Accidentally hit CLR CMOS and now Windows won't boot

[aksersch]

I am at my wits end and would really appreciate any sort of help. Yesterday I got my PC shipped to me, but I booted it up and everything was working fine.

Later in the evening I started having troubles connecting to the Wi-Fi after a Windows Update.
I undid the Update which fixed nothing. So this morning I tried to re-attach one of my other Wi-Fi adapter's Wi-Fi Antenna to see if that would work. Instead I accidentally hit "CLR CMOS".

My computer shut down and I proceeded to go to the BIOS. After which I tried to boot Windows normally. Instead I was met with a blue screen and the message "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. You can restart. [..] CRITICAL PROCESS DIED"

I use Windows 10.
My mobo is an ASRock Extreme 4 Z77.
I use an SSD for Windows but have a normal HardDrive for other stuff (like games)

I looked at the old threads here that suggest changing to AHCI in the bios, however it was set to AHCI from the beginning. So I set it to IDE, which gave me a different Error (Couldn't find the drive to boot from). I also tried RAID. Which gave me the same error. So back to AHCI I went.

I have tried initiating a System Restore, however it says my C drive needs to be "protected" for that to run.
I have also tried to reset Windows, but it just says "System reset failed" (not exactly what it says, but it basically says it can't do it for no specified reason)
Automatic Repair runs every third restart (pretty sure I've had to restart this at least 20 times now) and it simply says "Automatic Repair couldn't repair your PC".

I don't know what to do anymore... please help 🙁

 

[gingerrankin]

Try to start in fail-safe mode.

 

[aksersch]

Try to start in fail-safe mode.

I get the same Error when try to load into Safe mode - "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED"

 

[Rocky Bennett]

Use the install media to reinstall Windows 10.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

 

[Dashman9000]

Try performing a disk repair if you haven't allready. Use a Windows boot disk and try to repair, if that doesn't work I would either load a recent backup or re-install Windows.

 

[aksersch]

Use the install media to reinstall Windows 10.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I will try this thank you!

 

[aksersch]

Try performing a disk repair if you haven't allready. Use a Windows boot disk and try to repair, if that doesn't work I would either load a recent backup or re-install Windows.

I don't have access to a boot disk at the moment. How would I perform a disk repair?

 

[BFG-9000]

Yes, those clear CMOS buttons are really easy to hit, aren't they? Those are intended to make things easier for overclockers but end up making things more difficult for everyone else.

Since Windows is loading before it bluescreens, we can guess the default boot order is probably OK. The most obvious settings I can think of that could cause this include IDE mode vs. AHCI which you've already tried, or UEFI mode vs. Legacy BIOS. If your Windows was installed using a non-default setting, then resetting to default can cause the issue you are experiencing. If it's the latter then not even a startup repair with the original installation media can fix it, because you'd need a GPT vs. MBR partitioned USB stick.

Try toggling UEFI mode/Secure Boot

 

[aksersch]

Yes, those clear CMOS buttons are really easy to hit, aren't they? Those are intended to make things easier for overclockers but end up making things more difficult for everyone else.

Since Windows is loading before it bluescreens, we can guess the default boot order is probably OK. The most obvious settings I can think of that could cause this include IDE mode vs. AHCI which you've already tried, or UEFI mode vs. Legacy BIOS. If your Windows was installed using a non-default setting, then resetting to default can cause the issue you are experiencing. If it's the latter then not even a startup repair with the original installation media can fix it, because you'd need a GPT vs. MBR partitioned USB stick.

Try toggling UEFI mode/Secure Boot

They are indeed. I didn't even know a button like that existed! And I thought anything significant would be inside of the case and not right next to the USB ports 🙁

I honestly don't remember if I installed Windows using default settings or not. Had a more tech-savvy friend help me who I am no longer in contact with. However I doubt we changed anything major. But who knows. This is so frustrating.

I tried toggling Safe boot but that didn't seem to do anything. Going to get an USB stick one of these days and try to reinstall windows using that. If that doesn't work... new SSD or mobo it is... Although, could this even be a hardware issue? Or do you think it is primarily software? I am really not sure what to even start replacing here if I have to go that far...

 

[aksersch]

So trying to repair from a bootable USB also does not work... going to attempt to do a fresh install of W10 tomorrow... and will report back if that solves the issue. hopefully x.x

 

[aksersch]

Reinstallation fixed the issue! I ended up choosing to buy a new SSD and installed Windows on that, because it asked me to delete everything of my old SSD if I wanted to reinstall on there. I also did not need to repurchase windows, although many failed attempts to retrieve a non-existent product key a digital license was somehow connected to my PC, which automatically activated upon successful installation and set up.
I was then later able to access my old files on the other SSD and recover everything that was lost.

Thank you very much for your guys help!