[Closed] IT gurus; Have I utterly borked my shiny new laptop?

Maybe, maybe not...

Uncle Google suggests that something has gone wrong with the install, somewhere, somehow and that you may need to do a re-install, but I did say that restarting a few times can allow the account creation process to kick off and let you create an account and log in to that.

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/exchange/en-US/4e15dc2a-6abd-4b7d-8fcf-fd42e3cee10b/windows-10-defaultuser0-password-issue-solved?forum=win10itprogeneral

One thread has this as a solution... I have no idea if it will work

To reiterate as others have said, you can launch into Safe Mode with Command Prompt (or regular safe mode and then launch cmd.exe as Administrator), then punch in the following two lines to turn on and set a password for the built-in Administrator account:

> net user Administrator yourpasswordchoice 
> net user Administrator /active:yes

As a last resort you can download windows 10 from Microsoft onto a 8GB usb stick, boot off that and wipe the harddrive during installation process so you don't have a paperweight.

I would do a new build; download win10 from Ms to a USB stick and start again, assuming I couldn’t get the restore process to work. Have you got internet acres, a USB stick and another PC?

I can’t see it being anything terminal.

Windows 10 restore is surprisingly easy, done it recently on an old Vista laptop and my daughter's windows 10 laptop she'd messed up. I think more recent laptops hold the windows key in the bios, my daughter's laptop is now running fine and no request for a key. The windows Vista machine is now happily running without a licence key. I'll probably buy one off eBay at some point.

Can you not phone Acer?  From what I read you can do another reinstall and there is a good chance it will fix it (this seems to be a common issue or as least it is easy to find) but I would always recommend just giving the manufacturer a ring if the machine is new as often you get help during the first few weeks

But it really doesn't sound like it is borked

Cheers for the replies.

I will be unable to do anything until I get home.

I can't phone Acer - the phone is limited availability on board the ship & I can't justify hogging it whilst I am (possibly) interminably put on hold.

Internet access is very slow and I only have a number of old, smaller memory sticks.

I'll get a brand new 8gb (min) USB stick ordered and attempt a new build when I get home.

Fingers crossed!

What everyone else said.

I noticed that the user name (C:\users\…..) is something odd then I found its taken the first 5 letters of my email address and used that

That's normal when you sign in with a Microsoft account. If you really object then take it off the Internet when you install Windows but really, you're far better off just leaving it as-is.

all I have now at the log in screen is Defaultuser0 as a user.

That account is used by setup and deleted after you create an actual user account. Sounds like for whatever reason setup didn't complete.

Really though, the "reset my PC" thing should work unless the installation image is borked. What I would absolutely do is notify PCW right now to let them know you were having issues and are now away with work. You almost certainly won't need to return it but if you do your rights are far greater after a couple of days rather than after a month.

And to put your fears to rest,

You cannot irretrievably bork hardware in software (except in exceptionally weird and rare cases).

It sounds fine. Just go down the clean install from USB route others have suggested. The only thing I would say is that you may need to download some drivers from your manufactures website if the windows update process doesn't automatically find them but that's no big deal. One benefit is that all the horrible bloatware laptop manufacturers pack their products with will be gone.

I am not an IT guru in any way, but I had to reinstall windows 10 onto a new hard drive a couple of weeks ago. Via usb stick as said above. I probably could have managed anyway, but found following a YouTube video made it incredibly straightforward.

Just as an aside - i have recently bought a new windows laptop. What is the deal with the software key. Its pre installed now but if i need to do a clean install where would i get the key from?

I believe - but will defer to someone with more knowledge - that the key is effectively embedded in the hardware so you can reinstall without any problems.

Yes. With Win10, the hardware is registered and it will automatically activate if you wipe it and reinstall.

From memory, you get to a step which asks you to input your registration code and you choose the option ‘I don’t have one’. It installs and finds the code itself.

As an aside, you can update from windows 7 to 10 in the same way, ie install win10 and use the win7 code.

Is it possible that the reset process from the recovery drive includes downloading, and the limited bandwidth on the ship resulted in the process being aborted?

Yes. With Win10, the hardware is registered and it will automatically activate if you wipe it and reinstall.

It's been that way since Windows 8. Once W10 is activated once on your hardware, that's it. You'll never need a key for that PC again.

The one gotcha here is that if you change the motherboard you'll lose that activation and you'll need a licence key that you don't have. The way around this is to use a Microsoft account to sign in. It then assigns the licence to your account from where you can recover it if you have to replace the hardware. You can verify your configuration in Activation Settings.

You lot are great.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease a bit.

I'm struggling to get on to PCW Cougar - same issue with the phone and long waits. They also don't seem to have an email address for customer services. Staggering for a business selling computers...

I'll be downloading W10 & undertaking a clean install.

I'll update this thread when the time comes.

defaultuser0 is the temporary user that gets created when windows is finishing the install off, once you sign in with your own account it would normally be deleted.

I noticed that the user name (C:\users\…..) is something odd then I found its taken the first 5 letters of my email address and used that. My OCD just can’t live with it and I tried to change it to no avail – this was last week and I can’t remember exactly what I tried. I know, I know, I should have kept a record of what I did. Anyway, it didn’t work.

Don't do this next time. 😉 Mine is also the first 5 characters of my hotmail email account, it really doesn't matter, the only place you see this is under C:\users which you'd never go into... Everywhere else, if you use a microsoft account, will show your full name.

If your OCD can't deal with a strange username, hidden away somewhere you'll never see it, then choose use an offline account instead, you can then call the user whatever your want.

Quick update:

After submitting a support request via Acers website I had a reply from Rodney.

Apparently, given that the Restore didn't work, they think it should be returned to investigate an issue with the hard drive.

I'm sceptical based on the collective knowledge from the STW hive mind - I've emailed back to try and get more information re. if its in warranty or if I'm expected to pay. The replies just seem a little 'generic' to me.

More exciting updates when they happen...

Bollocks to Rodney!

I'm home and having made a Windows 10 USB I've done a clean install.

All is good and I am well chuffed.

Cheers for all the replies that put my mind at rest!

Big up the STW massive.

Rah.

Thanks for the update, advice followed by radio silence is immensely frustrating.

Bollocks to Rodney might be a fixture in my vocabulary from now on! Glad you're sorted.

Many laptops have a factory reset option and the install files for windows are on a smaller, separate partition. Google the model and see if it shows a factory reset option. Negates the need to USB boot disks and faffing about in BIOS to boot from USB.

It’s been that way since Windows 8. Once W10 is activated once on your hardware, that’s it. You’ll never need a key for that PC again.

Unless you decide to try the early releases of beta software via windows insider preview.....

Many laptops have a factory reset option and the install files for windows are on a smaller, separate partition

What's frustrating is how few times said factory reset option actually damn well works. I've had it on various laptops and I think it's never worked correctly.
Fortunately in these days of one HDD for the OS and one for data/ files, it's easier to do a clean install and retain your files, and if you have the drivers stored somewhere to install it only takes an hour or two tops

Unless you decide to try the early releases of beta software via windows insider preview…..

This is a great way to **** your replacement when you quit a job (my organization doesn't do a proper wipe of PCs, they just delete the user account and then hand it over to the next victim).