Windows 8.1 Won't Start

[ichkeria]

Running Windows 8.1 on an Acer laptop and after the Acer logo has displayed I just get a blank screen. Everything sounds normal but Windows never starts. I suspect that the last update got interrupted perhaps and had got 'stuck' but I have no idea if it can be reset somehow.
Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

[ichkeria]

Sorted by fixing the master boot record via the recovery USB stick. I hadn't realised that option existed. Quite useful to know as I suspect this problem crops up occasionally

[SlackAlice]

Well done you for making a 'recovery disk/stick' in the first place.

[VHG]

As the computer starts up, and BEFORE windows loads, you can normally press the F8 key and you go into some Windows advanced options. This is called Safe mode.

Note that all releases before W8 you could press JUST F8 but due to changes in Windows 8 pressing F8 on its own may not work. It now looks more complex to get into Safe Mode in Windows 8. See links below.

Here you will have various options such as "Repair your computer" and so on.

See this web page, it says you have to press Shift and F8 so try that.

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/chsafe.htm

See this as well

http://www.7tutorials.com/5-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-8-windows-81

And this

http://www.howtogeek.com/107511/how-to-boot-into-safe-mode-on-windows-8-the-easy-way/

[VHG]

p.s. Was adding my reply above before I saw you had fixed it.

[ichkeria]

Thanks for your post VHG. I had tried F8, shift F8 to no avail. I was alarmed to discover that there is an Fkey setting which can reset your computer to factory settings! You need to be careful what you press.
Making a recovery disk is pretty much a no brainer these days as with most new laptops etc they don't give you a copy of Windows.

[secsee1]

So just how do you make a recovery usb stick?

[ichkeria]

To create a recovery drive for Windows 8.1
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive
A 32GB stick is recommended, and it needs to either be a new one or one that you don't mind wiping of existing data

Methyl, I don't have StartIsBack (I don't think) I did have Pokki, which seemed to just "appear" and which I found completely useless (I have no desire to reinstate the Windows Start button, which I can't really see is needed) So I uninstalled it.
The updates worked fine as far as I could see, although they did blat my (unsupported) WinMail program which I had to re-install. However I suspect that the problem happened after the first cold re-start

[ichkeria]

Ages ago.