Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

My laptop isnt working, i cannot access anything! help!

Aug 26, 2017 7:44AM PDT

i have an acer aspire laptop and the port where you put the charger in became really loose and the charger wouldnt fit in therefore the laptop wouldnt charge. so i took it to a laptop repair shop to get it fixed and i just got i back today. i gave them a fully functioning laptop and everything was working it was only the charging port that was out of place. when i got i back, i turned it on and it said something about updates needing to be installed, so i left it for the updates to be installed. it then took me to my sign in page and i logged in to the laptop. it came up with my normal screen with the icons on the left hand side however at the bottom of the screen which i think is called the taskbar, i had some windows apps there but they were just appearing as blank pages, so i clicked on the 'page icon' and it said something like this file has been removed or deleted. on the bottom of the screen there is also the wifi icon. i noticed that is was changed to an icon of a computer screen and everytime i click on it to change it to wifi nothing happens. furthermore, the windows icon at the bottom left hand side of the screen doesnt do anything when i click on it. i tried clicking on the windows bit on the keyboard and nothing happens. it also wont let me type into the bit where it says 'cortana'. i tried clicking on chrome and nothing happens. also when i tried accessing my documents through the recycle bin and it said 'you do not have permission to access these files'.
i apologise if this question is all over the place but i need help on how to fix my laptop. im not sure what has happened to it so any advice would be useful.
thanks

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
This happened to me last night. Fixed it.
Aug 26, 2017 8:02AM PDT

", the windows icon at the bottom left hand side of the screen doesnt do anything when i click on it. "

Some update was installing and I was not able to get to the Windows menu to run Settings so I tried Control+Alt+Delete and on that screen was the power off icon. I used that and after the laptop powered down I pressed the power on button and was greeted with "Do not turn off your PC" as Windows began installing updates. I left it overnight and it seems to be fine now.

- Collapse -
nothing really seems to be working..
Aug 26, 2017 8:52AM PDT

when i got my laptop back and proceeded to turn it on it was then when the screen said 'do not turn off pc' because updates were installing. it was after they were installed that i cannot access anything and noapps or icons work when i click on them. Ive presses cntrl+alt+delete and shut it down and restarted it multiple times but it keeps coming up with the same problem. Sad
thank you for your reply though!

- Collapse -
Same issue but different outcome.
Aug 26, 2017 5:00PM PDT

Try logging into your spare admin account. Windows isn't reliable enough to run without a spare admin account or backups.

Also, try SAFE MODE on the next boot.