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
    2024-09-10T15:11:54+00:00

    For some reason, this didn't work out for me. Probably because I'm using Windows 11 and the utilman.exe is nowhere to be found in the windows\systems32. But I found this a workaround. Here is the original link (https://superuser.com/questions/1639846/cant-login-after-choosing-diagnostic-startup-in-msconfig):

    Hold Shift and click the power icon, choose "Restart" and wait until you see the blue Windows recovery screen.

    1. Choose "Advanced" and choose Command Prompt
    2. You'll restart and you should be put to a screen where it asks you for your MS Password. Input that and you should get a Command Prompt.
    3. Input the following commands:
    4. move c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe c:\
    5. copy c:\windows\system32\cmd.exe c:\windows\system32\utilman.exe
    6. Restart your computer.
    7. On the login screen, now click the "Ease of Use" icon at the bottom-right next to the Power button.
    8. A command prompt will open.
    9. Type "msconfig"
    10. Change the "Startup Selection" to "Normal Startup"
    11. Restart the computer.

    From there you should be able to log in with your PIN as usual. The last step is to clean-up what you did and re-enable accessibility:

    1. Open a folder explorer and go to C:\
    2. Copy the "Utilman.exe" file from there into the C:\Windows\System32\ folder
    3. It'll ask for administrator privileges, Continue, and you should be back to normal.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-06-09T18:54:15+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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  3. Anonymous
    2022-02-14T15:56:55+00:00

    Does not seem to work on the latest version of windows. New install and updated yesterday. Today I wanted to do a diagnostic start and ended up in the same loop.

    On step 13 nothing happens, no command prompt or the Utilman, rebooting back into that explorer window from step 7 shows that the Utilman (now the cmd disguised) ends up deleted. Microsoft must have put some checks. I was able to restore a cmd version from the x: drive, and repeated the steps but the result is the same: the fake Utilman gets erased.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-13T08:05:19+00:00

    Please note: In case utilman.exe isn't visible in your file list or drives, you can use the command prompt from recovery mode. Here's my process:

    1. Opened the command prompt in recovery mode (Note: already in X: drive).
    2. Navigated to the local disk (C: drive) using the command [drive letter:], mine was C:.
    3. Accessed utilman.exe with the commands: 
      
   cd windows

   cd system32
    4. To check utilman's presence in system32, used the command: 
      
   dir utilma
      Press the tab key; if it's in the drive, it should complete with .exe. If not, try other drives.
    5. Renamed with the command: 
      
   ren utilman.exe utilman1.exe

   ren cmd.exe utiman.exe

    Continue to 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 Ok. Confirm restarting your system.

    At the next login screen, enter your PIN, and everything should be normal! Go back, rename Utilman to cmd, and Utilman1 to Utilman (Followed steps 1-12 as Windows didn't allow editing files while logged in). After completing step 12 again, you're done.

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  5. Anonymous
    2023-08-03T15:53:31+00:00

    UPDATED SOLUTION 03.08.2023 WINDOWS 11

    Yes, 2023 and we still suffer from this major bug.

    >>> At the recovery screen, select open prompt, it will open in a different disc, here, was "x:"

    >>>At CMD type "cd /d c:" without the quotes and press enter. Then type "cd c:\windows\system32"

    Now you want to rename things, as the previous steps (win 11, didn't allow you to find .exe at the "new driver step")

    At cmd

    ren utilman.exe utilman1.exe

    then

    tipe ren cmd.exe utilman.exe

    Restart your pc, then follow

    1. 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)
    2. Type: "start msconfig" without quotes and press enter.
    3. The msconfig window should now appear. Select Normal Boot from the first tab and click Ok.
    4. Confirm restarting your system.
    5. At the next login screen, you should be able to enter your PIN and everything should be back to normal!!
    6. 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

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