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You are here: Home / How To / There was a problem resetting your PC

There was a problem resetting your PC

December 15, 2019 by Kane L. 18 Comments

In this post, I will explain how to fix There was a problem resetting your PC error on your Windows 10 or 8. This error may occur when you try to reset your Windows 10 to its default state. I will cover the basic information related to this topic, and also provide you methods to resolve the issue.

Contents

  • 1 What is There was a problem resetting your PC error on Windows 10
    • 1.1 Diagnosis & Causes
  • 2 How to Fix There was a problem resetting your PC error
    • 2.1 1. Use Command Prompt
    • 2.2 2. Use Recovery USB
    • 2.3 3. Clean Install Windows
  • 3 Conclusion

What is There was a problem resetting your PC error on Windows 10

Whenever something doesn’t go right while booting system, Windows first runs into Automatic Repair wizard and tries to fix the issues automatically. However, if it fails, you have to Refresh or Reset the system. The situation gets really annoying when the Refresh or Reset failure or stuck issue will happen with dreaded error messages.

If you try to attempt for Refresh, the following error message will appear: “There was a problem refreshing your PC. No changes were made.”

And if you’re going to use Reset feature, the following error message will appear: “There was a problem resetting your PC.” 

Microsoft officials have admitted that it is due to a bug in Windows 10 and have provided these conditions under which Windows may experience this issue. Here are the following conditions:

  • Your PC came with Windows 10 pre-installed and was not an upgrade from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
  • The PC manufacturer enabled compression to reduce the disk space required for preinstalled applications.
  • You created a USB recovery drive using the “Create a recovery drive” feature in Windows 10.
  • You booted the PC to the USB recovery drive and selected, Troubleshoot > Reset this PC > Remove everything.

Diagnosis & Causes

There are no messages in the Event Viewer related to this error. Though the process does leave behind some nice key information for us. When you enable viewing hidden folders, or run dir c:\ /a:sh,  you’ll be able to see a $SysReset folder created on the root of your OS Drive. This folder has some log files which may help, specifically,C:\$SysReset\Logs\Setupact.log read this file to see what the issue is.

The error most commonly points to either a missing or unsupported version of the recovery image. There may be some other causes like compatibility issues or malware. However, you should not worry about the cause and directly move to the solutions now.

How to Fix There was a problem resetting your PC error

Here are the 3 tried and working methods to counter the “There was a problem resetting your PC” error within few minutes. You don’t need any special skills to apply these methods. Just follow the step-wise guide that I have mentioned below every method properly.

1. Use Command Prompt

Checking system files using Command Prompt is a good option to fix this dreaded error. Follow these steps in order to do so:

Step-1: Firstly click the Power button from Start menu. Then while holding the Shift key, click Restart.

Step-2: Now follow this path: Click Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Command Prompt.

Step-3: Then select your administrator account and enter the password (if you have set one before). Afterwards, click on Continue to proceed.

Step-4: Once the Command Prompt window opens up, type the following commands in the window and hit Enter after each command:

cd %windir%\system32\config
ren system system.001
ren software software.001

Step-5: After doing this, close the command prompt window. You will be taken back to boot options page. Just click on Continue to boot into your Windows 10.

Step-6: Try resetting your PC now.

You will be able to reset your PC now without any difficulty. However, if the problem still persists, move down to the next method.

2. Use Recovery USB

If Command Prompt fails to fix the error, you can use Recovery USB to recover your computer. Follow these steps in order to do so:

Step-1: Firstly, insert an empty USB Flash drive(16GB or 32GB recommended) into your PC.

Step-2: Now type recovery drive in the search bar from Start menu. Then click on Create a recovery drive from the list of results. Click Yes when User Account Control prompts.

Step-3: Recovering your PC from a drive will remove all the present files and apps, so you should select to tick on Back up system files to the recovery drive in this step to back up your data. Afterwards, click Next.

Step-4: Now select your USB drive and click Next.

Step-5: Then click Create to make a recovery drive. Once the process is complete, click Finish.

Step-6: Afterwards, reboot your Windows 10. Press the specific key, like F12 or any other key your PC suggests to enter into the boot options page. Continue with choosing to boot from your USB recovery drive.

Step-7: Finally, click Recovery from a drive and then follow the instructions appearing on your screen.

3. Clean Install Windows

If nothing worked out for you yet, you should just consider doing a clean installation of Windows. Follow these steps in order to do so:

Step-1: Insert the Windows installation media device and start your PC.

Step-2: Now press the key to boot from the installation media (USB or DVD) and format the drive. Then reinstall your windows by following the instructions appearing on the screen.

This method shall surely fix There was a problem resetting your PC windows 10 error from your PC.

Conclusion

“There was a problem resetting your PC” has become a severe error these days. These were the 3 best methods to fix the issue. There are some other methods that might work like using DISM, SFC, System Restore, etc. You can also visit the official Microsoft thread related to this topic. For any queries, suggestion or doubts regarding this topic, feel free to comment down in the Comments section below. Hope I helped you to find the cure for the suffering of your computer.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. AvatarIrvin says

    July 25, 2018 at 6:45 pm

    hello,

    I came across your article while searching for a solution for resetting my laptop. The original problem was failure uninstalling an application (missing .msi). But after a while, I decided to reset my laptop instead trying to uninstall the application. But when the process reached 48% it stopped with a message said there was a problem resetting the PC. So I try to use your command prompt method. But then after typing the 3rd line, a windows said the program was being used by another application or something like that. I don’t have any problem with my laptop for now but still can’t get rid the unwanted apps. Quite frustrating since it takes huge disc space. Do you have any suggestion?

    Reply
    • AvatarSaquib Hashmi says

      August 13, 2018 at 3:29 pm

      You can try the Piriform’s CCleaner Free to remove the unwanted apps in order to free up disc space. It is one of the finest tools present.

      Reply
    • AvatarSaquib Hashmi says

      August 13, 2018 at 3:35 pm

      here is the link of CCleaner.

      Reply
  2. AvatarChuck Taylor says

    August 8, 2018 at 4:21 pm

    “ren software software.001”
    I have the same problem and the exact message is:
    “The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.”

    Reply
    • AvatarSnow says

      August 19, 2018 at 1:22 am

      Me too

      Reply
      • AvatarSander Buitenhuis says

        November 13, 2018 at 11:00 am

        Help I got the same problem, have you found a solution yet?

        Reply
    • Avatarmike says

      November 1, 2018 at 4:27 pm

      me too

      Reply
  3. AvatarHannah says

    August 11, 2018 at 7:44 am

    Same issue as the person above, says it is being used by another application on step 3. Infuriating since I don’t have a USB drive anymore.

    Reply
  4. AvatarD says

    August 12, 2018 at 10:10 pm

    Are you able to solve it? I have the same problem but I cant do a thing.

    Reply
    • AvatarSaquib Hashmi says

      August 13, 2018 at 3:24 pm

      Try using the solutions presented in the post.

      Reply
      • AvatarKyle says

        October 26, 2018 at 8:16 pm

        There isn’t a solution to this problem in the post.

        Reply
      • AvatarPOS Gamer says

        August 17, 2019 at 2:43 am

        Thanks Captain Obvious!

        Reply
  5. Avataremma says

    September 12, 2018 at 2:51 pm

    I have tried to reset my hp stream but got error message problem resetting pc.i clicked the option exit and continue to windows but now its a black screen with hp appearing intermittently.can i save my pc??

    Reply
  6. AvatarJo says

    November 22, 2018 at 7:46 pm

    I tried to reset it and it came up with the error. I cannot try methods 2 or 3 because my laptop does not boot up at all. I tried the commands but it did not work saying that it wasn’t in the system. It keeps going into “detecting errors” then stops and says it had an error restarting and need a restarting again. And then it goes around in a circle. Nothing I do changed the circle. I can’t even put a disc in because it has no disc tray. I can’t get onto the actual laptop to do the method 2 with the USB… I’m stuck?

    Reply
    • AvatarJohn says

      December 5, 2018 at 12:55 am

      Any luck? Surface book 2 same thing come on microsoft

      Reply
  7. Avatarunseen says

    December 2, 2018 at 8:18 pm

    thanks i pc works great

    Reply
  8. AvatarJevStar7 says

    January 18, 2019 at 5:48 pm

    Hello, so of course I had the same problem and came across this solution and saw that persons were having problems with the cmd commands. I did not enter the commands, I followed Method 1 up to the step where I should select Advanced Options. At that step I choose Reset this PC instead and it worked. I am on a Windows 8.1 machine.

    Reply
  9. AvatarOpp says

    February 19, 2019 at 10:40 am

    My PC Isn’t booting into windows 10 and the step 1 commands keeps showing error.
    Please help

    Reply

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