Dell Computer Does Not Boot to Windows 10

Verify that the computer finishes initial power-up (POST)

Often a computer will not attempt to hand off control to the operating system. If you power the computer on and you see a Dell logo screen with a bar at the bottom, and that bar fills up completely and disappears, then your computer has successfully completed POST.

If your computer does not complete POST, see article, "Dell personal computer does not turn on or boot into Windows"
If your hard drive is not recognized, see article, "How to resolve HDD/Hard drive issues on your Dell System"

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Unplug all devices, and perform a hard reset

A piece of hardware may be interfering with the normal boot process of Windows. Try unplugging all devices from your computer, including:

Printers

Scanners

Media Card Readers

Small Media cradles (iPod, PDA, MP3 player, so forth)

Digital Cameras and Video Recorders

USB storage devices

CDs or DVDs from all optical drives

The only devices that you should leave attached to your computer are your monitor, mouse, and keyboard, if the computer is a desktop.

Once this is completed, unplug the computer from the wall, remove the laptop battery (if applicable) and hold the power button down for approximately 15 seconds. Then plug wall power back into the computer and attempt to restart.

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Run a Computer Diagnostic

To run a hardware diagnostic on your Dell computer, see Resolve Hardware Issues With integrated and Online Diagnostics (ePSA or PSA Error Codes).

Note: For Dell Latitude laptop PCs, you may try to recover the personal computer using the forced ePSA method. For more information, see the Dell knowledge-base article How to Use Forced ePSA to Recover from POST or Boot Failure.

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Check for specific error messages

Try searching for additional solutions on the Web.
Click your preferred search engine below, then describe your problem, including any specific error messages.

   

If you are experiencing a blue screen error on your computer, see Windows 10 crashes to a blue screen for common blue screen errors and how to troubleshoot them.

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Reset the BIOS to default values

If your computer is set to first attempt to boot to another device, this may cause issues with successfully booting to Windows. To reset your computer's BIOS to factory defaults, perform the following steps:

Restart the computer.

At the Dell logo during restart, tap the F2 key repeatedly until you see Entering Setup in the top-right corner of the screen.

Depending on the BIOS, must press a key that is listed at the bottom of the screen to load default settings.

Press ESC to exit the BIOS, and be sure to select Save and Exit to save your changes.

Note: For Windows based tablets, perform the following steps instead.

With the tablet off, press the Power Button, and then immediately press and hold down the Volume Down until the System Setup page (BIOS) appears (if the tablet boots to Windows, try again).

Touch or click Load Defaults.

Touch or click OK.

Touch or click Exit, if the tablet does not automatically reboot.

Note: If resetting the BIOS to factory defaults does not resolve the issue, you may also try to update the BIOS to the latest version to resolve issues that are related to the BIOS of your personal computer or tablet. See the Dell knowledge-base article What is BIOS and How to Download and Install the latest BIOS? 

 

Note: System BIOS may get corrupted if the BIOS upgrade or downgrade procedure is not completed successfully or interrupted.
A corrupt BIOS is one of the possible causes of your personal computer unable to complete POST or some times even boot into the operating system.
If your Dell personal computer or tablet supports BIOS recovery, you can recover the corrupt BIOS by using the BIOS recovery method applicable for your Dell personal computer or tablet. See the Dell knowledge-base article BIOS Recovery options on a Dell Personal Computer or Tablet 

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Safe Mode Troubleshooting

The software may be causing your computer to not boot properly. For more information about booting to Safe Mode, and to troubleshoot using clean boot troubleshooting, see the following links:

Clean boot troubleshooting

A clean boot is performed to start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This helps eliminate software conflicts that occur when you install a program or an update or when you run a program in Windows 10. You may also troubleshoot or determine what conflict is causing the problem by performing a clean boot.

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Virus and malware troubleshooting

Your computer may be affected by a virus or other malicious software. Dell recommends strengthening your personal computer against malicious attacks by keeping your anti-virus software up to date.

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Reset your Windows 10 operating system

If your computer files have been damaged, a reset of Windows 10 reinstalls these files without damaging your data. After the third attempt to boot has failed, Windows 10 will automatically boot into the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Follow these steps to reset Windows 10:

At the Choose an option screen, select Troubleshoot.

At the Troubleshoot screen, select Reset this personal computer.

At the Reset this PC screen, select Keep my files.

Select your user account, and enter the password if prompted.

Select Reset.

Windows will perform the reset process

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Restore the operating system to factory settings

If the previous troubleshooting could not resolve your issue, it may be necessary to restore your computer to factory settings.