Diagnostic Mode "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" Boot Loop - Cannot Login (SOLUTION)

Anonymous
2021-06-29T20:44:40+00:00

Problems:

  • At the Windows login screen the message "Something happened and your PIN isn't available. Click to setup your PIN again." appeared. Clicking this did nothing, it would just return me to the same login screen. There was no alternative option to Sign in with Password like there normally is. Effectively, login is impossible and the PC appeared bricked.

Process to get error:

  • I went to msconfig (Win+R>msconfig) and selected Diagnostic Startup with all default settings. I immediately restarted my PC to find that I could not log in.
  • (Unrelated?) I tried diagnostic startup b/c one of my mice started randomly highlighting stuff - as if Click Lock or sticky keys were on (all were off).

Research: I found reports of this back to 2018. I also ran into System Restore errors which I found instances of back to 2017. The dozens of other forums usually dead-ended or resulted in a "Refresh your PC" or "Do a clean install of Windows." Unacceptable! I was about to give up until I pieced this solution together.

Solution: Force boot mode back to Normal via command prompt and restart.

Skill level: Intermediate

Time estimate: 10 minutes

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 fails 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.
  • Tested on Windows 10 and 11.

Steps:

  1. Get into Recovery Mode (blue screen): At the login screen, click the bottom-right corner Power Button. Then, before doing anything, hold down the Shift key. While holding Shift key down, click on Restart. This should reboot the computer and take you to the “Choose an Option” Recovery screen.
    • If this doesn't work, see alternate later in post.
  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 a System Image Recovery option.
  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, except I had an X drive that wasn't useful).
  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. A command prompt should open. (icon is a dashed clock at 3 o'clock for Win 10 or a person for Win 11)
  14. Type: "start msconfig" without quotes and press enter.
  15. The msconfig window should now 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.
  • Step 1 Alternate: 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).

Unsuccessful attempts before discovering solution:

  • 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 (available by holding shift while selecting the power button and the restart button from the login screen)
  • System Restore (failed because it failed to extract WindowsApps, error code 0x80070026) - this seems like a permissions error?
    • I tried using using Safe Mode with Command Prompt and using takeown to get permission. Most operations listed as Success, but I received an error as the last output line from step 3 of thisArchived Forum I used. I tried Step 4 anyways but it didn't work.
  • Booting from Windows usb (nothing worked except I could install a fresh version of Windows - no thanks)
  • Booting into safe mode (same PIN error in all three modes - safe mode, SM with command prompt, and SM with networking). None of the modes looked different from the Diagnostic Mode except the command prompt option obviously displayed a command prompt.
Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows Hello, lock screen and sign-in

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-12-18T14:29:51+00:00

    Couldn't find the utilman.exe, any help?

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-12-11T00:02:25+00:00

    not_a_bot1001, you are sincerely amazing. I cannot thank you enough for this writeup!

    Fellow weeb Dad and I were chatting about some ways to figure out what might be causing some Win10 slowness that's crept up and he casually suggested "Boot in diagnostic to get rid of all the background noise and see if it's quicker". So, I think--sure thing, sounds simple enough. And well, as we all know... the rest is history :)

    Happy Holidays, Merry Thanksgiving, and all that jazz! Hope you have a nice, bug & infinite-loop-free December!

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-12-08T18:26:04+00:00

    @DavCosBar, I'm glad I was able to help and I appreciate your detailed additions! I'll edit my post to include your alternates. I can't imagine Microsoft wants people editing files like this so hopefully they quash this bug soon. I'm not a software engineer but I just can't imagine it would be difficult to detect the issue and add an option to revert to last successful boot mode (or at least boot to Safe Mode).

    Note for your Step #3, I didn't always get the same menu options depending on how I rebooted. I wrote this from memory after I got it to work and couldn't remember the differences I saw so I kept it vague. My brain was mush at that point...

    @:John-Michael: Clees. - I'm glad you found a solution and thank you for posting it! It sounds like this is a specific fix for certain Dell devices and probably relies on Dell's startup software to detect and fix issues. I believe my post should be universal for any type of Windows PC or laptop. Note that Dell-built PCs/laptops I believe have a "Dell Update" software or something similar that should keep the troubleshooter, drivers, firmware, etc. up to date for you (this goes a step further than Windows Update). I do have a Dell PC as a backup media server and it's notoriously bad at its startup sequence, even with everything up-to-date.

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-12-08T17:50:02+00:00

    => I hope these will be helpful notes to not_a_bot1001’s post with his/her fantastic solution to the “Something happened, and your PIN isn’t available” error/logon loop. Cannot thank him/her enough.

    => These notes basically give further detail and show the minor changes that show up in Windows 11 Preview. Incredible thank you again to not_a_bot1001. Excellent solution.

    => Everything not_a_bot1001 posted is accurate. This is just a little icing on the cake.

    => Notations 2021-12-08, are based on Windows Preview build: 22509.1011, Feature Experience Pack 1000.22509.1011.0.

    • Step 1 Alternative: On Lock Screen where the error message says "PIN is unavailable", click on Power Button in bottom right corner. Then, before doing anything, hold down the Shift key. While holding Shift key down, click on Restart. This should reboot the computer and take you to the “Choose an Option” Recovery screen.
    • Step 3 Additional Detail: On “Choose a Recovery” screen, click on Troubleshoot, then click on Advanced Options, then below the icons in the list, click on “See more recovery options”. Clicking this will take you to a screen with a “System Image Recovery” button.
    • Step 7 Additional Detail: The file explorer window will open in the temp X: drive created by the System Re-Image program. The “Look In” field defaults to Boot X:\Windows\System32. This is not the folder you want. Go to step 8.
    • Step 8 Explorer Details: In the Explorer window, after you click This PC, you will have a list of drives on the system. Explorer will assign default letters to them, so the C: drive may have a different letter. Look for name of your boot drive, usually System or Local Disc or whatever you may have renamed it to. Start searching in this drive in the Windows\System32 folder for Utilman. (The suffix (.exe) may not show in this mode. File extensions is usually turned off by default here.)

    Not a good idea to try typing the name, Utilman, in the File Name field. It will not help you find the file. The only option there is to click Open, which, of course, will not work. Users, unfortunately, must scroll way, way down the list to find the file. (At least that’s how it worked on my machine today.)

    • Step 13 Change for Windows 11: The Accessibility icon changed to a small figure of a person.
    • Step 18 Alternative: You may need to un-hide file extensions and un-hide protected operating system files, not sure if necessary, but that's how I have my computer set.

    In Advanced Security settings, Utilman and cmd are “Owned” by NT TrustedInstaller.

    There is a useful freeware app from Sergey Tkachenko’s Winaero Tweaker website (https://winaero.com/takeownershipex/) that will give you full access to individual files and restore them back to original permissions.

    The TakeOwnerShipEx app gives user full permissions which will allow editing of file names without going through the process used to get here previously.

    Goes without saying, but you also must be an Administrator.

    Using TakeOwnerShipEx, take full access/permissions of one of the files. Next, change the file's name. Finally, use TakeOwnerShipEx to reset the permissions back first, before you go on to the next file or anything else.

    IMPORTANT: If you use this method, not only do you need to check and make sure names are changed back correctly, but open Properties/Security/Advanced for each file and check that they are still Owned by TrustedInstaller before you end your session.

    Details on how to manually take and restore permissions is here https://winaero.com/how-to-take-ownership-and-get-full-access-to-files-and-folders-in-windows-10/ 

    => Again, not_a_bot1001, you are my hero! I've spent years trying to solve this. Thank you so much.

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