windows 8.1 hangs on Please Wait screen (restoreoptin)

Anonymous
2013-10-19T03:11:39+00:00

When logging in, a Please Wait screen shows up along with a Cancel button. I tried letting it sit there for more than half an hour but nothing happens. I noticed the application is letterboxed and I can use Win+D to see that the desktop show up. The screen stays on top blocking all mouse activity and most of my screen.

Eventually I logged into another account and found restoreoptin running and terminated it. That removed it from my original account however it will do it again if I log out and log back in.

Any ideas?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2013-10-25T17:25:19+00:00

<Modifying post to help other find the answer quickly>

I found another workaround that allows for still using skydrive, and further confirms the relationship to skydrive setup.

(This is the method I used)

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + L to lock the computer
  3. Switch to a user account with administrator priveledges
  4. open task manager & switch to the "Processes" tab (Press "More Details" if don't see a processes tab)
  5. find restoreoptin.exe & end task that process
  6. switch back to affected account (Start Page, click your account name/picture, click the account you want to switch to)
  7. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings
  8. Select Skydrive
  9. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick)
  10. logout & log back in
  11. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

Another workaround that should achieve the same, as posted by others:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press Windows Key + r
  3. Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 4. Open Charm menu (windows key + C), select "Settings", then Change PC Settings 5. Select Skydrive 6. Modify the File Storage, Camera Roll, and Sync Settings (not sure which one does the trick) 7. logout & log back in 8. you should no longer be prompted with the blank 'please wait' screen

and just for completeness, you could also try:

  1. login to the affected account
  2. Press: Windows Key + r

Type:

taskkill /f /im restoreoptin.exe 3. Press: Windows Key + x

Press: a

Press: <Alt + Y>

(run cmd as administrator) 4. Type:

cd c:\windows\system32

restoreOptIn.exe /Ramp
  1. Complete the Wizard

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Anonymous
2014-01-03T18:25:43+00:00

I fixed it much more simply. I had to recently rebuild my dell xps 27 and started with 8.0. Setup everyone's account since I have a home network and domain setup. Then upgraded, I ran into the same issue as everyone here in the post. What I had to do to fix is is unassociated all the windows live/Hotmail/outlook accounts from the domain accounts and then re-apply them. This then asked me to verify that the account has permissions to skydrive, and asked for verification. Texted me, I put in the verification code and it was fixed on all accounts. Someone also mentioned making it a local account and then reassigning to your windows account. Seems to fix it as well.

Steps for Domain accounts:

  1. Remove association from your windows account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. verify that the pc has permissions to back up your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Windows Account:

  1. Make it a local account
  2. Re-add your windows account
  3. Verify that the pc has permissions to backup your info to sky drive/turn off sync with sky drive.

Appears to be a bug in the 8.1 upgrade where the pc and sky drive trust is broken, it didn't happen until I received a windows update, but I could see this happening if you download the patches during the upgrade process.

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-12-30T00:33:09+00:00

    you may very well be right. you may have to keep repeating it as how many people will read through 14 pages of posts. (check page 9 folks)

    I will NOT roll back my driver (that I updated using GE Force) to challenge since it seems to be stable.

    I've tested with one microsoft account and will test with two starting tomorrow. I only had the problem on one of two accounts but some people have reported the problem using a single account.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-12-29T23:41:03+00:00

    what do you mean by "the onedrive setup page working correctly is a fix"? OK your first paragraph answered this question.

    how about those that said they updated the nvidia driver and the problem persisted?

    I would take a guess that they updated with the Windows update drivers for their Nvidia drivers and not by the method I detailed which is using Nvidia's update tool. You must use the Nvidia tool as per my instructions for it to work.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-12-29T20:54:40+00:00

    I am experiencing the same issue.  The laptop was unboxed a few days ago.  It's a Dell 17 7000 series and was opened on Christmas Eve.  At first, it worked fine.  A day later, the PLEASE WAIT screen popped up.  I've deleted the restoreoptin.exe process but it's quite annoying to have to keep doing it.  I've REFRESHED my PC and that worked for a short bit (this morning) but this afternoon the PLEASE WAIT screen popped back up.  Currently RESETTING the PC and it's taking forever.  I'm afraid to use the laptop for anything at the moment because I'm afraid I will lose anything I put on it.  What if this happens again in a month?

    Upon setup this time, I will NOT use OneDrive.  Should I update the NVidea drivers or should I not?  too much reading and I'm quite confused now.  Totally not a techie.  This is making me wish I listened to my friends an bought a Mac instead.  

    Frustrated to no end.

    DonnaGo,

    I bought a Dell 15 7000 about fourteen months ago and had the same issue with the Please Wait screen when I "upgraded" from 8.0 to 8.1.  None of the workarounds worked for me, so I rolled back to 8.0 and stayed there until Windows forced me to "upgrade" to 8.1 a couple of months ago.  In all that time, the only Microsoft responses I saw to many threads I was monitoring on this issue were either their generic "try starting the entire process over" posts or posts referring to user workarounds.

    If your Dell is like mine, it has an Nvidia card.  The bug may be related to Nvidia drivers.  I consistently update my Nvidia drivers, using the software the company provides.  When Windows forced 8.1 on me, I had just updated the Nvidia drivers (using Nvidia's update software, not Windows).

    So far - at about two and a half months (?) - i have not seen the Please Wait screen return.

    This is a HUGE problem for Microsoft, but they either do not care enough or cannot figure out how to fix it. 

    I hope your hard work has solved the problem.

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