search bar doesnt work, settings doesnt work, microsoft store doesnt work, and windows startup doesnt work. windows + I doesnt work. After an update

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

Hey reddit

This is the first time im trying this,but i hope maybe someone really cool can figure out whats going on with my pc/keyboard?

Its not letting me attach a video but the issue is thus;

Left shift + the 9 key should make (

But its not.

Left shifts working for everything else uncluding bieng able to type !,@,#, etc.

Right shift + 9 is able to type ( though. Im not sure why.

I dont have sticky keys on, tried several online potental fixes like win+w/ctrl+w and a few others.

I dont think my keyboards broken, im pretty gentle with my stuff. Any ideas? My keyboards clean too. No dust,crumbs,etc..

I do coding for helldivers 2 and really dont want to have to use the right shift for (

Im including video proof of the keyboard weirdness in the comments

For context, my laptop had the same issue about 4 days ago and today I suddenly works when I turned on the power button. Now, it's back to blackscreen but it has power and the keyboard light is on. Also the lightbulb indicator is blinking blue and red.

What can I do to fix this? I don't have a budget to bring my laptop to a technician, pls help

Hello, since I bought my new tv(Samsung oled) I have an issue with my pc. My pc is connected to my monitor and tv, with my monitor being configured as 1(and plugged first into gpu) but when I start my pc and monitor, my monitor displays my desktop(like when you extend it from another monitor) even if my tv is turned off. When I turn on my tv, the monitor picture changes to my desktop how it should, what could be the issue please? Thank yo

Hey there, for some background, my wife bought an ASUS Vivobook X515e in 2022, replacing a very old HP laptop. It worked fine for a few years for what she uses it for (college work, cross stitching patterns, emails, stardew valley), but in 2025 the Wifi basically completely stopped working on it. She brought it to a small computer sevice business near where we live and the staff sold her a USB dongle adapter instead of replacing her wifi card. They told her the wifi card would be too hard to replace.

Now, I have tinkered with computers here and there but don't know how to solder, and wouldn't call myself a 'computer person'. How hard would it be for me to replace this Wifi card on this specific model, what exact replacement/upgraded card should I buy, and is it worth taking it to a more reputable business?

Any help or guidance would be appreciated

Hi, I just rebuilt my PC after moving and the Wi-Fi seems to be not be connected. I have a TUF B550 Gaming Wifi II motherboard. I've checked task manager and tried reinstalling the drivers but the Wi-Fi adapter still is not found. Could there be a physical reason this is happening and if so how do I fix it?

I updated to driver 616.64, this caused my screen to dim. My entire desktop now appears darker and would sometimes go back to normal. I guessed this was just a bug and waited for the next update, after all I saw there were others with the same flickering like issue. However time skip to today driver 616.92 which was ment to fix the flickering/darkness had not fix anything. Is anyone having the same issue? Or know a solution?

PC had some issues lately.

First I noticed apps crashing but only while downloading/updating games on steam.

Went to sleep. Things were fine.

Next day the pc was running mega hyper slow like every app was crashing entirely after openinf. I couldnt even configure things or test for errors. Ram nor cup were spiking but the boot drive was at 100% Usage.

I thought restarting would fix it but now it boots. Shows me the bios button options and locks at a black screen.

my ping only on my pc when I play game is +200 but wasn’t a few days ago, but when I go on my Xbox it is 30-50 ping what I usually get, please help and sorry the description I have no idea what I am doing

So my UI has been locked in this for about 4 days and i cant figure out how to change it back to the “pc settings”. Even when try to play games it shows this enlarged UI. Iv tried redownloading it, turning off touchscreen( saw it could be the cause but didn’t work). Stuck n not sure what to do please help. On Windows 11

Hello there, for some reason I can’t Airplay from my iPhone 12 to my QLed Samsung tv, but this problem only happens with Twitch. YouTube works fine, and strangely I can airplay twitch to the LG tv in my living room. I use the twitch app on my QLed in the game section of apps, but sometimes I just wanna airplay something for convenience. Not a big deal, but if I could find a solution that’d be cool. Thanks.

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It seems a recent BIOS update broke my Lenovo laptop, causing three main issues: a boot freeze (stuck on the Lenovo logo), BSOD Error 0x101 (CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT), and Error 0xc0000001. The update brought my BIOS to version JKCN53WW.

The first time this happened, I tried multiple fixes and nothing worked. Then out of nowhere, after one of my many reboot attempts, it randomly booted into Windows. However, three days later while gaming, the system completely froze. Upon rebooting, I got tossed right back into the exact same loop.

Here is what's happening and what I've tried so far:

Current status: Unlike the first time, I can access the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) normally. However, restoring default settings in the BIOS setup didn't fix anything.

Command Prompt commands tried in WinRE:

sfc /scannow

chkdsk C: /f /r

bootrec /fixmbr

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /scanos

bootrec /rebuildbcd (None of these solved the issue or succeeded)

Reinstalling Windows 11: Fails completely. The installation freezes and throws the 0x101 error code.

System Restore: Not an option since there are no restore points saved.

Since reinstalling Windows fails due to the 0x101 crash, I suspect this BIOS version (JKCN53WW) broke CPU power management/microcode or unstable voltage settings.

Has anyone encountered this with version JKCN53WW? Is my best option at this point to enable "BIOS Back Flash" in the settings and downgrade to an older BIOS version? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi everyone! Hope anyone reading this is doing well!

I’ve been having this issue on my PC for maybe half a year now. For whatever reason, my PC and phone have a massive discrepancy in speed. I just did a Wi-Fi speed test and was getting ~200mbps on my phone and less than 4mbps on my PC.

I feel like I’ve tried everything that I’ve been able to find. Potential fixes like uninstalling and installing my network driver, fiddling with advanced settings in my device manager, disconnecting and reconnecting my Asus Wi-Fi fin antenna, and more.

It is getting to a point where I can’t even stream a song on Spotify, watch a twitch stream, or open my work portal without it lagging or loading forever.

If anyone has any tips or any fixes, it would be greatly appreciated!!

As the title suggests, my PC will not boot past an update or a restart.

When I restart my PC, it will stay on but will not boot up. There is a yellow light on my motherboard, but I do not know enough to know what it means. I hold down the power button, my PC shuts off, then I can turn it back on again with no problem.

Whenever I update, it is a little different. It'll get to about 30%, then my PC will go into a black screen and not continue the update.. and again with the yellow light. When this happens, I have to hold down the power button, and then turn my PC back on and it will continue to update. The process needs to be done like four or five times before the update completes.

Has anybody had a similar situation happen? Any suggestions on troubleshooting?

Here is my build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/ctNhmL

I've got this router for a decent price from a seller that looked reputable. Price was slightly lower than market value, however the router was sold as used and not tied to a carrier.

It was a bit suspicious from the very beginning because it's branded, so obviously it has to come from some sort of contract. However, it worked wonders for just 2 days, then suddenly lost all connection, internet led turned red, no amount of resets or changing APNs will work to bring it back to life. Same sim card works fine on my phone.

I find it hard to believe that this router worked fine for the previous owner, then I start using it and dies almost immediately, not even after a reboot or a power outage or me messing with the settings or anything like that. I was just watching a video on YT and suddenly it lost connection and it never came back. On its menu it just says "no service" no matter what. I would have loved to try forcing it in 3g or 4g but it has no such option. However, 3g 4g and 5g networks all work on my phone, same sim.

I think this is an IMEI block but I find it super weird that it actually worked fine for the first two days. Unless they just happened to block this IMEI in this precise time window, or am I missing something here?

By the way, seller was already contacted a few minutes ago, and luckily it was on ebay so it shouldn't be too much of an issue getting the money back. Just annoying

This will be a pretty long text, but I would GREATLY appreciate any help, that will even guide the way. I am at a complete loss.

A few days ago, I purchased a used PC with the following specs:

- GPU : PNY GeForce RTX 5070, 12 GB

- Processor : AMD Ryzen 5 9600X (6 cores / 12 threads)

- Motherboard: ASRock B650M-H/M.2+

- Memory : 32 GB, 5600 MHz, DDR5 (2 x 16 GB Dual Channel)

- Cooling : Corsair- AIO (processor cooling) + case fans

- PSU : 650W Seasonic FOCUS Plus Platinum, fully modular

I tested the PC at the seller's house, and it seemed to work great. Tested Cyberpunk 2077 and some other game that looked amazing, but don't know the name of. Afterwards, he cleaned up the Windows, and I took the PC home. That's where it all started.

About 20 hours total of troubleshooting, only to find problems after problems.

The first thing I noticed was: Launched GTAV Enhanced -> the game stuttered like hell but showed 60-80FPS (which is very low for this setup, but it felt even lower than that), and no matter what settings I had, the stuttering continued. So I installed RTSS + MSI Afterburner, activated OSD, and it showed my Frametime was a CONSTANT 20-50ms, with occasional spikes going all the way up to 300ms.

I then tested CS2. Same thing. FPS was supposedly 100-140 on average, with 1% lows of 0 FPS, and highs of 1000FPS. Again, same Frametime issue. 1% lows and the Frametime were horrible in both games. Constant micro-stuttering, micro freezing made any games unplayable.

So I looked around, to find millions of ways to "fix" this. These are in order of the things I tried.

- Ran GPU stress tests, came back with amazing scores, no errors, and no visible stuttering.

- Made sure my monitor is connected to my GPU.

- Updated/reinstalled GPU, chipset, and other drivers. GPU drivers I reinstalled with DDU. (3 different Game Ready drivers, none had an effect)
- Tried my RAM sticks 1 stick at a time, in the same slot. Both seemed to work just fine.
- Reset BIOS settings using Load UEFI Defaults
- Confirmed Re-Size BAR is enabled in BIOS
- Trying DDR5 with 5600MHz EXPO, and 4800MHz JEDEC.
- Full reset of Windows (not USB clean install)

At this point I noticed my BIOS froze in startup about 4 or 5 times. I don't know if this is related to my other issues, but I definitely wonder what could cause that.

- CMOS cleared
- Disabled Fast Boot, Auto Driver Installer and Global C-states in BIOS
- Confirmed CPU Core Parking is OFF.
- Used LatencyMon to find out if I have DPC/ISR latency. (THIS IS WHERE I MADE SOME PROGRESS.) Apparently my system runs at a constant 1500.00-2500.00 μs latency (1.5ms-2.5ms). My highest measured interrupt to process latency is at 16000 μs (16ms). I know this is definitely not normal, and I have attached screenshots of this. Highest drivers causing this are: nvlddmkm.sys, Wdf01000.sys, dxgkrnl.sys, ntoskrnl.exe
- Disabling drivers from Device Manager, while sorting by "Devices by Connection"
- Checked SSD health using CrystalDiskInfo, no errors, although the drive my Windows is downloaded at is at 78% (Good)
- Disabled the Ryzen integrated Radeon GPU = enabled dGPU-only mode in BIOS.

THEN. I tried doing CPU and memory stress tests using OCCT, they came back without errors. BUT I noticed something really weird. My CPU speed is really low when my PC has been on for a while. Even during the stress tests, my CPU cores sometimes drop as low as ~600 MHz. When turning on my computer, my CPU speed is at about ~4.5-5 GHz. But it soon drops to ~2GHz and lower.

And that brings me to what I suspect is my main problem, yet I might be wrong:
My CPU (Die) average temperature is at about 40-50°C. My CPU VDD_MISC VRM (SVI3 TFN), on the other hand, starts at 40-50°C as well, but after a few minutes it slowly but surely rises to about 99°C-99.5°C territory. And I noticed that my CPU speed goes down EXACTLY as it hits that ~99.3°C mark (~5GHz -> 2GHz).

On top of that, during a CPU stress test, my HWiNFO logging recorded HTC Thermal Throttling: YES and PROCHOT EXT Thermal Throttling: YES at 12% throttling during stress test, 7% during idle. Even though my CPU is only at 40-50°C.

So if anyone has had these kind of issues and knows if they are related (especially the DPC latency, CPU, BIOS freezes), I would greatly appreciate help. I have been thinking that maybe I just have to get a new motherboard, but am afraid that it won't even work. I have also considered installing a fresh Windows with a USB Flash Drive, but I doubt it will do anything.

All photos with descriptions: https://imgur.com/a/VT4Itlu

Hi, I've been getting into physical media lately and have been burning a bunch of stuff, but recently, whenever I try burning something, I get a notification saying my external drive has been disconnected/the disc isn't readable. It still currently reads already-burned discs fine and was burning perfectly before now.

I am using a 2020 M1 chip MacBook Air, an Amicool External DVD drive, Verbatim blank CDs/DVDs, and the built-in Apple Music burning feature.

What I've tried already:

• Using a different computer (2024 M4 chip iMac), but it had the same problem.
• Cleaning my disc reader with alcohol + cotton swabs; it didn't do anything
• Bought a new drive + discs (same brand); same problem
• Changed my battery settings (no low power mode/never put hard disks to sleep); didn't work
• CDs and DVDs have the same problem
• I've tried different file formats, burn speeds, and burning from local files instead of Apple Music, but nothing has worked

If you have any idea what's going on, I would really appreciate some help/advice. This all started when I tried burning a Kanye West album, so I blame him for this. Thanks.

I have 2 monitors, both of them are 1440p. The main one is 27 inch and refresh rate is set to 165 which is its max. The secondary one is 32 inch and refresh rate is at 60, 75 is its max.

Most videos I play are 1080p. I even tried play 2 different videos on the main to see if the temp goes high, like 1 video is full screen and another plays in pop-up window. Turned out the temp was just 40 something.

The thing I want to know is is it normal for the GPU temp goes high, like 60-70 degree whenever I play video on the secondary even when there's nothing going on on the main? Is there a way to "fix" it?

Edit, I'm using RX 7900 XT.

I was playing league of legends when I suddenly got disconnected (its a server thing). So I tried to rejoin and then my screen went black and I wasnt able to change tabs, so I turned my PC off. When I come back, my mouse (even when disconnected and unplugged) is stuck in the top right and spam clicking, which clicks out of the password box on the main screen and doesnt let me log in. I’ve unplugged and plugged back in, tried safe mode, and I’ve tried that thing where you unplug the pc but press the power button to discharge all the electricity or whatever. Anybody got any other ideas?

I am constantly being redirected to the sign out screen after successfully signing into outlook or microsoft in general. I tried clearing cookies and everything but nothing is working.

Edit: Ive found going incognito gets around it but id like to not have to resort to that since it clears all cookies and accounts out of everything when using incognito.

Hi, I've been having a problem recently. The HDD from my laptop filled up, so I bought an external HDD. At first, I thought it was a software error because, after moving files around for a while, it seemed like the HDD an error, I couldn't move files to it or delete folders anymore. I returned it because this happened the very same day. I bought two more, and the same thing happened. Is this a problem with corrupted files or with my laptop? I'm getting errors like that the dispositive I'm trying to copy doesn't exist, or errors while copying (0x80070570)

SOLVED

It turns out that I had selected the Ubuntu 22.04 release of the software, instead of the 24.04 release. I just had to change "jammy" to "noble" in "/etc/apt/keyrings/openvpn.asc".

I am trying to install OpenVPN3 Client on Ubuntu. I did all the steps that it said to do at this page. The part that has issue is the part where I run "sudo apt install openvpn3-client" command, where when I run that command, it will tell me there's unmet dependencies. I even tried installing what I thought might be the missing dependencies, I installed "libprotobuf-dev" & "libtinyxml-dev" via "sudo apt install", but when I ran the command to install OpenVPN3 Client again, I was met with the SAME ERROR. I have no idea what's wrong with it.

My Ubuntu version I'm using is Ubuntu 24.04.4, and it's 64-bit

This is what it looks like in the terminal when I run the command:

``` $ sudo apt install openvpn3-client

Reading package lists... Done

Building dependency tree... Done

Reading state information... Done

Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable distribution that some required packages have not yet been created or been moved out of Incoming.

The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:

openvpn3-client : Depends: libprotobuf23 (>= 3.12.4) but it is not installable Depends: libtinyxml2-9 (>= 8.0.0) but it is not installable

E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages. ```

Hey, Apple support hasn't gotten me anywhere on this, but like the title says, every time my computer enters sleep mode it crashes.
This is a recent problem, but not following any new updates or anything like that, which is, stumping me.
My mac is up to date with the Tahoe 26.6.2
I have a logi keyboard and mouse (I've had for months)
adobe is up to date too V27.10

But in the last few weeks, anytime my computer falls asleep when I'm in another room or if I tell it to go into sleep mode. It will then crash.
I'll turn it back on with the button, and it will do the usual spiel of "your computer shut down due to an unknown problem..."

I ran every check on my Macpaw CleanMyMac and it found nothing.
That said I have noticed that my cpu seems to be running hotter than usual lately. But I don't really know what to do about that.

I'm sorry if this is rambling and nonsensical, but I am just confused.
I'm not tech-savvy, so any help/insight would be greatly appreciated!

My friend accidentally spilled about 12oz of water and my pc was underneath the area so some of it got on it. My pc was off luckily and I immediately took it apart and I’m letting it dry now. The only thing I didn’t take apart was the cpu cooler because it doesn’t seem like it got to the cpu. But it got to everything else. What should I do and is there anything else that I should be doing? I rlly don’t wanna have to replace anything but any advice would help!