Hi all

I am really struggling to resolve an issue with my PC and my email system.

Before I begin, please accept my sincere apologies if I have missed a posting with a similar issue. I have looked across this (and many other) site and cannot find a similar issue. But, as I say, if I have missed a similar posting, many apologies.

I use a four year old Dell Aurora Alienware 11. I run Windows 11 Professional and Office 2021 professional. It has 64 GB of RAM, a 1 TB SDD and a 6 TB additional internal HDD. The system connects to the internet through a 256 MBPS link.

And, up until the middle of October 2024, everything was running fine. Or so I thought...

It was about the middle of October that I noticed a strange issue that I have never experienced before.

I had occasion to access my msn based outlook email through MS Edge. I opened the MS Edge and linked through Sign in to your Microsoft account I accepted the cookies as normal, clicked 'sign in' and tried to enter my email address. I clicked on the 'Sign In' box however the cursor would not settle in the 'sign in' box. When I single clicked the box, I noticed my 2 email addresses flash up in the middle of the screen and then disappear. The screen would not allow me to enter any details.

Thinking that there may be an issue with MS Edge, I closed the browser and opened Google Chrome. Again, I tried to open an email session and again I found that I was unable to click in to the box to enter my email address.

So, I sat back and looked at the options.

We are lucky enough to have a laptop which we use when we are away on business. So I tried to access my Outlook email system via Google Chrome and MS Edge. And both links worked. I could tab through to the email address box and enter my details. Then I received the prompt for my password and again, I tabbed through to the password box, entered my password and my emails started as normal.

That made me think that the issue was either hardware related (not very likely) or something to do with a recent windows and / or office update.

So, suspecting that a windows or an office update were the root cause, yesterday, I backed everything on my PC up and did a clean install of Windows 11 and Office on the PC. Then I tried to access my email via MS Edge and Google Chrome and was met with the same issue all over again. The login box was non-clickable. I couldn't get in to it to enter my email address.

So I trawled the internet to see if anyone else had experienced similar issues and could not find a single similar case.



At that point, I thought, OK, enough is enough. I'll contact Microsoft. Big mistake. I spent almost 3 hours online trying to get through to anyone at Microsoft support and failed miserably. At one point, I managed to start a chat session but, after waiting for over an hour with no response, I just gave up !

I then decided to use the helpful Microsoft online help. I had to use my authenticator app on my smartphone as I was still unable to enter my password. I managed to sign on and followed the self-help links to the 'Microsoft Account Sign-In helper. Microsoft checked my email address and displayed the following message..

'No problems found

We couldn't find any issues or problems with the Microsoft account details you entered.

If you need help with a work or school account password, click here.

Select continue below to see password reset and account recovery options.'

So I followed the link, managed to change my password and then tried to login again. I got the same results !

So, out of sheer desperation, I am contacting this forum.

Has anyone ever experienced this type of issue previously ?

And, could anyone explain to me how I can contact Microsoft support (I am based in the UK) to escalate this issue.

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions (apart from throwing the hardware and software in to the nearest bin !)

Ed

P.S. I tried to login to the Microsoft Community hub. The login took my username however I could not add my password. The password box appeared as normal but I could not tab or click in to it !! In the end, to gain access, I was forced to use the authenticator app on my smartphone !!