SOLVED Stuck In A Reboot Loop

[hardhatgirl]

During startup automatic repair launches, restart ensues, that's the loop. The error mssg is WDF violation which it seems is related to iTunes. I just can't get out of this loop to do anything about it. I don't have a boot disc. Safe mode is what I would like, but that doesn't work. Help! And thank you.

 

[hardhatgirl]

solved!! I'm a happygirl. it turns out it was very simple. wipe it and start over. hahaha. all better

 

[Handy13]

Cannot afford to wipe out all my work on the machine. Tonight I installed Win10 on a machine running Win7. Initially got a black screen apparently because it did not recognize my USB keyboard/mouse device. Fixed that. Then I installed the Android emulator for Visual Studio 15 (it would not install on Win7. Said I needed Win10. After emulator installation, the system said it needed to reboot. After reboot, the machine got stuck in an endless "WDF Violation"/reboot loop. Hardhatgirl was willing to wipe all the contents of her machine. I am not! Last time I saw an endless loop was on a Philco 2000 mainframe! Did not expect to see one in Win10. I violated my number 1 rule about operating systems though "Never put up an operating system until others have used it for over a year." I was just trying to see if Visual Studio was a better environment for Android development than the Android Development System. I am currently doing something that says "Resetting this PC" on the broken OS machine. Takes forever. I tried the only available restore point but the system said that failed. I tried repair from the installation disk and that said I needed to run it from a running system! Since the system is not running I could not do that!

Does anyone have a real solution for this loop? Does anyone know definitively what causes it? Does anyone know a simple way to fix it? Or does one have to do a "Reset" that takes about 1/2 hour to an hour.

Reset finished. Same problem is occurring. I really don't want to wipe out everything on that disk...

 

[Handy13]

Lots of experimentation led me to this:

1. USB 3.0 hardware/software in my machine was unable to start. Don't know why. Driver supposedly OK.
2. Plugging my USB - PS2 Keyboard - Mouse adapter in somehow screwed things up.
3. Plugging into successive ports eventually led to a combination that allowed the machine to come up.
4. The machine would NOT come up with the device unplugged. I had to find the "right" USB port.
5. The "right" USB port seemed to switch around. Was never clear which one was "the one" to allow the machine to come up on a restart.
   
6. DevManView and Device Manager provided some insight but not much.
7. I disabled the USB 3.0 system that showed a yellow flag in Device Manager.
8. I tried plugging in my USB - PS2 Keyboard - Mouse adapter in and Windows 10 said it could not recognize it. Didn't like it at all!
   
9. Then used USB keyboard and USB mouse and then the system came up every time.
10. Unfortunately as part of trying to figure out this mess, Windows 10 uninstalled all my software. My files are still there fortunately but uninstalling all my software was REALLY ANNOYING! 159 item were uninstalled without my permission or knowledge effectively.

NOTE TO MICROSOFT:

1. USB has always been a mess. DevManView has, on occasion, showed me that there were 3 COM3 ports active at one time. None of them work when that happens. Cannot see such problems in Device Manager. Have to use DevManView to see these sorts of problems. Have to use DevManView to uninstall them then use Device Manager to Scan For Hardware Changes to get the COM ports back.
   
2. The Windows 10 endless "WDF Violation"/reboot loop is pretty dumb. Doesn't help anything and actually makes it impossible to figure out where the problem is. Makes it impossible to use the machine. Most people would not be able to figure this out. Of course this might not happen to anyone else? BTW I am an MSDN subscriber and have been for many years...

 

[Handy13]

More info for what its worth. Possibly I am the only one on the planet that is having this problem but here is what I found after LOTS of experimentation:

1. HP Pavilion P7-1380t is the machine.
2. I am trying to use SIIG USB keyboard - mouse adapter to a KVM switch so I can easily switch between my 4 computers using one monitor and one keyboard. The adapter supposedly has an active chip to satisfy PS/2 requirements.
   
3. If things are "right" on my system, I can plug in the adapter and then I can use the PS/2 keyboard and mouse that I use for my other 3 machines.
4. If I unplug the adapter, wait 10 seconds, plug the adapter back in, then the Windows 10 system refuses to use the adapter and says it has a reset failure.
5. The same problem occurs on a reboot. The device never recovers.
6. So here is the only way I know of to get the adapter working again:
   • Unplug the USB adapter.
   • Plug in a regular USB keyboard and a USB mouse.
   • Use the keyboard and mouse to get back in (just use them or use them after reboot)
   • Run Microsoft's DevManView (available for free - search Google for it.)
   • In the Device Name list, locate the "USB Composite Device" entry.
   • The USB Composite Device entry is followed by several entries that say "USB Input Device."
   • Uninstall ALL of them using DevManView's File/Uninstall menu item. (Note: there is no way to do this in the Device Manager! You have to use DevManView to see what is REALLY going on.)
     
   • Then run Device Manager and click on your PC then run Action/Scan for Hardware Changes.
   • This will reinstall the "USB Composite Device" and it will now be in working condition.
   • Unplug the USB keyboard and the USB mouse.
   • Plug in the USB adapter and then you now can use the PS/2 keyboard and mouse it is attached to.

Again, maybe this is a one of a kind problem and will not happen to anyone else. It did, with an earlier non-active type of adapter, cause my machine in Windows 10 to enter a reboot loop that was almost impossible to recover from.

Would like to hear from anyone who has any idea of the cause and some way to cure it. It is annoying to have to go through this process to get my adapter working.

 

[wtf10]

@hardhatgirl , please tell about your solution.

 

[Joe T]

I was similarly stuck in an Automatic Repair loop several weeks after installing Windows 10, and tried many of the suggested fix options, including System Reset and System Restore, none of which worked. Finally, I went into the System Startup Settings tab and selected "disable early launch malware protection" (or something like that, I can't remember the exact title) and it worked. The computer started up fine after that, and none if my data was lost.

 

[Ben Davis]

bitterly disappointed with 10 after the "free upgrade". Microsoft continues to produce an operating system that has its own unique brand of failure - this time it appears to be the WDF violation followed by a painfully slow rebooting process. Not yet worked out how to stop it. Given a choice, I would not use windows at all, but too many programmes are still used in industry that wont let me exclusively use my Mac which never, ever has the same problem (apart from once when there was a problem with...wait for it.....Microsoft Office. Oh, can anyone spot the theme?). Come on Bill - sort it out.

 

[Joe T]

Attached is some more detail about the solution that worked for me. Posters in another thread asked for more details about my post.

As described in the initial post of the thread, when I tried to boot the computer, an Automatic Repair screen runs, then a Diagnosing PC screen. The Repair/Diagnosis fails and I end up on a blue screen that says the problem couldn't be diagnosed and provides options to "Restart Computer" (which just leads into the same loop) or "Advanced Options." I hit "Advanced Options", then "Troubleshoot", then another "Advanced Options", then "Startup Settings" (on this screen there are also options for "Reset System", "Restore Previous Build" and others, all of which failed), then "Restart", then (finally) "Disable Early Launch Anti-Malware Protection". Once I hit this, the computer started fine, and I was able to view all my files and apps and use the computer. However, when I shut down, the problem occurred again, so I had to run through all the same selections again. After that, I uninstalled my virus/security software (Norton 360) and the computer came on without issue, so it seems like the virus/security software may be the issue for me. I have not yet tried to reinstall the virus/security software.

 

[rollie haus]

It seems to me that all of this information would help me, however my computer will not stop the cycle long enough for me to do anything. I am in no way or form concerned about losing anything from the computer and am willing to reset it, but I don't have a installation disk or access to a USB download.