Unable to log in after MSCONFIG changed to diagnostic startup

[Me2-BFD]

Was having trouble with Win10 recognizing a new video card, so I put the old one back in (no problem there), then set msconfig to 'diagnostic startup.' Now, when I boot, I get to the (pre-login) desktop, but when I hit enter (to access my login password entry form), I get nothing.. can't login, or get back to msconfig to change boot options. Same thing every time I reboot. Tried booting from an ISO and repairing the 'Windows startup,' but to no avail. Any ideas on how to get msconfig back to normal (which was 'selective startup')? Thanks.

 

[photonboy]

1) Can you boot into SAFE MODE from the W10 disc?

2) If still stuck, I think you can reinstall W10 over top of itself. I've only done this from within Windows.
http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

1) Boot to W10 install
2) do NOT enter a key when prompted
3) choose to UPGRADE
4) make sure it's the SAME version (i.e W10 Home 64-bit).. you may have multiple versions (or just W10 Home 64-bit and 32-bit)
5) choose to keep programs and data

3) run a Memory diagnostic with "memory diagnostic" (launched from Windows). I prefer Memtest86 www.memtest86.com and would do that BEFORE reinstalling Windows. Make disc/USB on another PC.

About 30min per 8GB to do the full test. Errors may indicate:
- bad memory
- BIOS setup issue
- memory not fully seated

This is likely not going to affect your video card issue, but you should test your system memory at least once as you can get data corruption if it has problems.

4) may have a UEFI compatibility issue with your video card. That's pretty common. May need to change BIOS settings, but that MAY require a reinstall of Windows.

There is a section called "CSM" or Compatibility Support Module that may have issues if the new card vBIOS needs UEFI but you are set to Legacy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface#CSM_booting

I don't completely understand all of the issues here.

 

[photonboy]

Update:
If you have a SPARE DRIVE try this:
a) unhook other drives
b) swap to new video card
c) See if you can install Windows (do NOT enter a key or Activate if prompted for either)

If it doesn't seem to work, then try changing the CSM settings (for example from Legacy to UEFI for the video card). Then try again.

It may be a bad video card, but if it's a BIOS setting issue then as I said you may need to reinstall Windows. You'd still want to get Windows working likely to backup date anyway so hopefully something above helps.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/how-boot-windows-10-safe-mode-fix-boot-failures-pc-1514704

(i.e yada yada... "SAFE BOOT" and "MINIMAL"... )