Windows 8 flickering start menu

Hi,

I'm having trouble with my HP laptop. I've had this happen before and I had to completely reset my laptop because of it.

Basically I went to log in this morning, it said my profile couldn't be found and signed me out. I then tried again to log in and the Start menu has been flickering continuously and I can't select anything, it has also 'lost' all of my stuff so it looks like a temporary profile.. I have tried googling for an answer and cannot find anything that works, when I try to 'refresh' my laptop via going to safe mode it comes up with the error code: 80070490. I've tried to do a 'clean boot' in safe mode but that won't work properly.. PLEASE can someone help!

Since that error code is more commonly associated with a Windows Update issue, I'm wondering if you are stuck in some sort of temporary update mode that cannot be exited gracefully. Please understand this is just a guess on my part but I would try to enter safe mode w/network access and try this procedure:

Windows Update error 80070020

If you can get into an Admin Safe Mode, create a new Local Account. Check it, see if you can log into it. Then log back in to the Admin Safe Mode. Move all of the folders from your regular "user" account into that account, save for the NTUSER.dat file. Shawn created a Tutorial for this here, its an issue that goes all the way back to Vista, but this method still works:

User Profile Error - Logged on with a Temporary Profile

Once you get the files moved into the new account, you can log into that and all of your stuff will be there. If it was an MS account originally, you can change the new account to an MS account and it will work.

this happened to me, just follow the steps in the above link

http://www.eightforums.com/user-accounts-family-safety/27377-system-loads-temporary-profile.html

(Now that I think of it, your system may be stuck as he said, so try his link first, if this happened after an update and you cant boot to your regular profile then the update is stuck half-installed and needs to finish)

Since it is better to work directly with one person on your issue, I will leave you to work directly with XweAponX, who seems to have provided several alternatives, where I could only provide one to start with. Good luck.

Thanks so much for both of your replies!

I managed to move my folders over and stick them on my external hard drive, deleted my user and am now using a new one... however, I wasn't doing any updates, and this is the second time this has happened (last time I had to restore the laptop because of it). Any idea why it keeps happening?

This is what happens https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151971129782044&l=8881596692801435000 and then it got to the point where it wouldn't let me sign in and came up with that error message. Now everything is working fine since I deleted my main user and created a new one... weird?

It's an old error, you should have everything back to where it was if you moved the folders back, all of your desktop shortcuts will come back and any Program Files, if you are using Start8 or Classic Shell.

Even though this has been happening since XP, I've never seen it until Windows 8. I don't know what causes it, but the fix works. It was harder for me, because I was using an MS account. After I removed the original bad account, and moved all of my User files to the new account, I was able to change that new account to an MS account.

Oh yah, sorry for butting in, M2C, but I had direct experience with this very thing, except for the flashing login, which I suspect you were right abut that cause of that, but if you log in Safe Mode that should stop, either the updates will continue once fixed, or they will have to download them again.

Thanks so much for the help. So there is no way to prevent it from happening again as such? I don't tend to keep much on my laptop anymore because of it happening. Mine was an MS account too but now I just have a local account.

If I knew what causes it, but I don't. If you do regular maintenance on your Hard Drive, daily defragging*, and weekly or bimonthly CHKDSK. Download cCleaner and keep your system clean of Temp files:

CCleaner - PC Optimization and Cleaning - Free Download

* = Set your Disk Optimizer to run every night at midnight and dont be on the machine when it is running, leave your machine ON overnight at least 3 days a week.