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Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


Problem description
So, when I start up my pc - Lenovo think pad L540 - it gets stuck at the spinning circle. Try to do a recovery, same thing. I've run every diagnostic I can find in the startup menu and they all claim it checks out.

What I think may be the key, despite not getting it: after the time it usually takes to boot, my pic blacks out for a moment and resumes, like it normally would when booting, but instead of the welcome screen it keeps booting. If I put it to sleep after this, like I did by mistake once, it's grey and the mouse curser is there afterwards.

Can you guys help?

attempted solutions have tried recovery, but can't.

specs
My pic is a Lenovo thinkpad L540. Don't have access to the exact specs at the moment, I'm sorry. Windows 10

Magnusth fucked around with this message at 14:04 on Jul 23, 2016

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Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


I totally failed to read the rules. My bad. Will edit in correct template.

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

It sounds like the HD may be failing in some way.


I'd try running http://www.memtest.org/ first.

Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


Okay, how do I do that without access to windows? From a usb or something?

Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

You'd need to use another computer and install this to a blank USB drive:
http://www.memtest.org/download/5.01/memtest86+-5.01.usb.installer.zip

Then insert it into the thinkpad's USB and let it run overnight sometime.


If no memory errors are found and the thinkpad has an HDD (not an SSD) I'd take the HD out and connect it to another computer using one of these https://www.amazon.com/Drive-Adapter-Converter-Optical-External/dp/B002OV1VJW

Then I'd run the portable zip edition of CDI to check for HD errors:
http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html

Zogo fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Jul 24, 2016

Magnusth
Sep 25, 2014

Hello, Creature! Do You Despise Goat Hating Fascists? So Do We! Join Us at Paradise Lost!


Thanks! I can't do all that now, because I'm in Osaka, but once I get back home I'll see if I can get that done.

Rusty Shackleford
Sep 13, 2008
I have this same problem on my desktop sometimes with Windows 10- usually I cut the power then do a diagnostic test and that clears it up, but recently (10 min ago) it happened again and I did a little research into other solutions. I found some talk about unplugging anything in a USB port and it will start up, specifically the mouse in my case. As soon as I unplugged the USB to the mouse it started right up. I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on why/how this works? Is it because I am using an ancient mouse from 10 years ago?

specs:
Windows 10 64-bit
ASUS Sabertooth Z97 Mark 2 motherboard

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Zogo
Jul 29, 2003

Rusty Shackleford posted:

I was wondering if anyone had some ideas on why/how this works? Is it because I am using an ancient mouse from 10 years ago?

Possibly. An old and failing keyboard/printer/mouse or any other peripheral can cause behavior like that.

The only way to be sure is trying another mouse.


If the problem continues you should make another thread.

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