pctechguide.com

  • Home
  • Guides
  • Tutorials
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • Glossary
  • Contact

What to do when Windows 10 won’t boot (Part 1)

It can be very frightening when your computer won’t boot or Windows 10 crashes when you turn it on. What could have happened? And more importantly, what can you do to try to fix it? Today we bring you a guide with a few solutions for the most common problems when Windows 10 does not boot correctly or shows failures when booting.

We are going to explain it in the simplest and most basic way possible, and we will try to cover as many cases as possible. We will talk about everything from how to try to repair slow startups to when a computer does not boot, through the possible failures you may have after updates or blue screens. If you are growing to hate Windows 10, maybe wait for Windows 11 release.

If the problem is not so much that the computer does not boot, but that it boots too slowly, the best measure is to always prevent some particularly heavy applications from starting up together with the operating system. To do this, press Control + Alt + Delete and choose the Task Manager option. In it, click on More details to access all the information.

Once you are in the full version of the Task Manager, click on the Startup section in the top row. You will see a list of all the applications that try to start at startup. There are two important columns here, the Status column because if it says Enabled it is because the application starts automatically when you turn on your PC, and the Startup Impact column because it tells you how much this application penalizes your computer when it starts at startup.

With this data you can now make informed decisions. Now, click on the application that you want to stop starting automatically when you turn on the computer (1), and once you have selected it click on the Disable button to stop it from starting, so that to run it you have to be the one who starts it deliberately. Try to do this with the applications that have the greatest impact on the startup of your computer, something that will be indicated in the Startup Impact column.

No USB or memory cards are connected.

Sometimes, a Windows update can cause the computer not to start because of a conflict with an external memory drive. And even if there has not been an update, it is also possible that the BIOS may be set to attempt to boot the operating system from external storage first.

In either case, an important step to take is to remove all connected external memory, whether USB drives, microSD cards, or anything else. Then, restart the computer again. If you have a DVD or Bluray player, also remove the disc just in case.

An accessory or peripheral is not working properly.

In other occasions, even though Windows seems to boot correctly, it is some peripheral or component of your computer that does not seem to work correctly. In these cases, it is advisable to update your computer’s drivers. Generally, this is something that Windows 10 does by itself, but you can also resort to third-party applications to update Drivers, and sometimes they are even more effective. Of course, the best ones are usually paid.

A driver is a small file present in each component, accessory and hardware of your computer. Its function is to act as a ‘link’ between the operating system you have installed and the hardware or peripherals connected, both internal and external. For it, these files have information with which your operating system knows what is connected, how to get to the component to use it, and how it works or what it can do with each one.

Updating a driver can be used both to avoid bugs and errors that have been discovered and to solve problems or fix them in case they have stopped working properly. To find out which drivers are missing on your computer, just open the file explorer and right-click on This computer. In the pop-up menu, click on the Manage option in the second position.

This will open a window with the Computer Management options, which includes all the information about your computer components, system tools and some advanced services. Here, in the column of the left you must deploy the options of System Tools, and once they are shown click on the option Device Manager that will appear in the last place inside them.

We will cover some more tips in the next article on this topic.

Filed Under: Articles

Latest Articles

Graphics Card Upgrade Reasons

There are an number of reasons why you may wish to upgrade your graphics card: problems with your current card better performance to drive a digital screen to support dual screens. In truth the performance of graphics cards has been more than adequate for office-type applications for … [Read More...]

Tape Storage Mammoth

Exabyte has been a leader in the tape storage industry for more than a decade, pioneering the use of 8mm tape for backup, incorporating Sony's camcorder-based mechanisms into over 1.5 million tape drives. While camcorder-based mechanisms … [Read More...]

2001 Updates to the PC Technology Guide – www.pctechguide.com

Date Details of site updates in 2001 1Dec '01 Download/Site Licence: After an absence of a couple of months a Download version of the site is again available, together with new Site Licence options aimed at educational establishments, as distinct from … [Read More...]

Gaming Laptop Security Guide: Protecting Your High-End Hardware Investment in 2025

Since Jacob took over PC Tech Guide, we’ve looked at how tech intersects with personal well-being and digital safety. Gaming laptops are now … [Read More...]

20 Cool Creative Commons Photographs About the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to have a huge impact on our lives. The market value for AI is estimated to have been worth $279.22 billion in 2024 and it … [Read More...]

13 Impressive Stats on the Future of AI

AI technology is starting to become much more important in our everyday lives. Many businesses are using it as well. While he has created a lot of … [Read More...]

Graphic Designers on Reddit Share their Views of AI

There are clearly a lot of positive things about AI. However, it is not a good thing for everyone. One of the things that many people are worried … [Read More...]

Redditors Talk About the Impact of AI on Freelance Writers

AI technology has had a huge impact on our lives. A 2023 survey by Pew Research found that 56% of people use AI at least once a day or once a week. … [Read More...]

11 Most Popular Books on Perl Programming

Perl is not the most popular programming language. It has only one million users, compared to 12 million that use Python. However, it has a lot of … [Read More...]

Guides

  • Computer Communications
  • Mobile Computing
  • PC Components
  • PC Data Storage
  • PC Input-Output
  • PC Multimedia
  • Processors (CPUs)

Recent Posts

Kaspersky Password Manager Review

[starreviewmulti id=3 tpl=20] PROS: Kaspersky Password Manager saves all your computer passwords into one database. CONS: You will still have … [Read More...]

8 Principles of ISO 9001 Requirements

We previously wrote an article on the importance of quality control in software development. There are a number of principles to consider. One of the … [Read More...]

ADSL Implimentation

In the UK, BT (British Telecom) commenced pilot trials of its ADSL technology - in north and west London - in late 1998. … [Read More...]

[footer_backtotop]

Copyright © 2025 About | Privacy | Contact Information | Wrtie For Us | Disclaimer | Copyright License | Authors