“The Computer Restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error” during installation of windows
The error message “The Computer Restarted unexpectedly or encountered an unexpected error” is most commonly caused by an interruption of the power supply such as power failure or pressing restart during the final stage of window installation process.
Fixing this error is reasonably easy just follow these steps:
When the error appears press SHIFT+F10 and it will open up the command prompt.
Open the registry editor by typing in the command “regedit”
Now the registry editor appears, you now need to navigate to:
HKLocal machine/SYSTEM/SETUP/STATUS/ChildCompletion
Now find the key called “setup.exe” the value needs to get changed from 1 to 3. To do this just double click on the registry key and change the keys value.
Now exit regedit and hit ok on the error message. Now your computer will restart and continue on the Windows setup process as normal.
Thank you so much! I thought my computer was ruined… I’m great with computers, but I had no idea that you could open command prompt like that!
Yeah its definitely an abstract thing to do that doesn’t come up to often but when it does it is very useful I thought I had wasted 4 hours runnibg up an image to deploy over a network then I tryed this
glad I could be some help
I’m glad you posted this…very helpful, thanks!
So i was experiencing the same problem. I tried to upgrade from vista(32bit) to w7(32bit) on an old machine of mine! The DVD drive is broken so i decided to just upgrade the machine! its now back stuck on the ‘Completing installation…’! I would guess that the only way to fix this is to do a clean install via usb key? thanks
Thank you very much! Now, what the hell is this? How did u find out about this stuff???? Someone explain to me why does it happens.
I come across this error by accident when the power cut out as I was installing windows on a PC. This happens because your windows install marks itself as finished and because of the restart it isn’t actually finished so it doesn’t know what to do.
I have similar issue and tried to resolve it using your instruction. But when the error appears pressing SHIFT+F10 did not open up the command prompt. This is a windows 7 machine. I tried it for about 6 times and still would not work. Any help?
Is it the exact same error message?
Thank you soo sooo much! I pretty much figured my pc was rendered useless.I tried so many other ideas. Your post fixed my problem completely!
Hey I just bought a refurbished desktop hp and I can’t even get the start up going because the message above keeps popping up. I followed all of the steps but when I get to the registry editor my HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE has no set up option just has default button what should I do next confused and frustrated. Please Help!!!
Sorry I’m not sure I wouldn’t be able to tell you without actually looking at the PC, it may just be easier to reinstall check the side of the computer for a product key sticker. If you do find a fix for this I would love to hear back about it and I will add it to my post. I have never actually done these steps on a windows XP machine just on windows 7 and vista so I know it works on those two versions of windows. From what I have read it is meant to work on XP as well…
I think the computer has Windows 7 because it came with a Windows 7 home premium disc, but I tried running the disc and it wont continue that process either. I’m wondering if they sent me a faulty refurbished computer
Bro! you saved my life, this problem just occurred this afternoon, and you solved it! Thank you a lot. very smart.
Thanks a lot, works perfectly. Cheers
You are a lifesaver! Thank you so much for posting this! I cannot thank you enough! God Bless you!
Aint GOD AWWSUM?!!! I’ve been deal’n with this problem since late late lass nite… got up this mornin, Prayed and researched on a backup computer, tried a few thangs, didnt work.. evan tried the regedit thang a few times, no success.. so I hit ALT and F10 ovar and ovar at the ACER startup, recovered my computer with backup files to save all my thangs, it restarted , diffrant error message this time…. so what could it hurt.. did the regedit thang again, jus got thru read’n Yer comment tell’n this vary smart man Thank’You and as soon as I got to GOD BLESS You!, my computer popped up the purdiess blue screen and it was onnnn
… I knew it was GOD 
.. HE touched my computer, know’n what it means to me with all my memories and such, and Blesses it… HE also Blesses Us with grate folks like this man who has Awwsum Advice… GOD BLESS SWEETLY…. Cj
Wow i Fk*n love you!!! I been having this issue for weeks. You are the best….
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks…I love You……………..
SHIFT+F10 doesn’t worked for me!!!… any other way to do it?
God bless you! Thanks for sharing.
Man I can’t tell you how much I thank you!!
IT WORKS!!!
Great tip.
Tank you.
I love you…
Worked a treat!!!
Shift+F10 – Nice tip.
Thanks
-G
Donation on the Way! Thank You so much for the tip. Saved me hours of debugging. Somebody needs to tell HP about this tip… Their site is useless. HP Model number a633w
Thank you
When i ended up pressing the turn off button during the installation i thought i was doomed!!!! Thank you for finding out how to solve the issue, you have our thanks!
i dont have words to explain my feelings about this solution
………….you are the mastermind ……… tusi great ho yaar
thanks thanks thanks thanks
Im getting the same error messages us we all did, thats why we came here. But my laptop keeps cutting out (its plugged in) a split second after I bring up the command box. So i cant get anywhere. This must be why i got the error in the first place. Im running a toshiba.
Thank you so much. You guidance is really very helpfull
Thank you, absolutely superb. I have been looking for a fix for this problem for days and this worked a treat.
thank you, thank you…. <3
Thanks so much this was very helpful!!! I thought I messed up my laptop!!! Thanks
Thanks sooo much u have no idea how much this helped!!!!!
That piece of information saved a high school student from having to pay for a full reinstall. Blessings to you and your’s
Bro, i think u shud open a new twitter account named LIFESAVER_GENIUS_GOD. thanku sooo much ^__^
THANK YOU SO MUCH, Now I can Access windows 8!!!! I thought my computer needs an expert
you save my life so many time, but i have one more problem – system preparation tool 3.14 – i dont know what to do with this, nothing works for Vista 7, stupid fatal error
You saved my day. Spend a night and what seems like half a day staring at this error screen. Very helpful. Thanks a bunch.
thank you alot
windows work fine !