I haven't tried that yet, but I will when I get home. Thanks! I tried F1 and F2, but I did not try F8, and so maybe that will work.

I went home for lunch and started the computer holding the F8 key, and that worked! Thank you very much for this help - as you can see, I was already shopping for a replacement, and I'm very happy that I do not have to do that at this time.

When the computer started, it appeared to be in the middle of a Windows update, and the other times I've had problems, Windows was trying to update. I updated my virus protection while I was at it because I had not been able to use the computer for three days, and it said the files were out of date, even though I have it set to update automatically. By the way, I did not have to go into Safe Mode, and the computer just started normally when I held the F8 key down at the beginning.

Lars,

If you see that your Windows 10 computer is Updating when you're ready to shut it down, Don't Force a Shut Down, Let Windows Finish the Updates! Windows should tell you Don't Turn the Computer Off when it is Updating! If you do Turn it off during the Updates you may be in for load of trouble down the road! A few minutes of occasional Updates may save you hours of repairs later. BTW, your Computer is only 4 years old and should last for some time to come.

Hi Lars,

Where you at with this? Have you been able to boot the computer into normal mode?

Kaspersky AV is just as good as any other AV to protect you from malicious content though zero day exploits are out there. Even the most up to date virus definitions can not prevent you from getting infected. Smart computing is the only way to stay infection free,

What you experienced could be anything from a corrupt Windows update to drive conflict, to file corruption, failing hardware, etc. Because you were able to boot into Safe Mode tells me that corruption of some sort is the culprit.

If you are still unable to boot into normal mode, do a system restore to a time before this occurred. That should fix the unbootable problem.

Donna :)

I do not think that Windows 10 allows a System Restore, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I was not able to do that, but there may be a way to do it that I am not aware of.

I never force a shut down when I know that Windows is updating, but I think that sometimes it is starting an update when the computer is starting, and it gets stuck, and then I do force a shut down. For the past few days, (and even now), when I start the computer, it gets past the point where it has the text for safe mode, and then I get a screen with the blue circle with HP logo on it, and it stops there. Normally, there is a rotating circle of dots below that, indicating that it is working on something, after which it goes to my log-in screen, but lately it has not been showing that circle of dots when I first start it, and so I shut it down by holding down the start button on the computer, and when I start it again, it does go to the screen with the rotating circle of dots below the HP logo, and then into the log-in screen. I am a bit concerned that I have to start it twice, although for now, this is working.

Are you sure that you can do a System Restore in Windows 10? If so, how do I do it?

Hi Lars,

I am sorry. I need to pay closer attention to my terminology. I mean to go back to a previous restore point by using system restore. This is not taking the system back to a previous version of Windows nor the same a doing a factory reset. System Restore is disabled by default in Windows 10. Make sure to read the information thoroughly in the link below:

http://home.bt.com/tech-gadgets/computing/how-to-fix-windows-10-problems-with-system-restore-11364008291943

I followed those instructions and got to the screen where I could do the most minimal "restore", which is actually a reinstall of Windows. It warned me that if I proceeded, I would have to reinstall all programs that I have installed in the past four years, preferably from discs, most of which I do not have, as I had downloaded most programs (the only option given in some cases), and so I decided to limp along the way it is. I still have to start the computer twice to get to my login- screen.

Hm? Have a look a Brinks instructions in the link below. You should
be able to choose a restore point that will not reset nor reinstall
Windows 10. Option One is what you want....

How to Do a System Restore of Windows 10

My computer had been working fine for the past couple of months, but now when I try to start, I get a black screen with no options whatsoever. I tried booting while holding down the F8 key, and now this does not work either. I have a feeling that the computer is completely dead at this point, but fortunately I have nothing stored on C drive, except for a few programs that can easily be reinstalled if I replace the computer. It's only four years old, and I expected it to last a bit longer than that, but it looks like I have no other options.

Is there anything else I can do to get my computer to start?

In this case, you may want to insert Windows installation or recovery media and run the Startup Repair operation. This will attempt to make Windows bootable again.
You will need a USB recovery drive for windows 10. Do you have another working windows 10 computer ?

You might,

Try holding the shift key and the f8 key down at the same time and restart the computer.

Or

Take it in for repair since this is the second major issue you have had.

My brother has a working Windows 10 computer, and so I assume I can use that to create a USB recovery drive. I'll try holding the shift key and F8 key while restarting, but since I'm getting a completely black screen, I'm afraid this may not be enough.

Thanks for the tip on the recovery drive - I am fine with losing installed programs, as I do not have that many, but I am concerned with the program I downloaded (and paid for) so that the blu-ray drive that I installed will work.

As long as there both 64Bit operating systems or 32 Bit.

Google "USB Recovery drive win 10," look for the windows 10 forum link and that will guide you how to make it and what to do with it. I believe there is a repair option on the recovery drive.

The Shift key + F8 worked, and so now I need to get a new flash drive so that I will have a recovery option. I have a blank 4 gig flash drive, but I normally keep that in the blu-ray player, as it needs the memory, and that is the perfect size for it. Not sure what size I need for a recovery drive. I could possibly also make a blu-ray disc - would that have enough storage for a recovery disc?

I really appreciate your help, as your tip worked perfectly, and I would not have thought of it on my own.

The recovery option in my computer for the recovery drive would take the computer back to Win 7, which would probably be okay, if necessary. I'm just hoping that this problem does not continue. The problem started this time when I tried to turn on the computer while the monitor was unplugged (this happened accidentally without my noticing it), and plugging it back in did not solve the problem on its own.

Hello,

Your way to far ahead here, the whole Idea of the recovery drive was to access windows that's all. We are not doing a system recovery to Windows 7, that being said still make a recovery drive as outlined here,

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/instantanswers/3a747883-b706-43a5-a286-9e98f886d490/create-a-recovery-drive

So next time when the computer will not boot you will have the usb recovery drive to boot from. The whole idea is to get back into Windows, you got lucky with the shiftkey thing.

Since you have the computer booted how is running ?

The computer runs fine, once it gets started.

Thanks for the link on creating the recovery USB - I printed out the instructions and will follow those when I get home.

If you're are still having to boot using shift f8

When you boot using the shift key an f8, Windows goes into the advanced boot options menu, You should have other options to select besides safe mode. Is there a "repair" option or a" reset" option or even system restore ? I don't have a windows 10 to check the options available. If repair is available I'd try that first. System restore is a consideration and so is reset if those options are there. Reset will reinstall win 10 and keep your files

I created a restore point, and I was unable to do that before. When I boot now, the computer runs okay, but I still have to get another USB drive to create the recovery drive. It said I need a drive that will hold at least 32 Gigabytes and that everything else on that drive will be deleted. The only empty drive I have holds only 4 Gigabytes, and so I will put that one back in the blu-ray player, as that is all it needs.
I do not think that anything needs to be repaired now, as when I checked, it said that there were no errors.