Windows 7 -> Windows 10 WAS working 2 days, now black screen with dots

Zefrem23 · 07 Sep 2016

Hi, a couple of days ago I upgraded my sister's PC from Windows 7 to Windows 10. It was stable and booting fine, if a little more slowly as the hardware is a little long in the tooth. Yesterday, though, when she started it up it got as far as a black screen with white rotating dots, and it just stays on that screen despite me waiting for hours.

I read up on these forums and elsewhere that the "Anniversary Update" might be the culprit, and that it might be a graphics driver issue. The advice was to start the PC in safe mode using a Windows 10 media install disk, which I have tried, however I'm now faced with this message:

Windows 7 -> Windows 10 WAS working 2 days, now black screen with dots-windows_error.jpg

I've tried both the "yes" and "no" options. "Yes" just reboots and goes back to the infinitely rotating white dots on the black screen, and "No" tries to start a fresh install.

So is there any other way around this now, aside from doing a completely fresh install? There appears to be no way to repair the installation, unless someone can possibly suggest any alternatives?

Any help will of course be hugely appreciated!

Steve C · 08 Sep 2016

I fear you have lost your original installation by attempting a clean install - I hope you have backup of your files?

Did you backup Windows 10 as soon as it was working.? If not, please do so next time - e.g. using Macrium Reflect.

At this stage, if you have no backup, I would attempt the clean install but remove all external drives from the PC and say yes to installing updates. Windows 10 should clean install and activate automatically since you have already upgraded. You will then have to reinstall your programs.