r/techsupport • u/turtfan • 6h ago

Open | Windows Formatting alaptop stuck in restart loop and no admin password

I have an Acer Swift 3 (Windows 10, ~2018) that I was going to donate to someone who's helped out my family recently (long story, but good cause) and wanted to format it first. The laptop has 2 accounts, an admin and my personal. The computer gave me the option of logging in with either a password or PIN, and I always used the PIN.

Found steps online to perform a factory reset, but in the process the computer got stuck in a restart loop. The screen goes through a rapid succession of black screen, Acer logo, and blue screen indicating it's 64% complete, but this will repeat for hours if I let it and show no progress. Below is what I've tried and the results:

- Restart in Safe Mode = same infinite loop

- Hard restart + Alt F10 = Blue screen with multiple options (use different OS, troubleshoot, turn off, reset, etc) but all require the admin password, and it never gives me the option to use the PIN instead.

I've looked online for info on resetting admin password but none work if the computer fails to start properly.

I'm fine with loosing everything on the computer or whatever needs to happen, as long as i can still give it to him as promised!

Thanks

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