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
    2024-09-29T18:03:43+00:00

    Thank you for posting this this solution also helped me although I was not able to access the file tree doing the driver update method that was mentioned but I was able to boot to a command prompt and rename the files that way and it reset the windows 11 Pin and let me in thank you very much I hope that can help another person as well oh my God what a disaster is designed by Microsoft I can't believe they would let something like this slip it's a huge security risk too thank you again for your comment

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-07-06T23:38:08+00:00

    None of these will work for me for all these options, because it asks me to log into my microsoft account and wont accept my password before letting me do any of these options.. ;/

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-06-09T18:55:22+00:00

    In recent Windows 11 , utilman.exe only seen & renamed through command prompt..

    and dnt forget to again rename to original one..

    Through setup driver option only .inf files are visible and not any other files. So you can access & rename utilman.exe & cmd.exe from recovery mode command prompt and able to regain access command promt from utilman logo and change startup mode/boot mode to Normal from Diagnostic mode, Apply & Ok. After restart boot/startup is normal...

    when you open recovery mode command prompt it shows path

    X:\Windows\System 32>

    X:\Windows\System 32> cd..

    X:\Windows>cd..

    X:>cd /d c:

    C:>cd Windows

    C:\Windows>cd System32

    C:\Windows\System32>dir utilma (press tab, then it written as utilman.exe)

    C:\Windows\System32>ren utilman.exe utilman1.exe

    C:\Windows\System32>ren cmd.exe utilman.exe

    C:\Windows\System32>exit

    go to normal windows, Click the Accessibility button on the login screen; a command prompt opens. Type "start msconfig" and press Enter. The msconfig window appears; choose Normal Boot and click apply & Ok. Confirm restarting your system.

    At the next login screen, enter your PIN, and everything should be normal!

    Go back to utilman icon, rename Utilman to cmd, and Utilman1 to Utilman.

    C:\Windows\System32>ren utilman.exe cmd.exe

    C:\Windows\System32>ren utilman1.exe utilman.exe

    C:\Windows\System32>exit

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-06-05T09:12:04+00:00

    Here are some things to check.

    =>The file may not have the extension and show up as "Utilman" instead of "Utilman.exe".

    =>You don't give much info about how far you got with the process. If you have gotten to the System32 folder, the Utilman file should be there.

    =>You have to scroll way, way down, past all the folders into the (alphabetical) list of files. Then keep scrolling until you see files starting with "U". Look closely. I had trouble finding it the first time.

    =>Also make sure you have gotten to the right Explorer/Windows/System32 folder from the System Image Recovery button (on the blue system repair window).

    =>Do you feel comfortable that you have followed the instructions or is there some confusion? More detail could help. Are you running Windows 10 or Windows 11?

    Let us know if this helps or send details and I will try to respond again.

    The WizardGrimm

    There is no ultimate.exe though. Here is windows 11 pro version screen shot from cmd window:

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-05-28T16:54:00+00:00

    Hello, I just want to provide an important note for Windows 11 users in 2024. Using System Image Recovery from Step 4 does not let you see file extensions nor does it allow you to see all file types. Therefore, this method is not working. However, there is a workaround for Windows 11 users. You can use the command prompt directly in the recovery mode, and rename the file using commands. This can be done twice to ensure you don't get problems with cmd disappearing as some users have noted. Therefore, the below updated guide should work for all Windows 11 users in 2024:

    1-3: Get into recovery mode per the original guide. Once in recovery mode, locate Command Prompt as below:

    1. Trouble Shoot, Advanced Options, select Command Prompt
      4a. If you have bitlocker, enter your bitlocker recovery seed when prompted for the drive that houses Windows
    2. When command prompt is open, type:

    *c:*

    Press enter

    Type again
    rename c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe utilman1.exe
    Press enter

    Type again
    rename c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe utilman.exe

    Press enter

    Type again

    exit

    1. Restart your computer
    2. On the windows sign-in screen, click on the accessibility icon
    3. command prompt opens. Type:
      start msconfig

    Press enter

    1. The msconfig window should now appear. Select Normal Boot from the first tab and click Ok.
    2. Confirm restarting your system
    3. Confirm after restart that your pin can be typed, but DO NOT TYPE IT YET
    4. Restart your system
    5. Boot back into recovery mode
    6. Go again to Trouble Shoot, Advanced Options, select Command Prompt

    14a. Enter your bitlocker recovery seed again if prompted for the drive that houses Windows

    1. When command prompt is open, type:

    *c:*

    Press enter

    Type again
    rename c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe cmd.exe
    Press enter

    Type again
    rename c:\windows\system32\utilman1.exe utilman.exe

    Press enter

    Type again

    exit

    1. Restart your computer, you can login like normal, utilman works like normal, and command prompt works like normal. Good luck and thanks to the original poster for the write-up! You helped me a ton!!!

    **Note on bitlocker:**Pay attention when you are prompted to enter your recovery key/seed. Bitlocker tells you which drive it is for. You only need to enter the recovery key for the drive that houses windows. My first option was enter the recovery key for Windows. After clicking enter, bitlocker will prompt you again to enter the seed for the next drive that it protects. If it isn't your windows drive, simply click "skip" in the bottom right. We only need to unlock the windows c:\ drive so that we can execute the commands in command prompt.

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