Solved The Spinning Circle Got Me

timlab55 · May 14, 2023

Okay, hold on to your hats cause this has got my head spinning. About 3 days ago, I had trouble getting Windows to load in. I would shut down, turn on, shut down, turn on, and on the 3rd time, either I got the Recoving Message or it would just boot into Windows 11 pro as if nothing had happened. This when on for a day and then I started to read why I might be having this problem. I read someplace that it's a boot issue with Windows. So I started to read about this and got to the point of it pointing to Repairing the Master Boot Record. So I when through the steps on that. The spinning circle problems seem to have stopped, as I would see the spinning circle and then go away and either it would boot into windows or give me the blue screen of death and not do anything. In addition to this, some programs that would work have since then stopped working in such a way that they would only do half of what their supposed to do. So what it's my problem about booting into Windows?
Thanks

FreeBooter · May 14, 2023

Find out why you got a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) error and how to stop it.

timlab55 · May 14, 2023

Thanks for the info. I downloaded the program and there isn't any dump file. But then I configure it and uncheck Auto restart.
Again thanks
Anyone else have an idea?

FreeBooter · May 14, 2023

You are very welcome!

Ghot · May 14, 2023

There's a song for.... everything.

Here's what I would do...

1. Use RUFUS to make the Windows installation media. Disable all the items RUFUS let's you disable.
2. Unhook the internet, and do a clean install of Windows.
3. Install the motherboard drivers and the vid card driver.
4. Install Winaero Tweaker and disable "driver updates" (see pic below).
5. Rehook the internet and do the Windows Updates.
6. Get some 3rd party backup software like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard.
7. Make a full OS image backup, and make the backup software's bootable rescue media.
8. Install all your programs and do all your tweaks, then make another full OS backup.

NOW... just do whatever, and if you have any problems, just restore from a backup and try again.

I would choose these RUFUS options (BLUE box)...

NOTE: Macrium Reflect is no longer free, but AOMEI Backupper Standard is free.

Macrium Reflect, AOMEI Backupper and Hasleo Backup Suite - GUIDES

How to use backup software... 1. When everything is working perfectly... make a full Windows backup. 2. Then, if something breaks... restore from the latest backup. 3. Then... try "whatever you were doing" a different way. If it still breaks Windows, then... go to step #2. 4. Repeat...

www.elevenforum.com

timlab55 · May 14, 2023

Love that song, thanks and I hope I can figure out why my computer keeps doing what it's doing.

Ghot · May 14, 2023

timlab55 said:
Love that song, thanks and I hope I can figure out why my computer keeps doing what it's doing.

Sometimes the "figuring out" takes way too long. Sometimes it's impossible to figure out.
Sometimes you just have to start fresh, and... use 3rd party backup software this time.

Somewhere around the end of Windows 7, Microsoft started using us, in place of a Quality Control Department.
In a situation like that... 3rd party backup software is a must. Don't leave home, without it.

Once you start using backup software, you shouldn't ever have to re-install Windows again.
Keep the amount of data on your C: drive to a minimum, and backups and restores are wicked fast.
Any time you make any kind of major change... make a new backup.

Here's mine for example... I have about 30GB on my C: drive. It takes me 2:30 to make a backup and 2:00 to restore.
Those times are in minutes.

I'm even more OCD that what you've seen so far...

timlab55 · May 14, 2023

Will Ghot you right and Microsoft needs to hire its own R&D to make sure something is right before going out to the public. With that being said I think I jump the gun a little on my title. The true matter is this.....I hit the power button, everything comes up including the little spinning circle and then it goes away and I have 3 blank screens with nothing on them. I turn it off, wait like 1 minute, turn it back on, and the same thing. I then turn it back on and this time I get the recovery. I ask the computer to continue and then I get greeted by the picture screen and Windows is ready to do whatever I ask it. I really paid close attention to this. The funny thing is this...I leave the computer off for about 8 hours or even 2 hours and I get this problem. But if I have to reboot the computer for one reason or another, I have no issues. I install that Blue Screen of Death program, and nothing came up. I even added another program called "Who Crashed" and both programs are the same (almost) and nothing came up on either one of them.
Then I when to the event viewer and saw 1 Critical error with a timestamp of the time I turn the computer on with 2 errors. The critical error had this to say.

And the other 2 where this

How do I figure out what all this means?
THanks
Dan

FreeBooter · May 14, 2023

The event 41 kernel power means that there is something happened unexpectedly that blocked Windows from turning off properly, and there is a message saying that “The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. Here's why Kernel Power Error 41 happens and how to fix it.

Stigg · May 15, 2023

Ghot said:
I would choose these RUFUS options (BLUE box)...

View attachment 60150

If you tick the box "Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account", but don't tick any others, will the Windows installer offer the chance to create a local account username when you install Windows?

This site says to tick "Create a local account with username:" if you ticked the previous box.

Use Rufus to Create a Windows 11 Install disk that bypasses TPM, Secure Boot requirements (How-to).

This guide shows how to use RUFUS to create a Windows 11 install disk on a USB, to bypass the TPM, Secure Boot and Microsoft Account requirements to setup Windo

www.wintips.org

Stigg · May 15, 2023

Ghot said:
There's a song for.... everything.

Indeed there is. ♪ ♫

♪ The spinning circle's got me now ♪
♪ It's got me so I don't know what I'm doin' ♪
♪ Yeah, it's really got me now ♪
♪ It's got me so I can't sleep at night ♪

♪ The spinning circle's got me now ♪
♪ It's got me so I don't know where I'm goin' ♪
♪ Oh, yeah, it's really got me now ♪
♪ It's got me so I can't sleep at night ♪

♪ It's really got me, ooh ♪
♪ It's really got me, yeah ♪
♪ It's really got me ♪

timlab55 · May 15, 2023

Stigg said:
If you tick the box "Remove requirement for an online Microsoft account", but don't tick any others, will the Windows installer offer the chance to create a local account username when you install Windows?

This site says to tick "Create a local account with username:" if you ticked the previous box.

Use Rufus to Create a Windows 11 Install disk that bypasses TPM, Secure Boot requirements (How-to).

This guide shows how to use RUFUS to create a Windows 11 install disk on a USB, to bypass the TPM, Secure Boot and Microsoft Account requirements to setup Windo

www.wintips.org

Need help in this department Stigg. This all started when I was having problems with getting windows up and running one day and found out that because my system is modern that I should be using secure boot. Found out that I had to redo my entire system Clean Install of Windows, but the problem never disappear.

Stigg · May 15, 2023

timlab55 said:
Need help in this department Stigg. This all started when I was having problems with getting windows up and running one day and found out that because my system is modern that I should be using secure boot. Found out that I had to redo my entire system Clean Install of Windows, but the problem never disappear.

What are you planning to do? A clean installation? Those Rufus options aren't essential.

Before a clean installation, have you tried the basics like a repair install or even System Restore? Does it have a recovery partition?
I'm not sure of your current status. Can you currently get into Windows at all?

Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade

This tutorial will show you how to do a repair install of Windows 11 by performing an in-place upgrade without losing anything. If you need to repair or create a new recovery partition or having problems with the Windows 11 operating system on your PC, and the usual solutions will not fix it...

www.elevenforum.com

timlab55 · May 15, 2023

Something has changed and I don't know what I did or what. I turned off the computer last night. Turned it on this morning and again, the circle came, but then the screen when black and that was it. Nothing for about 2 mins. So I powered it off with the switch, it turned off, but only this time I hit the power switch again and held it. THen I turned it on and it worked! No 3 times or nothing. I guess I just have to work through the event viewer and look up each one. The event 41 is when it tries to get into windows and when nothing happens, I turn it off. Any other suggestions I'm all open to suggestions.
THanks

timlab55 · May 16, 2023

Well, today I tried to install Windows as a clean install and failed about 7 times. I know how to do it, but the PC kept doing the following: Freezing up on me, the little tiny circle started off fast and then slowed down and finally froze on me. I got 2 BSOD 1 of which was a watchdog and another for something else. It was a terrible day all in all after I got home. So my plan of attack is the following: On Thursday nite I plan on tearing this computer apart and inspect each piece. Then on Friday, I plan on doing a deep cleaning of the entire system with an air gun, softly but strong enough to get anything that isn't supposed to be there out. Then on Saturday rebuild it, install Windows, and say a small prayer while doing it.
Question: Is there a way that isn't too hard to put the Windows OS on an external USB drive, then take that external USB drive and hook it up to my desktop, and have Windows boot off the external hard drive? If everything is okay, then I would like to take that image from the external USB and install it on my desktop.

Ghot · May 16, 2023

timlab55 said:
Question: Is there a way that isn't too hard...

That's doing it the hard way. If you can't get Windows working by installing on an internal drive, installing it somewhere else then moving it, isn't gonna work.

You might be having problems with the internal drive you're trying to install to. Try installing to a different internal drive.
It doesn't matter which internal drive you use. It's more for testing purposes.
IF... Windows installs and runs on a different internal drive, then it's probably the drive you were trying to install to, that's the problem.

Another thing you might try is just use one monitor when testing.
Only use one drive when installing.
In other words, keep the hardware setup, as simple as possible, when trying to install Windows.

Topgundcp · May 16, 2023

It sounds like you might have a bad RAM stick. Depending on the location of the bad sectors and where the module sits in your DIMM banks, Windows will run like there's nothing as long as it doesn't touch the bad portions of the memory and that's when the BSOD occurs. Open admin command prompt then type:
bcdedit /enum {badmemory}
To see if you have any bad memory listing there.
Before you go on to re-install Windows.
1. Open the case, take out the memory sticks, clean the connectors then re-seat firmly into the slots, you might want to swap the sticks around. Do the same thing for all the cables from/to the SSD's/HD's.
2.Download Crystal Disk Info to make sure that all your storage devices are in good shape.
3. Double check the Fan and Heat sink on the CPU
3. If you still have problem then I would suggest to run the memtest overnight.

Question: Is there a way that isn't too hard to put the Windows OS on an external USB drive, then take that external USB drive and hook it up to my desktop, and have Windows boot off the external hard drive? If everything is okay, then I would like to take that image from the external USB and install it on my desktop.

Yes, It is possible to install Windows from another PC. It's rather easy than most people think. As the matter of fact, it's easier to install Windows on another disk while running Windows.
EDIT: Come to think of it. If you install Windows from another PC then boot up from your Desk Top, and if it still does not work then the problem is in your PC hardware.

timlab55 · May 16, 2023

Topgundcp - Well, I have some very good news! I got it to work (maybe) as I will know more in the morning after it's been off all night long. I've really thought long and hard about this, as this case is a monster to move from place to place to work on it. Even tho I have it working now the problem that I'm seeing is that it BIOS boots up (no problem there). Then the screen goes blank for a second and then the welcome screen comes up with the spinning circle. The circle might take about 1 min and then the screen goes blank again (where you should actually see the login screen), but goes blank. Then I see no input to the monitor and the monitor goes blank. Then I turn off the power, hit the switch again to turn it back on, and see works like a charm. My plan of attack is this coming Saturday, I plan to open the case and tear it all down. Reapply the thermal paste, and clean the vents with an air gun, not just air. Check all the wires and reseat all the cables again. Then put everything back together. I've noticed some flickering on the monitor (either loose wire, Video card going out, or PSU. I have a lot more devices connected to my PC than what is mentioned in the computer statement. In addition to this, I undervolted my system (by -50) so that I don't get all that heat.

After I do all this, I will charm back in and let you all know how it worked out. In the meantime, if you guys have anymore suggestions I'll be happy to listen to them and answer.
Thanks

Topgundcp · May 16, 2023

Well, I think you still have problem, it should not take a minute with spinning circle. You have quite a nice PC compare to mine, a 10 year old MSI-Z77 (i7-3770K), unsupported for W11 and it only takes between 15-20 sec to boot up, Since you mentioned about the screen flickering, yes. you should also clean the contact an re-seat tightly. If any of your devices got loose, You will also got spinning circle and sometimes BSOD..
I still suggest that you download memtest, before bed time, let it run overnight, one less thing to worry about. Good Luck !!!

timlab55 · May 16, 2023

Topgundcp - Thanks for the suggestion about letting memtest run all night long. My only problem, if you look at my specs, is that my TDP is 125. Even tho it's a nice setup, the heat is something I'm trying to control by undervolting it. I sure would hate to wake up in the middle of the night and see smoke going through my house if you know what I mean. However, maybe tomorrow while I'm outside (sunny SC, cutting the grass), I'll let it run for about 3 hours and see if it shows anything.

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