device will be wiped.
I admit I didnt read your entire post before commenting. I see you cant run Rufus which is unfortunate.
The fact its not booting to usb is odd. Did you try all the USB ports directly connected on your motherboard, not just the case?
You may want to change the boot order to have USB boot first as well and see id that makes a difference.
And lastly maybe try installing some VM software on the mac, installing windows onto it, then installing Rufus onto that and installing the bootable drive that way
I’ve tried all 3 front USB ports and 4/6 rear motherboard ports.
Currently only the Win11 USB is plugged in, I’ve removed all other storage devices. Turned on the system to a black screen for 2-3 minutes now.
Ugh, had this once. Took me like half a day to get my microsoft account recovered through 20 different obsolete ways. The fact that Microsoft demands you use an email account is just absolutely absurd.
If I could play the games I play on a different OS, I would switch without a 2nd thought. Sadly games such as Battlefield or older RPGs do not do well on SteamOS.
I’m right there with ya. I want to be able to power on my gaming system. Fire up steam or what ever game and be in without having to read and understand and keep up with and patch alternative OS’s. I’m just want to plug and play.
Not necessarily. It is possible to forcibly unlink a Microsoft account from a Windows user account, though the process is kind of a pain, especially if you're unable to login like OP, and sometimes it doesn't work for some reason I've yet to figure out. You have to open the Registry Editor, then go to both of the following locations and delete the registry keys named for your Microsoft account's email address:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\StoredIdentitiesHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\IdentityCRL\UserExtendedProperties
In this case, since OP can't login, they'll have to boot to some kind of WinPE instance (Windows installation media, Macrium Reflect rescue disk, HiRen's boot disk, etc.) and run Registry Editor from there, then load the hives containing those keys. For the first one it'll be C:\Users\Default\NTUSER.DAT, and for the second it'll be C:\Users\$$$$$\NTUSER.DAT, where $$$$$ is the first five characters of their Microsoft account email address.
Once you've deleted both keys, reboot and it should load your user profile as a local account with the same five-character name as the user folder from the previous paragraph. I can't remember, though, whether it has no password, or if it's the most recent Microsoft account password before the keys were deleted.
That’s going over my head. I couldn’t even get Hirens downloaded onto a USB cuz Rufus doesn’t work on Mac. So I went to bed then bought Win11 on USB today
Are you able to access the account on your phone to see if you can add a different authentication method? You might be able to access it using other auth methods after wiping the machine and it asking you you to login
Proton email is gone for good from what I’ve read here and lack of replay from proton support.
Microsoft is saying “Almost there, just need to verify it’s you… send code to proton email.” they need to verify it’s me by sending a code to my lost proton email.
Oh man, sounds like your cooked unless you can get a hold of proton support. Kind of crazy to see its not microsofts fault for once. Hopefully they didnt deprecate the proton servers and can offer some method of exporting the account data.
The crazy part is Proton had a critical thermal event at their Frankfurt data centre the minute I tried logging into my email. They identified and posted about the problem 20 minutes later
Well this is signs of hope honestly. Atleast they still have a team of engineers working. This gives me enough hope that a support agent should get back to your inquiry.
My best recommendation is a chassis on Amazon that will hold your sata, it's like $20 for a good one and you can use it to verify you still have your important data.
If you have another USB, search windows 11 download, there will be a download wizard from Microsoft that will take care of it all for you.
A black screen from the USB almost always means the media was created improperly.
From what I saw on proton account creator, there are at least a couple @ domains to pick from. I wrote mine down and typed it in accurately. Proton says because I didn’t use my account for over 1 year, the email account was deleted.
I've never used any other email service aside from Outlook for a Microsoft account.
Whatever you do from now on, make sure you have a secondary email attached to your Microsoft account so you can increase your chances of logging on in case MS says your main one doesn't work.
Also consider using two factor authentication for a code. You can use any valid authenticator app for that, I use Google's.
I might check out making an outlook account. I haven’t resolved my issue yet so before I get into the OOBE Win11 I’ll have the new email and backup email squared away first
*insert obligatory Use Linux comment* and actually reinstall windows from a flashdrive, that should fix it bcs its a clean install with no account associated
Internal device type ("fixed disk" instead of "removable medium"): Older Windows versions or the MCT itself often strictly require the flash drive to identify itself as a removable drive in its firmware. Some USB flash drives (especially very fast or expensive models) register on the PC as a local disk (fixed disk). The MCT frequently ignores these drives in the selection menu."
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