What happened
I was experiencing a graphical issue after updating my AMD GPU drivers. I was in the process of rolling back to a previous version of the drivers when I ran AMD's cleanup utility. That program prompted me to restart the PC in safe mode. I accepted and the PC restarted. But instead of the familiar login screen with my sign-on picture, I was surprised to be greeted by the default login screen.
The issue I'm facing
In short: I can only boot in safe mode. And I can't log in using my password. When I submit my password the response is invariably: "The password is incorrect. Try again."
I'm certain of the following things:
- I know my password; I can still use it to log in on another device.
- I'm logging into the correct Microsoftaccount.
- I'm using the correct keyboard layout.
- I'm connected to the internet.
- I haven't updated my password recently.
- Some previous passwords don't work either. But I'm not able to try all previous passwords because my record of obsolete passwords only goes so far back.
I can't use another sign-in option than my password.
I've been using a sign-on picture as my preferred sign-in option. And I also have a PIN set. Neither of these sign-in options are offered to me since the problem occurred.
I can't use the Windows Recovery Environment.
Because the account I fail to log in to is the administrator of the PC, I can't do anything in the recovery environment (which can be accessed by holding shift and pressing restart). Because each option prompts me to login with my password. That includes:
- System Image Recovery. I have a recovery partition on a USB-drive.
- Startup Repair.
- Command Prompt.
- System restore.
- Reset PC (reinstall Windows)
I can't change the boot configuration settings.
Following advice I found in a similar thread, I've tried changing the boot configuration settings booting from a installation USB, choosing repair, and opening a command prompt. But running bcedit returned the error: "The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The requested system device cannot be found." It opened up an unwelcome new avenue of troubleshooting.
My request to you
One thing I haven't tried yet is a reinstalling Windows 10. But before I commit to that I want to keep trying repairing the current install and I can use the help. What haven't I tried yet? Or should I bite the bullet and reinstall?