How Computers Work · Starting Up · Lesson 5 of 5

Challenge: The Update That Went Wrong

Help a neighbor whose laptop won't start properly after an update.

Stuck in a restart loop

Your neighbor Marcus knocks on your door with his laptop. Last night Windows installed an update. This morning the laptop shows the maker's logo, then restarts. It did this twice.

Now a blue screen says Choose an option, with buttons for Continue, Troubleshoot and Turn off your PC.

Marcus is worried he has lost everything. You explain that this blue menu is the Windows Recovery Environment. Windows opened it on purpose after failing to start twice. His files are most likely still on the drive.

The trouble began right after an update. So you want the gentlest tool that targets exactly that.

A screen asking for a key

Before the tool runs, a screen asks for a 48-digit recovery key. Marcus has never heard of it.

You explain that his drive is encrypted. The TPM normally unlocks it without asking. In recovery, Windows sometimes needs the backup key instead.

He signs in to his Microsoft account on his phone. The key was saved there when the laptop was set up. He types it in, and the drive unlocks.

Testing in safe mode

The update is removed, and Windows starts. But the screen flickers and the Wi-Fi keeps dropping. Marcus also installed a new graphics driver yesterday.

You want to find out if that driver is the cause. You open Advanced startup again and go to Startup Settings. You choose safe mode with networking so you can still get online.

In safe mode the flicker is gone.

The last resort

You roll back the graphics driver, and the laptop works again. Marcus asks what he should do if this ever happens and nothing helps.

You tell him about Reset this PC. It reinstalls Windows when the smaller fixes fail. You also tell him to back up his photos to a cloud folder first.

He writes down which of the two reset choices to pick so his photos and documents survive.