Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again.

Anonymous
2020-07-12T23:16:34+00:00

* * Locked * *

I have a new PC with W10. I decided to use the PIN code, but now I get the message "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to set up your PIN again."

When I click 'Set up my PIN' nothing, the same message reappears.

I looked up the issue on the internet and found that I should login using another sign-in option. However, there is no way to get to another option. The text above is all I see on the screen.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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Anonymous
2020-07-12T23:37:28+00:00

Hello there! I'm sorry that didn't work. You can try this steps instead:

Turn off your PC

Start your PC, just as Windows attempts to load (spinning dots), press and hold Power Button on the casing of your PC for 5 - 10 seconds to perform a Hard Shut Down

Do this twice

On the third start Windows will boot into the Recovery Environment and from there you can access System Repair, Safe Mode, Command Prompt . . . etc.

Please try each option one at a time, then see of Windows will boot . . .

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - Startup Repair

See if Windows startup can repair itself

Go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - System Restore

Check to see if you have a restore point you can go back to

If you do not have a Restore Point, go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Option - Startup Settings and click Restart

Upon restart, press 4 to enter Safe Mode

Once in Safe Mode, backup your data if you do not already have a backup

Open Device Manager and check to make sure all your Drivers are up to date

Reboot to see if Windows will start Normally

If the above fails, go to Troubleshoot - Advanced Options - Reset this PC

Choose to keep your files and apps, just your files or to keep nothing

Then start the Reset

Hope this will do the trick

Regards,

Louie

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-29T20:03:59+00:00

    I just spent all day piecing together dozens of suggestions and FINALLY found a solution that does not require you to reset or reinstall Windows. Should it matter, I got into this "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" loop after using msconfig to change to a Diagnostic Startup (won't do that again!).

    Tried:

    • Restarting 5,000 times.
    • Startup repair numerous times, with and without bootable USB (no repairs were found)
    • Tried options 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6 from the Startup Settings blue screen
    • System Restore (failed because it failed to extract WindowsApps, error code 0x80070026) - this seems like a permissions error.
    • Booting from Windows usb (nothing worked except I could install a fresh version of Windows)
    • Booting into safe mode (same PIN error in all three modes - safe mode, SM with command prompt, and SM with networking)

    Solution is to enable the command prompt at the login screen and use it to start msconfig to change the boot mode back to normal (then fix what you changed to enable the command prompt).

    Solution notes:

    • I did this with a bootable USB drive plugged in - I don't think that was necessary but try plugging one in if this doesn't work without it.
    • If you can successfully boot into safe mode with command prompt (option 5 from Startup Settings blue screen), then try Steps 14-17 below and see if it works. If it does, you're good to go. If not, go through all steps.

    Steps:

    1. Get into Recovery Mode: Shut down your PC. Once powered off, boot it back up, then as soon as you see the Windows loading dots or windows logo, hold down your power button 5-10 seconds to turn off your PC. Repeat this at least once until the Recovery menu appears (big blue screen).
    2. If prompted, press F1 to enter Recovery Environment. If not, proceed to next step.
    3. Select Troubleshoot and/or Advanced Options until you get to a screen with System Image Recovery
    4. Click System Image Recovery
    5. Click Cancel on the "Re-image Your Computer" window.
    6. Ensure "Select a system image" is selected and click Next
    7. Click Advanced, then select Install a Driver and click OK. This gets you access to a Windows Explorer-type folder structure.
    8. Click This PC on the left side and find which drive has utilman.exe in the [drive letter]\Windows\System32 folder. The drive letter may not match your normal letters - this doesn't matter. Only one drive will have utilman.exe so you know you are in the correct one once you find it (my letters happened to match).
    9. Rename Utilman to Utilman1. In this folder mode, you'll need to right-click and select Refresh to see the changes.
    10. Rename cmd to Utilman (refresh view to confirm both files are named properly).
    11. Close/cancel all of the open windows (close the Open window, click Cancel on the Add a Driver window, then close the last window)
    12. Click Continue from blue screen to reboot to your login screen.
    13. Click the Accessibility button on the login screen (looks like a dashed clock at 3 o'clock). A command prompt should open.
    14. Type: "start msconfig" without quotes and press enter.
    15. The msconfig window should not appear. Select Normal Boot from the first tab and click Ok.
    16. Confirm restarting your system.
    17. At the next login screen, you should be able to enter your PIN and everything should be back to normal!!
    18. Now, you need to go back and rename Utilman to cmd and Utilman1 to Utilman (I had to follow steps 1-12 since Windows wouldn't let me edit the files while logged in). After re-completing step 12, you should be done.

    Other useful info:

    • The default command prompt directory should be C:\Windows\System32. If that's not what's displayed, type "cd /d c:" without the quotes and press enter. Then type "cd c:\windows\system32" without quotes and press enter.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-09-27T14:51:08+00:00

    Please help menu not open set up my pin not open

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-12-27T19:35:18+00:00

    I DID try this before reinstalling the entire operating system, again ALL microsoft options had been tried and all had failed prior to resorting to that extreme of a measure.  While theoretically the issues you have mentioned which enabling FastBoot might also contribute to could also interfere with log in, that is NOT the issue plaguing us here: ours is simple: one checkbox in msconfig that can not be undone by any means available and which bios settings has no effect on AT ALL.  It isn't ME being stubborn, it's Microsoft being stubborn.  You can submit you solution for NOT this problem, but this problem remains.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-10-25T21:49:06+00:00

    Hi 

    Thanks for your tips but none of them worked for me.

    I even restored my system but again i had to enter the pin and the same problem poped up.

    Actually I didn’t reset my pc because I don’t want my files, movies, pictures to get deleted.

    If you have any other solutions it’ll be awsome.

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