[Chimiti]

Today one of my nieces called me and assigned me Mission Impossible ...

Fix her ematic EWT117BU Laptop  https://ematic.us/pr...ws-10-ewt117bu/

 

I say Mission Impossible because while I know my way around Windows XP very well, unfortunately my experience with Windows 10 is one step above squat.  I can count on 1 hand and 2 fingers the times I have used Windows 10.

 

Anyway, here are the details that she gave me regarding how and what happened.

 

She says that she first saw a message informing her that her MS Word (Office Suite) had expired.  No doubt a 3-month trial version.

 

Then a window came up prompting her to "Delete the old version of Windows 10 and install the NEW version of Windows 10."  I don't know.  That sounds fishy to me.  Sounds more like malware.  Then again, I'm not familiar with Windows 10.  Is a message like that even legit?  She claims she's gotten it before and she's clicked on OK and it's worked before.

 

She's says she clicked on OK.  The laptop then turned off.

 

I believe she then turned the laptop back on and was prompted to "Delete all my files."  Again, to me, that does not sound legit.  But, she claims she's clicked on OK before.

 

So now at power up, her laptop only displays the ematic logo for a couple of seconds.  Then the blue Windows logo for a couple of seconds.  Then the rotating dots briefly.  Then POWERS DOWN.  And that's all it does now ... just a very brief attempt at booting up, but failing and powering down.

 

Any wisdom / insight on what happened ... whether those messages were legit or malware in action ... and how to get this laptop back to booting up completely?

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The more I think about this, the more it sounds to me like those prompts were nefarious malware prompts that literally steered her into "Deleting ALL her files" including Windows 10 system files and that's why the laptop no longer boots. 

[Chimiti]

The more I think about this, the more it sounds to me like those prompts were nefarious malware prompts that literally steered her into "Deleting ALL her files" including Windows 10 system files and that's why the laptop no longer boots. 

[phillpower2]

Then a window came up prompting her to "Delete the old version of Windows 10 and install the NEW version of Windows 10."  I don't know.  That sounds fishy to me

 

 

And I would say that you could be correct as you would not normally be prompted to delete Windows by Microsoft as a working version of Windows needs to be present on the storage device for an updated version of Windows to be able to install, once the new OS is installed and up and running you can delete the previous version manually if for example you only have a small capacity storage device (as is the case with an ematic EWT117BU tablet type computer) there is no need to do this with computers that have a larger capacity storage device as the previous version of the OS is stored in what is called the Windows "old" folder for a period of ten days after which it is deleted by Windows, this is to make sure that you have a working OS to go back to should the update go wrong or should you in fact not like the updated version of Windows.

 

Fix her ematic EWT117BU Laptop  https://ematic.us/pr...ws-10-ewt117bu/

 

 

 

 

Does this device have a reset pin hole on the side near to the headphone jack, if yes, have you tried inserting a pin to see if you are offered a soft reset option or worse case scenario a hard reset option.

 

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[SpywareDr]

According to this page of the Ematic Tablet manual the "pinhole reset" button is located on the back the device.

Edited by SpywareDr, 06 April 2019 - 08:16 AM.

[Chimiti]

No, Phill, the laptop does not appear to have any reset pin hole anywhere.

 

So do I understand correctly --- This laptop does not have an HD, but rather an SSD or some sort of FLASH storage?  If so, does that mean that with such little TOTAL storage available on the laptop ... there's no chance that this laptop has a Recovery Partition with Windows 10 in it?

 

Because the only idea I had left was to create a Rescue Media USB on my niece's other laptop with Macrium Reflect.  THEN IF with that I managed to get it to boot up … MAYBE I could possibly somehow get it to recover the Operating System back to like from the factory???  Or is that not even an option because it doesn’t have a Recovery Partition?

 

Is there any other option if there is no Recovery Partition?  Or is this laptop FUBARed Toast?

 

Another thing I was going to initially try was to remove the battery for a couple of minutes to see if maybe things would get reset.  But, unfortunately the battery is in the inside of the case, not accessible from the outside.  At this time I didn’t want to resort to opening up the case just yet as I know how flimsy this things are built and how engineers design these things with hidden catches on the case and stuff so that one will BREAK them.  Heck, for all I know, the battery might not even be removable even from the inside of the case.  It might even be soldered or who knows what.

[SpywareDr]

 

No, Phill, the laptop does not appear to have any reset pin hole anywhere.

 

According to the manual, the reset pinhole is on the back of the device.

[Chimiti]

SpywareDr ... I think that manual in that link is not for this laptop.  Because I saw an image there of the top view and it doesn't match the look of this laptop.  The manual in your link appears to be more for a straight up full-fledged TABLET.  Besides, I took a scrutinizing look ALL around this laptop ... front, back, top, bottom, left, right and I haven't found a reset pin hole anywhere.

 

According to the original link I put in this thread, this laptop does convert to tablet mode, but it still doesn't look like the tablet in your link.  I'll confirm with my niece when she gets here in about an hour whether this laptop really does convert into a tablet.  I didn't want to push my luck and try forcing the top backwards and then having it break off because it would turn out that it WASN'T a tablet.

[SpywareDr]

Well no, don't break it. If it doesn't have a pinhole then I don't know how you would go about resetting it, or if that is even an option with that device. Ask your niece to bring the manual over with the laptop|tablet.

 

If it doesn't have a reset, then you'd probably have to (re)install Window using the USB flash drive approach.

[phillpower2]

the laptop does not appear to have any reset pin hole anywhere.

 

 

As you will already be aware there is very little info available for this device which does not help, I also came across the guide that the Doc did but noticed that it was not for an EWT117BU variant.

 

Apart from the pin hole reset option I am only finding the steps for an Android device, have you also found and tried such steps. 

[SpywareDr]

Oops, I thought it was running Windows 10?

[phillpower2]

Best Answer

You are correct Doc, Android steps here for devices running Windows 10

[SpywareDr]

Well no, I know how to reset most Android devices. I had no idea his|her Windows 10 laptop|tablet would also come with Volume Up|Down, Home (and Power) buttons.

[Chimiti]

Ohhhhh WOW!  You might be on to something, Phill.  I did the powering up while holding down the +  key on the keyboard sequence.  Well, lo & behold, not only did the laptop NOT power down anymore, but it now changed to a light blue screen and now while it does the rotating dots thing ...

 

It now says "Installing Windows" and "Don't turn off your PC.  This will take a while."

It started out at 10%.  It is now up to 27%.  So, things are looking VERY promising. 

 

For now you look like a GENIUS, Phill.     I'll let y'all know a bit later if it reached 100% and everything worked great after that.

Edited by Chimiti, 06 April 2019 - 10:08 AM.

[phillpower2]

Fingers crossed for you Chimiti 

[SpywareDr]

Awesome! Fingers crossed here as well. Let us know ...