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

Anonymous

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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.

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

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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492 additional answers

Anonymous

2021-04-21T20:02:59+00:00

Hey buddy, i can help you with that, everything you need is an USB and an extra PC, you can lend from a friend or somebody, so Install a Windows 10 instalation media on the secondary PC, run it and choose "Create Instalation Media (USB etc.), Then procceed to the next page, uncheck the "Use recomended settings, since the recomended settings for the secondary pc wouldn t be the same for your main PC, next and choose ISO file. Wait for the procces to be done, a CD format file should appear on the instalation path you ve chosen. After that, connect ur USB to the secondary PC and then install an app using Rufus from the browser. Run Rufus and choose ur USB device, File system change to NTFS and then choose the icon showing a CD or something and select the windows install file you ve made lately, and press Start. Note that if you ve got something important on ur USB, you better make a backup on them, since everything on the USB will be deleted. Continue the process, and done. Now get to the main PC, plug the USB and then you have to open the PC, and while it is opening, you have to find the button that opens up the "Boot device in BIOS". It should show on the screen or on most PC s should be F10, F2 or Delete. You have to spam them while opening ur PC untill it shows up. Use the arrows to navigate the upper tab to the Boot menu, and find the boot device property. It may be different to some other product users, if it is find something that sounds familiar. Then select USB Device Boot. Once it is selected, press F10 to save and exit. Then search on the Web for how to open up Boot manager on ur model of laptop or device, and open it up, choose USB storage device and then press any key to boot usb. Spam random keys and then, there you are.. Your PC is being reset. There is no other way to fix it. So i m sorry if u lost some important stuff or anything, also sorry for poor english, hope it helps ya and feel free to ask for help again!
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Anonymous

2021-04-22T22:01:58+00:00

I have a functioning system EXCEPT for my primary account that I login into using a microsoft account and pin. And it won't allow me to reset the pin or use the pin, and NO, I don't plan to blow away my Windows installation. All I know about what happened is that MSI had me do a BIOS and EC firmware upgrade. No Windows software was changed.
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Anonymous

2021-04-22T22:23:22+00:00

You need to get into MSCONFIG and check your Startup options. My PIN broke when I did a Diagnostic Startup. The method described in the following post describes how to copy the program sethc.exe from a Windows Install image to your machine as the cmd.exe program.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/i-disabled-all-msconfig-services-in-windows-10-now/7a6ea398-128f-4b50-b717-75d1cc7c8729?page=2

This will allow you to then press the SHIFT key 5 times in the PIN screen to get a command prompt to open so you can then launch MSCONFIG over top of the login screen. Once you do this then ensure you have Normal Startup selected or if it already is try a different option (NOT Diagnostic Startup though!).

While I can't promise this will fix your issue, it did fix my issue with not being able to input my PIN. It was the last thing I tried before I thought I'd have to completely reinstall Windows. It sounds crazy and like it's a long shot but I assure you it will at least get you into MSCONFIG.

Once you do finally get back into your PC I'd recommend creating a separate Local Administrator level account on your machine and only set a password (not a PIN). This way you'll have another account you can get into should the PIN service ever break again. Good luck!
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Anonymous

2021-04-23T00:06:53+00:00

Dryvlyne, I'm curious. You seemed really able to run msconfig.exe from a command line prompt. I am able to run msconfig.exe from a command line prompt when my machine is operating normally. I was able to get to Command Prompt when I had this pin problem, but when I would run msconfig.exe and other gui tools, some of them would fail saying I wasn't administrator (and the id I used was Administrator) or some other error message. When I needed it with the pin problem, msconfig.exe wouldn't start from Command Prompt. Do you think this sethc.exe has something to do with enabling msconfig.exe to run from command line? And when I say Command Prompt here I mean one of the Troubleshoot options you see. I found that Command Prompt would always take a userid and would never ask for a pin.
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