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
    2021-03-11T01:06:30+00:00

    You have to click on the power button on the lower right hand of the screen and then hold shift down and click on restart to get more login options. And these options are like command prompt and safe mode. there is nothing you can directly do on the first screen to get it to give you a user prompt instead of a pin prompt. Read some of these other threads, it is an iterative process to fix this problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-03-03T22:09:55+00:00

    Els,

      I read the article you were working about fixing the Epson printer.   It seems like those steps stay in the their lane, just installing and uninstalling printer drivers, and adding and deleting printers.   If you don't mind, and just because I'm curious, which one of those 8 steps do you think messed up your login?  Also the guy who wrote those steps seemed pretty knowledgeable.  Wouldn't he get clobbered if he was trying to do them?  Were they for Window 8 or something?

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-03-03T20:33:18+00:00

    Els,

    I am assuming Microsoft is reading this thread. That's why I'm asking people to say how they got into this pin loop.

    That's wild that you were just trying to fix a printer problem, following some diagnostic suggestions there, and got into this problem.

    In my mind Microsoft has 3 immediate takeaways from this for a future release

    • the method that is saying "something happened and your pin isn't available" needs to realize the user is in a dire straight and offer another login option, not just offer to reset the pin and then fail.
    • both pin and user login options should ALWAYS be offered to the user on the first login screen. They are a backup for each other.
    • When a user says "Turn off All Services" Services having to do with the login should be exempted unless there is a deliberate override from the admin user.

    I'm 100% sure that the problem surfaced due to going into windows diagnostic mode, which was part of the procedure suggested. This is the post I followed in order to try and correct the Epson printer issue https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_10-hardware/how-do-i-get-my-epson-artisan-835-all-in-one/6bcabd8f-c87c-4e17-b42f-804cbb30f725

    I agree with your suggestions for Microsoft. It is a hazard that many may inadvertently fall into. Until it is resolved by Microsoft, the best thing to do is to make regular images or clones of the hard drive.

    BTW: After I reset my workstation, most of my apps came back but not all and the ones that did come back had issues (Including my Microsoft 365). I ended up restoring the drive by using a cloned copy prior to this pin issue. If I didn't have that clone, I would have needed to rebuild my whole system from scratch.

    I'm not sure, but the main cause appears to be with the diagnostic mode disabling the services which include network access. I may try to troubleshoot this in a controlled environment at some point. It completely caught me off guard.

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