Need PC help

[McNasty 260]

Windows 10 on an SSD, probably 5 years old now with 8GB and a bunch of external drives.

 

I can get booted to the desktop, but can't open anything.  Can't ctrl alt del, can't even get to the task bar. The mouse icon just shows spinning over it.  I can click on files on the desktop, but can't open anything.

 

 no idea what the problem is, but I also don't want to have to buy windows 10.  I already have it, but I can't reformat it because I can't get to settings.  Thankfully everything is fully backed up so I could just buy a new SSD with fresh version of windows and be fine, but that's wasted money if it doesn't actually fix what's going on.  Could be bad memory, who knows.  Formatting windows would at least let me check that box off as it either works or doesn't, but i cant figure out how to do it.  ANy ideas?

[phil bottle 9,584]

Sorry dude, haven't a clue what that might be, I'm sure someone here will know something though

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[BO7H B4RRELS 2,447]

Have you tried turning it off and back on again?

 

 

[Greboth 2,705]

Why would have you have to buy windows 10 again? you can re-use the activation code multiple times before it wont activate windows.  Though then you just contact Microsoft and they will give you another code which will work.

 

It doesn't sound like a RAM problem though, they tend to manifest in random lock ups or BSOD's if and when the bad sector is used.  If you have access to another computer you can download memtest which will rule out RAM.

 

If it happens every single time you boot and you're getting in to Windows it sounds more like a software problem.  Either a Windows process or some other process that starts only after booting.  I presume you can still boot in to safe mode in W10, in which case I'd try that as it will load only the basic windows files.  You wont be able to do much in it but if it is software it can help narrow down what it is.