T
TomaHawk76
Guest
I attempted to restart my Microsoft Surface with Windows 10 (I was having network problems, and already restarted the router to no avail), but somewhere along the rebooting steps, my device's display went black and was consistently flashing a quick blue screen. I forced a shut-down after waiting some time for a change, and only got a black screen with a spinning wheel and a blinking cursor. This continued to be the result of a normal forced shutdown and a normal powering-up the device.
A few days prior to this incident, I downloaded PC Matic and ran a scan. The Scan turned up no threats, but I didn't take up their few suggestions before closing the PC Matic window. I didn't get a real chance to read the window that popped up after that, but I think it basically warned that none of their suggestions were applied to my computer. All of this I believe is relevant because of the next few events.
Eventually, after giving a day or two of a break in between tries, I powered up the Surface and finally saw a blue screen with text reading "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart... if you call a support person give them this info: Stop code: CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" and it gave me a QR Code which I followed to read up on Microsoft Stop Codes. There, the Quest "when did I get the problem" & 2 poss. answers: 1. After an update was installed, or 2. Upon using my device. Neither one of these suggestions were perfect since I got my problem after attempting a restart my device and there were no recent updates that I was aware of. After reading further on about that the Support page warned that Third Party Antivirus could be the cause of the issue, which triggered my memory of installing PC Matic a few days before and NOT restarting/shutting down my device after that.
I continued the best I could following the Microsoft's Support instructions (I forced a shutdown 3 times and was eventually brought to the option to troubleshoot, and try to start up my device in Safe Mode to uninstall any third party antivirus (PC MATIC). I tried a number of the options on that list (Enable Safe Mode with Networking, Enable Safe Mode, etc.) The only promising option that didn't immidately return a black screen was option 8: Disable early launch anti-malware protection. That option resulted in the Windows Logo (which I took as a good sign that it was working....) until the black screen reared its head again. NEXT, I tried a STARTUP REPAIR, and much to my surprise, my account and a brand new account appeared in my login options: PCPitstopSVC. I NEVER gave permission for PC Matic to make an account on my Surface. The repair didn't end well: same black screen. I have no idea if the repair/disck check is even still working, so I am hesitent to force a shutdown now and try this again by trying to log in to the PCPitstopSVC account. WHAT CAN I DO (short of taking legal action)?
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A few days prior to this incident, I downloaded PC Matic and ran a scan. The Scan turned up no threats, but I didn't take up their few suggestions before closing the PC Matic window. I didn't get a real chance to read the window that popped up after that, but I think it basically warned that none of their suggestions were applied to my computer. All of this I believe is relevant because of the next few events.
Eventually, after giving a day or two of a break in between tries, I powered up the Surface and finally saw a blue screen with text reading "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart... if you call a support person give them this info: Stop code: CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED" and it gave me a QR Code which I followed to read up on Microsoft Stop Codes. There, the Quest "when did I get the problem" & 2 poss. answers: 1. After an update was installed, or 2. Upon using my device. Neither one of these suggestions were perfect since I got my problem after attempting a restart my device and there were no recent updates that I was aware of. After reading further on about that the Support page warned that Third Party Antivirus could be the cause of the issue, which triggered my memory of installing PC Matic a few days before and NOT restarting/shutting down my device after that.
I continued the best I could following the Microsoft's Support instructions (I forced a shutdown 3 times and was eventually brought to the option to troubleshoot, and try to start up my device in Safe Mode to uninstall any third party antivirus (PC MATIC). I tried a number of the options on that list (Enable Safe Mode with Networking, Enable Safe Mode, etc.) The only promising option that didn't immidately return a black screen was option 8: Disable early launch anti-malware protection. That option resulted in the Windows Logo (which I took as a good sign that it was working....) until the black screen reared its head again. NEXT, I tried a STARTUP REPAIR, and much to my surprise, my account and a brand new account appeared in my login options: PCPitstopSVC. I NEVER gave permission for PC Matic to make an account on my Surface. The repair didn't end well: same black screen. I have no idea if the repair/disck check is even still working, so I am hesitent to force a shutdown now and try this again by trying to log in to the PCPitstopSVC account. WHAT CAN I DO (short of taking legal action)?
More...
