JeFtFotF
Member
- Local time
- 1:09 AM
- Posts
- 5
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro 25H2
Our primary computer, a Dell XPS 8960 (2024) running Windows 11 Pro 25H2, crashed late on 27 August after I restarted it (I did not verify the specific need for restarting, e.g., a particular Windows update). The following message appeared on a black screen, and I’ve seen it several times while trying repairs:
The Dell’s boot drive (C:) is a 512GB SSD (M.2, PCIe NVMe); and the storage drive (D:) is a 2TB HDD (7200 RPM, SATA). I don’t know if I can get V2/DM logs unless I can find them via the Command Prompt. Over-clocking is disabled.
In attempting many repairs, there have been no clear indications that any of the Microsoft “Automatic Repair” options have worked, and many indications they have not worked, e.g., “failed,” “did not complete successfully,” “We ran into a problem…,” etc. Details follow.
Automatic Repair: “Your PC did not start correctly…”
* Selecting “Restart” did not correct the problem. (I have not gotten to Safe Mode…)
Automatic Repair: “Advanced Options”
* Selecting “Continue…to Windows 11” did not correct the problem.
* Selecting “Turn off your PC” did not correct the problem.
* Selecting “Use a device” did not correct the problem.
-- Note: This option showed “a USB drive” and “recovery DVD” as possible devices, but only the NICs (IPV4 & IPV6) were shown when “Use a device” was selected.
* Selected “Troubleshoot” to continue.
Automatic Repair: “Troubleshoot”
* Point-in-time Restore: “No restore point available. Turn point-in-time restore on in Settings… ErrorCode: 0x80004005”
* Reset this PC (aka reinstall Windows): Selected “Keep my files.” I tried both download from the cloud and local reinstall via USB drive that has Windows installation media generated from a Microsoft download on our laptop. The Dell black screen showed “Resetting this PC n%” but eventually switched to the blue “Reset this PC” screen that showed, “There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.”
* Factory Image Restore: I have not tried this option yet.
Automatic Repair: “Troubleshoot” – “Advanced options”
* Startup Repair: The Dell black screen showed “Diagnosing your PC,” then the blue Startup Repair page showed,
“Startup Repair couldn’t repair your PC. Press “Advanced options” to try other options to repair your PC or “Shut down” to turn off your PC.
Log file: D:\WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt”
-- Note: The “Advanced options” option pointed back to the same “Advanced Options” menu page shown above.
-- Note: Windows is loaded on the C drive of this computer. The D drive is a separate drive we use for data, although the Command Prompt function shows it as “D:”
(see note below for more information about the C & D drives and the Logfiles folder).
* Startup Settings: When restarting “to change Windows option,” I have not been able to get into Safe Mode, including via #4 or F4, #5 or F5, or #6 or F6 in this option.
The process returns to the blue BitLocker recovery key window by way of a similar window as though nothing was selected.
* Command Prompt: Ran CHKDSK, which showed a variety of results:
-- “The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.”
-- “The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present.”
-- “Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure… 0 bad file records processed.”
-- “Stage 2: Examining file name linkage… 0 unindexed files scanned…”
-- “Stage 3: Examining security descriptors… Data attribute verification: …Errors detected in the uppercase file.”
-- “Windows has checked the file system and found problems… 0 KB in bad sectors.”
-- “Unable to obtain a handle to the event log.”
-- Ran CHKDSK /r, but the result shown was “Cannot lock current drive” and “Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.”
-- Note: Checked the Windows\System32\Logfiles directory (the C drive is shown as “X:”); there is no Srt directory, nor SrtTrail.txt in the Logfiles directory.
The D drive we know is shown as “C:” in this situation, and our data folders appear intact (at least at the top level).
-- Note: The connected USB with Win11 installation media is shown as “E:” and “ESD USB”
* Uninstall Updates: Neither the latest quality update nor the latest feature update would be successfully uninstalled.
-- Uninstall latest quality update: After initial “uninstalling…,” the process stated,
“We ran into a problem and won’t be able to uninstall the latest quality update of Windows.”
-- Uninstall latest feature update: The process stated,
“We ran into a problem and won’t be able to uninstall the latest feature update of Windows. Try resetting your PC instead (Troubleshoot > Reset this PC).”
(That didn’t work either; see above.)
* UEFI Firmware Settings: I did not see anything I should change, but I could have missed something.
* System Restore: This process showed a couple of identical date/time options (8/27/2026 2:23:32 AM) for the type “Windows Update” from which to choose.
However, after confirming the restore point, the process “failed while restoring the registry from the restore point.
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070003)”.
Other attempts to make corrections and other indications:
* I was able to boot from the USB drive with Windows installation media, via pressing F12 when turning on power to the computer. Initial indications were positive: Select language and keyboard settings, Select setup option: “Repair my PC” (vs “Install Windows 11,” and “your files, apps, and settings will be deleted”). But then nothing else appeared to happen except “Diagnosing…” and the reappearance of the BitLocker recovery key window. (I’ve lost count of the times I have entered the recovery key.)
* I can get into the BIOS (via F2 on boot) and was able to reset the boot options to use the thumb drive, but that was not successful either. The USB light flashed but the monitor showed (briefly) “No media present.” I returned the boot order to what it was.
* I also was able to run Dell’s Diagnostics via pressing F12 when booting. Interestingly, both the Quick Test and the Advanced Test completed successfully, although the results shown were high-level: “Pre-boot diagnostics test passed. No issues were found.”
* I have seen several instances of “Undoing changes” on the black Dell screen, but have not seen any differences from changes that supposedly were undone.
What do you think and/or suggest? I have not found a way out of this Automatic Repair loop.
“Your device ran into a problem and needs to restart.
We’ll restart for you.
Stop code: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE (0x7B).”
We’ll restart for you.
Stop code: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE (0x7B).”
The Dell’s boot drive (C:) is a 512GB SSD (M.2, PCIe NVMe); and the storage drive (D:) is a 2TB HDD (7200 RPM, SATA). I don’t know if I can get V2/DM logs unless I can find them via the Command Prompt. Over-clocking is disabled.
In attempting many repairs, there have been no clear indications that any of the Microsoft “Automatic Repair” options have worked, and many indications they have not worked, e.g., “failed,” “did not complete successfully,” “We ran into a problem…,” etc. Details follow.
Automatic Repair: “Your PC did not start correctly…”
* Selecting “Restart” did not correct the problem. (I have not gotten to Safe Mode…)
Automatic Repair: “Advanced Options”
* Selecting “Continue…to Windows 11” did not correct the problem.
* Selecting “Turn off your PC” did not correct the problem.
* Selecting “Use a device” did not correct the problem.
-- Note: This option showed “a USB drive” and “recovery DVD” as possible devices, but only the NICs (IPV4 & IPV6) were shown when “Use a device” was selected.
* Selected “Troubleshoot” to continue.
Automatic Repair: “Troubleshoot”
* Point-in-time Restore: “No restore point available. Turn point-in-time restore on in Settings… ErrorCode: 0x80004005”
* Reset this PC (aka reinstall Windows): Selected “Keep my files.” I tried both download from the cloud and local reinstall via USB drive that has Windows installation media generated from a Microsoft download on our laptop. The Dell black screen showed “Resetting this PC n%” but eventually switched to the blue “Reset this PC” screen that showed, “There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made.”
* Factory Image Restore: I have not tried this option yet.
Automatic Repair: “Troubleshoot” – “Advanced options”
* Startup Repair: The Dell black screen showed “Diagnosing your PC,” then the blue Startup Repair page showed,
“Startup Repair couldn’t repair your PC. Press “Advanced options” to try other options to repair your PC or “Shut down” to turn off your PC.
Log file: D:\WINDOWS\System32\Logfiles\Srt\SrtTrail.txt”
-- Note: The “Advanced options” option pointed back to the same “Advanced Options” menu page shown above.
-- Note: Windows is loaded on the C drive of this computer. The D drive is a separate drive we use for data, although the Command Prompt function shows it as “D:”
(see note below for more information about the C & D drives and the Logfiles folder).
* Startup Settings: When restarting “to change Windows option,” I have not been able to get into Safe Mode, including via #4 or F4, #5 or F5, or #6 or F6 in this option.
The process returns to the blue BitLocker recovery key window by way of a similar window as though nothing was selected.
* Command Prompt: Ran CHKDSK, which showed a variety of results:
-- “The shadow copy provider had an unexpected error while trying to process the specified operation.”
-- “The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk might report errors when no corruption is present.”
-- “Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure… 0 bad file records processed.”
-- “Stage 2: Examining file name linkage… 0 unindexed files scanned…”
-- “Stage 3: Examining security descriptors… Data attribute verification: …Errors detected in the uppercase file.”
-- “Windows has checked the file system and found problems… 0 KB in bad sectors.”
-- “Unable to obtain a handle to the event log.”
-- Ran CHKDSK /r, but the result shown was “Cannot lock current drive” and “Windows cannot run disk checking on this volume because it is write protected.”
-- Note: Checked the Windows\System32\Logfiles directory (the C drive is shown as “X:”); there is no Srt directory, nor SrtTrail.txt in the Logfiles directory.
The D drive we know is shown as “C:” in this situation, and our data folders appear intact (at least at the top level).
-- Note: The connected USB with Win11 installation media is shown as “E:” and “ESD USB”
* Uninstall Updates: Neither the latest quality update nor the latest feature update would be successfully uninstalled.
-- Uninstall latest quality update: After initial “uninstalling…,” the process stated,
“We ran into a problem and won’t be able to uninstall the latest quality update of Windows.”
-- Uninstall latest feature update: The process stated,
“We ran into a problem and won’t be able to uninstall the latest feature update of Windows. Try resetting your PC instead (Troubleshoot > Reset this PC).”
(That didn’t work either; see above.)
* UEFI Firmware Settings: I did not see anything I should change, but I could have missed something.
* System Restore: This process showed a couple of identical date/time options (8/27/2026 2:23:32 AM) for the type “Windows Update” from which to choose.
However, after confirming the restore point, the process “failed while restoring the registry from the restore point.
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070003)”.
Other attempts to make corrections and other indications:
* I was able to boot from the USB drive with Windows installation media, via pressing F12 when turning on power to the computer. Initial indications were positive: Select language and keyboard settings, Select setup option: “Repair my PC” (vs “Install Windows 11,” and “your files, apps, and settings will be deleted”). But then nothing else appeared to happen except “Diagnosing…” and the reappearance of the BitLocker recovery key window. (I’ve lost count of the times I have entered the recovery key.)
* I can get into the BIOS (via F2 on boot) and was able to reset the boot options to use the thumb drive, but that was not successful either. The USB light flashed but the monitor showed (briefly) “No media present.” I returned the boot order to what it was.
* I also was able to run Dell’s Diagnostics via pressing F12 when booting. Interestingly, both the Quick Test and the Advanced Test completed successfully, although the results shown were high-level: “Pre-boot diagnostics test passed. No issues were found.”
* I have seen several instances of “Undoing changes” on the black Dell screen, but have not seen any differences from changes that supposedly were undone.
What do you think and/or suggest? I have not found a way out of this Automatic Repair loop.
My Computer
At a glance
Windows 11 Pro 25H213th Gen Intel Core i7-13700 (2.1 to 5.1 GHz)32GB RAMNVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (8 GB), Intel UHD ...
- OS
- Windows 11 Pro 25H2
- Computer type
- PC/Desktop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Dell XPS 8960
- CPU
- 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700 (2.1 to 5.1 GHz)
- Memory
- 32GB RAM
- Graphics Card(s)
- NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti (8 GB), Intel UHD Graphics 770 (2 GB)
- Sound Card
- NVIDIA High Definition Audio, Realtek Audio
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Dell SE2722HX
- Screen Resolution
- 1920 x 1080
- Hard Drives
- 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD + 2TB 7200RPM 3.5 SATA HDD
