Windows Wont Boot after BIOS Change

KCsGreat

While tryin to fix one problem, I caused a new one. In BIOS upon exit i hit change to optimal defaults. Now my Windows wont boot up. Tried a few things I found on internet to no avail. I dont know much about computers but I am intelligent, so if anyone could walk me through how to fix this would be great. I dont wanna have to reinstall windows and cant afford to take it to a shop. Thank you so much and hopefully we can figure it our. 

JackE

Call the shops I recommended earlier and ask if they'll give you a free repair estimate. Certainly you can afford a free estimate. Jack E/NJ

KCsGreat

I dont have those shops here. I just need to fix BiOS settings since thats what I changed by setting to default. Shouldnt be that hard of a fix. There arent many settings that can be changed in my BIOS. There has to be an answer.  Just need it to boot windows and i changed it to default upon exiting which changed something. Has to be an answer. Im not trying to be difficult at all. I have zero money. A free estimate does me no good if i cant afford to fix it. I just had a heart attack with zero insurance. I owe the hospital a ton of money. Cant afford to do it man. I tried to explain that to you. Please any other ideas would be great. Please. 

Jason_Bourne

KCsGreat said:

I dont have those shops here. I just need to fix BiOS settings since thats what I changed by setting to default. Shouldnt be that hard of a fix. There arent many settings that can be changed in my BIOS. There has to be an answer.  Just need it to boot windows and i changed it to default upon exiting which changed something. Has to be an answer. Im not trying to be difficult at all. I have zero money. A free estimate does me no good if i cant afford to fix it. I just had a heart attack with zero insurance. I owe the hospital a ton of money. Cant afford to do it man. I tried to explain that to you. Please any other ideas would be great. Please. 

Thing is, changing BIOS settings to default should not prevent windows from booting. 

Now that your computer is dead anyway, you can afford some trial and error: try toggling between UEFI and Legacy boot modes, turning secure boot on and off to start.

KCsGreat

I toggled UEFI and Legacy. No luck. I dont see where to change secure boot on and off. And all i did that caused the error was changing to optimal defaults upon exiting. Thats all i did. 

Jason_Bourne

KCsGreat said:

I toggled UEFI and Legacy. No luck. I dont see where to change secure boot on and off. And all i did that caused the error was changing to optimal defaults upon exiting. Thats all i did. 

You have to set a BIOS supervisor password to disable secure boot. Make sure you don't forget the password you set, it isn't recoverable.

You can set a password in the "security" tab.

After you set a password go to the "boot" tab and disable secure boot, then see if windows boots. Toggle between UEFI and Legacy while it is off too.

What did you mean when you say "windows won't boot"? Are there any error messages or does it just freeze on the acer boot screen?

KCsGreat

It says Critical Process Died when it boots. This all happened after i change to optimal default settings in BIOS. Everything was working fine before that except my touchpad. Being the dummy i am i thought changing to defaults would fix that and it ended up causing this. 

KCsGreat

That didnt work. But i did notice when Legacy didnt work, when i came back into BiOS i had a list of priority order for boot. I didnt have that list under UEFI. Only thing i had was micron_1100 something. Is that the issue? Under legacy this is the order I have:

Samsung SSD ( this is drive i added extra )
Micron_1100_MTFDDAV256TBN
CdRom : HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GUE1N
    FDD:
Network Boot: Realtek PXE B04 D00
    HDD:
    CDRom:

i read somewhere else the order could get jacked up so does this look right? Or whats missing or what should we do?

Your first suggestions didnt work so whats next step?

KCsGreat

This is Windows 10 by the way. Not sure if i ever clarified that

Wilmerr

If you cannot enter the BIOS setup during boot, follow these steps to clear the CMOS:

1. Turn off all peripheral devices connected to the computer.
2. Disconnect the power cord from the AC power source.
3. Remove the computer cover.
4. Find the battery on the board. 
5. Wait one hour, then reconnect the battery.

krogereschedule

KCsGreat

I can enter bios. When i was in BIOS before the problem upon exit i hit Set to Optimal Default settings and now windows wont boot and it says Critical Process Died. Only thing i did was change the bios to default settings. I can launch the bios so i have no problem getting in there. Something changed within the bios im assuming I just dont know what. 

Jason_Bourne

KCsGreat said:

It says Critical Process Died when it boots. This all happened after i change to optimal default settings in BIOS. Everything was working fine before that except my touchpad. Being the dummy i am i thought changing to defaults would fix that and it ended up causing this. 

Does BIOS recognize the boot disk? 

At this point I'd try installing windows to the additional SSD you have to check if the problem lies with the windows installation itself

KCsGreat

I dont have a boot disc. Once again i dont know much about anything with computers either. And reinstalling i am going to lose everything which is what i am tryin to avoid. Shouldnt it just be something has been changed in BIOS that we can change back? I mean all i did was change settings to default. Gotta be another option. This sucks

Jason_Bourne

KCsGreat said:

I dont have a boot disc. Once again i dont know much about anything with computers either. And reinstalling i am going to lose everything which is what i am tryin to avoid. Shouldnt it just be something has been changed in BIOS that we can change back? I mean all i did was change settings to default. Gotta be another option. This sucks

No, you won't lose any files if you don't delete/format the installation partition.
Get a USB drive, make a windows bootable disk and install windows to a separate partition. Since you have 2 SSDs you should have enough space

KCsGreat

Im not computer savy like at all. So how big of USB do i need? Also, how do i make a windows bootable disc? And install it to separate partition does that mean install it to my SSD?  Sorry man i dont know jack. Haha. And i have like 20k itunes songs not all i bought on there. I also have a music studio so i have like 12 apps or whatever on my home screen for that. I dont wanna lose any of that stuff.  Thats what im worried about. All that will be safe?

KCsGreat

And also. If i put it on a usb thumb drive, id have to download it from someone elses computer correct since mine isnt working then bring it over to mine and install it?

Jason_Bourne

Im not computer savy like at all. So how big of USB do i need? Also, how do i make a windows bootable disc? And install it to separate partition does that mean install it to my SSD?  Sorry man i dont know jack. Haha. And i have like 20k itunes songs not all i bought on there. I also have a music studio so i have like 12 apps or whatever on my home screen for that. I dont wanna lose any of that stuff.  Thats what im worried about. All that will be safe?

KCsGreat said:

And also. If i put it on a usb thumb drive, id have to download it from someone elses computer correct since mine isnt working then bring it over to mine and install it?

Yes and yes

KCsGreat

Ok. Doing some more reading before I do full reinstall. I found someone on an old post say that if you changed back to default settings then it caused a problem with a driver you installed after the fact. So like whatever drivers come factory when you plug in new equipment (i have drum maschine, music keyboard, microphone, turntables) that new drivers are installed. So by resetting to factory defaults those are no longer there or messed up now so wont boot. Is this a possibility and if so could this be fixed?

KCsGreat

Also, I tried System Restore earlier in this process of trial and error. It said System Restore couldnt complete successfully. Is there a way to get it to complete successfully cuz maybe thats all it would take to revert it back to when it was working. I am just tryin to exhaust all avenues before having to full reinstall so these are a couple ideas i came up with. Thoughts?

KCsGreat

These are boot priorities under UEHI and Legacy. Just posting these in case it means something. 

anveshj

Your Intel® Desktop Board doesn't boot after a BIOS update. Clear the CMOS (complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor). Clearing the CMOS memory can solve BIOS corruption, but causes you to lose all customized settings in the BIOS. You also need to reset date and time in the BIOS setup after clearing the CMOS.
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