How to fix a Windows 10 boot loop | TechTarget (2024)

How to fix the Windows 10 boot loop problem

Attempt to boot in Safe Mode. If you can initiate the boot sequence properly in Safe Mode -- press F8 at startup -- there's a good chance that whatever is wrong revolves around a device driver. Safe Mode loads its own set of fail-safe drivers, which are minimally functional, but more importantly, stable.

Disable the auto-reboot function. By default, Windows' automatic reboot-on-crash function is enabled on many systems, and this is likely contributing to the problem by not allowing you to see an actual crash screen. To disable the feature, you must edit the Windows registry with the proper command prompt on the machine.

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetControlCrashControl, and either create or edit a DWORD named AutoReboot and set it to 0.

The blue screen of death usually isn't a welcoming sign. But when you're dealing with a Windows boot loop, it's better than another reboot.

But there's a catch: You can't edit the registry without booting the system. If you can boot to Safe Mode, as discussed above, then you're set. If Safe Mode doesn't work, you should do an end run around Windows and edit the registry offline.

There are several ways to do this. You can attach the system drive to another computer -- by mounting it in an external drive enclosure, for example -- and then use RegEdit or another utility to change the AutoReboot value.

Or you can use a utility such as the Offline NT Password & Registry Editor, which you can boot -- and use -- directly on the target system without booting Windows and potentially triggering another restart loop.

Note any crash messages once auto-reboot is disabled. The blue screen of death (BSOD) usually isn't a welcoming sign. But when you're dealing with a Windows boot loop, a blue screen is better than another reboot.

The messages on the screen are instrumental in determining what went wrong and why. If you can reboot from a crash into Safe Mode, there are tools you can use to examine the crash information and diagnose it further.

Microsoft has its own tools, but other options include NirSoft's BlueScreenView freeware, which does all the heavy lifting and presents a concise report of all the BSODs the system recorded.

Consider swapping hardware if there's no BSOD. If reboot-on-crash is disabled and the system simply reboots without crashing, there may be something more serious going on. One culprit could be bad or insufficient memory. Run a copy of Memtest86+ on the offending computer overnight to ensure everything is solid.

There could also be an issue with a bootable disk or other bootable media that the desktop detects. IT professionals should remove any potentially faulty bootable media or hardware components.

Attempt an in-place repair or a fresh install. An in-place repair -- installing a copy of Windows on top of another copy -- preserves the applications and user settings, but it reinitializes the system components. You should only use this option if everything else fails.

Windows 10 reboot loop options for desktop admins

As with any other Windows installation, a continually restarting Windows 10 OS exhibits the same familiar BSOD. It may also display a message such as Internal Power Error, with similar problems. Even if you upgrade to Windows 10 on top of Windows 7, 8 or 8.1, the Windows boot loop conundrum is an ever-present possibility.

One Microsoft fix provides without relying on advanced options is an update to fix the Windows 10 boot loop problem. The procedure is:

Open Settings > Update & security > Windows Update

Click on Check for updates and a further update, then repair the Windows boot loop issue. To prevent Windows 10 persisting in a computer reboot loop, make sure you have the correct drivers and that they are compatible with the OS.