Question Power loss during 'factory reset' - now Win10 boot-up 'restarts' endlessly.

[Frooby]

Hello all.

This refers to a Fujitsu Esprimo Q556/2 mini PC (i3-6100) which I was preparing for selling.

I did the usual Settings>Security>Recovery>'Reset this PC' and left it to get on with this. When I came back to it a half hour later, it was powered off and pressing the power on button gave no response. I realised that I had been supplying the PC via one of these energy-saving mains adaptors which powers down the whole 3-way mains adaptor when the 'main' plugged-in device is shut off. So, I suspect that power was cut to the PC during the reset process...

On plugging it in to it's own mains socket and pressing the power button on the front, The Fujitsu logo comes up after a few seconds along with the scrolling (rotating) Windows 'loading' dots. This goes through a repeating pattern: it rotates twice, disappears for a second, reappears (slightly larger?) and rotates thrice whereupon 'Restarting' flashes up for a fraction of a second and the PC restarts. This repeats endlessly.

I have powered it down manually by holding the power button, and get in to BIOS by pressing F2 when I power it back up (see screenshot - Edit, I cannot upload a pic from my PC unless someone shows me how...), but I can't see anything there that helps me (I was hoping for a safe boot, for example).

Can anybody advise how I can sort this out, please?

Many thanks.

 

[britechguy]

Since your goal was to clear the thing and get it set for reselling, I'd just do a completely clean install of Windows 10.
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Important Reminder 1:

If your computer has ever had a valid, licensed copy of Windows 10 installed, even if that's been later replaced by, say, Linux, you can still do a completely clean install of Windows 10 without having to acquire a new license. Windows 10 licenses are stored electronically on Microsoft servers, and are linked to your computer's motherboard. The installer will locate that existing license if you are reinstalling Windows 10.

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Important Reminder 2:

It should go without saying, but, if you have a functioning, even poorly functioning, system that you're hoping to wipe clean to get a fresh start you should definitely do a full system image backup and a separate user data backup before following the instructions for doing a completely clean reinstallation. It also makes sense to use a utility such as Belarc Advisor to create an inventory of the software you have installed and the license keys for same so that you have a handy list when it comes time to put them on your brand new Windows 10 installation.

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You can use the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool either to create bootable USB media directly, or if you want to have a copy of the ISO file, to download that and use a separate utility to create the bootable USB media. Either way will work.



These instructions are current as of July 29, 2019. They have changed little during the life of Windows 10.



Doing a completely clean (re)installation of Windows 10 using the Media Creation Tool (MCT):



A) To create a bootable USB drive using the MCT itself:

- MS-Word Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive

- PDF Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Create a Bootable USB Drive



B) To download the Windows 10 ISO file and use Rufus to create the bootable USB

- MS-Word Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

- PDF Format: Completely Clean Win10 (Re)install Using MCT to Download Win10 ISO File

 

[Frooby]

Fab - thank you - I'll try that.

 

[britechguy]

Please do report back on how it worked out.

 

[Frooby]

Hi Britechguy. It worked - perfectly. Thank you so much

The only minor issue I had was getting BIOS to boot up via the USB. The 'Boot from USB' option simply didn't appear in the list - until I first inserted the stick and then went in to BIOS. Another false start for me was that it didn't do this when using a front USB port either, but only when I tried using a rear panel one. Weird.

And a final annoyance; since I was doing this complete reset so I could sell the machine on with all my account details and files wiped, the new windows install setup process demanded I enter a name, password, answer security Qs etc... There was seemingly no way for me to exit from the setup process before reaching this 'username' stage. What the?!

Anyhoo, it's all good - PC is nice and clean, and the username, password and all the answers to the three security questions are all 'Esprimo'... 🙄

Thanks again.