My son's laptop, which is a Windows 8 machine that he's had for over a year now, and today has been working fine all day (my daughter was on it most of today and it didn't give her any trouble) suddenly decided earlier tonight that the Lock Screen is exactly where it wants to be and will not respond to any coercion, cursing, or technical-related tips. It's pretty much frozen on the screen with the time on it (I think that's the Lock Screen - I don't know, I hate Windows 8 and never futz with it). It looks exactly like this, with the Space Needle design:
(https://www.grogheads.com/forums/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.extremetech.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2Fwindows-8-lock-screen-640x353.jpg&hash=18bfbbe6e7a2e75dd8a83b7f7ae80022069a298b)
Note: The icons below the date do not display - I see an Internet wireless connectivity icon and another one which escapes me what it is at the moment.
I'm about at my wits' end right now trying to figure out the answer to this as it won't respond to a reboot, won't respond to any combination of key presses and/or mouse movements (it's not a touch screen either, unfortunately), and just sits there stuck on the Lock Screen.
I've been online for an hour plus trying to find answers on Microsoft's site and in a variety of other places through Google, but everything seems to point to doing a reboot with the system disk - which I can't do as I've spent at least the last hour tearing the house apart trying to find the bloody thing. I can't find it anywhere (of course) and assume it's M.I.A. For all I know it escaped as soon as it came home in order to avoid ever being associated with Windows 8. I don't know, I'm more than a little frustrated at the moment, sorry.
Anyone have any similar issues with this or any suggestions? I'm pretty much at a dead end with it right now. Thanks for any help.
your son was watching Russian porn.
Now the mafia ownz your PC, you will have to buy brides.
Just turn it off
Banzai, it looks like some folks got this same problem after an automatic update. The USB ports were no longer recognizing the mouse and keyboard.
If it's a Sony Vaio read up here: http://community.sony.com/t5/Windows-8/Windows-8-Stuck-at-Welcome-Screen/td-p/72987
Also, someone somewhere suggested unplugging the laptop, removing the battery, waiting 5 min, and then putting the battery back in and plugging back in. That's a trick that used to work with old Apple powerbooks and iBooks so you never know...
Thanks for the info, Staggerwing. I noticed a couple of references to this issue, but most of them seemed to be this time last year, so I wasn't sure that the update might have been the issue - of course it could have been he just didn't apply any updates to it, but then again I don't know Windows 8 all that well, so.
It's a Dell Inspiron, a cheapo one we got from Best Buy for a couple hundred dollars.
I did try unplugging the laptop, removing the battery and starting it up with just the power cord in, but that didn't do the trick. I managed to fix it by hitting F8 and just doing a full restore. I was worried it was going to prompt me for the system disk, but it did not, and it appears to be running perfectly fine now.
Thanks for the info...and for the Russian porn heads-up. I figure if ANYONE has been down the nasty-porn-on-the-computer path, it's one of you guys. ;D
Good to hear. If he lost all his save games maybe it will teach him to be a little more careful next time and stick to wholesome American porn. :D
Once you get out of this mess, upgrade to Windows 8.1. It solves a lot of Keyboard + Mouse UI problems.
I really like this OS actually.
I'm glad you figured out how to get out of this mess but it's too bad you had to do a restore. This kind of story really frighten's me and makes me want to avoid Windows 8 all together.
This is the first windows I have had occasion to want to burn the disk. Then stamp on the ashes.
The start button with the attached tree was perfectly functional. Now you install a program and it vanishes. You have to open file manager, find it in program files or program files x86, then make a shortcut to you desktop. There is a tiny version of the start tree that shows up bottom right. Only a few programs install their icon there.
They want you to switch from programs to their stupid smartphone like win 8 Apps. All of their apps try to force 2 way communication through the firewall. WTF are they doing? Recording what programs you use, how often, keeping a remote way in to the PC?
I cannot wait for a decent set of linux programs.
Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on February 28, 2014, 12:39:22 PM
WTF are they doing? Recording what programs you use, how often, keeping a remote way in to the PC?
Yes. I really think they are gathering as much data on you as possible and then selling the data for profit. This kind of behavior from M$ is totally obvious when you look at what they tried to do with the XBOX-One and what they have been doing with Win8 machines.
The whole software industry has lost their mind. It's no longer what can they sell you, it's how can they use you and your data.
Steam has a "new Steam version" of Company of Heros. Great, you install it. After the start up screen it says cannot connect to Relic servers. It locks up your computer. You cant alt tab out. You can ctrl alt delete to task manager. You can see task manager but it cant be touched, the mouse icon is still the game mouse pointer. You have to restart the PC. If you allow a connection to the internet it is fine. So you must play with them recording how their game is played. Or whatever else they are doing.
And of course all the hackers use how these other programs force incoming connections to get into your PC.
Makes me wish that I lived near to those of you who board game. And drink beer...
Eventually, when GrogHeads starts making bank, they should host a GrogCon or something. It can be a thinly-disguised excuse for all of us to get together and play board games for four straight days. And drink.
Or strangle hookers. You know, whatever floats y'all's boats. :D
Hallo!
Here also a pretty good site where you can solve you problem.
http://www.excel-aid.com/secure-your-computer-with-the-windows-8-lock-screen-option.html (http://www.excel-aid.com/secure-your-computer-with-the-windows-8-lock-screen-option.html)
Quote from: Banzai_Cat on February 28, 2014, 09:23:22 PM
Eventually, when GrogHeads starts making bank, they should host a GrogCon or something. It can be a thinly-disguised excuse for all of us to get together and play board games for four straight days. And drink.
shhhhhhh... people will start planning to crash it if you let the word out too early!