Corrupt Files?

I must preface this by making it clear that I have little, if any, knowledge about this; thus, I am going to explain how I got to needing to post this and ask for assistance.

It started with a remote session this morning from Corel about a PaintShop Pro plug-in problem that they have been unable to figure out. This started out with my being unable to get GoToAssist to load with Firefox, Chrome, Edge, or Internet Explorer; the error message was quite long and meaningless to me. I had used GoToAssist within the past few weeks or so.

The Corel agent had me use Team Viewer, which did work, and as he was trying to figure out what might be wrong, using msinfo32, opened Windows Error Reports. Even I could tell just by looking at the very lengthy list of errors that there have to be problems with my computer. However, with the exception of GoToAssist today, the only problems of which I am aware are the one with PaintShop Pro, an amusing one with Word Perfect Office X9 where the Greek fonts are actually in Roman characters, and an acknowledged bug in Dell Support Assist.

The agent spent some time looking at some of the error reports, and told me that the computer does have a number of corrupt items; one he cited was NFO, whatever that is. We decided to keep the ticket open until I can do something about the problems. I told him that I was going to query the experts here; in particular, as this compter is still on version 1803 (and up-to-date as far as I can determine,) to wonder if an in-place reinstall of version 1803 might clear up at least some of the corruption.

Just before posting this, I ran sfc /scannow three times, with no reports of anything found. I think this covers the situation as I understand it. Needless to say, assistance shall be accepted with my thanks.

Run a full disk check and check for bad sectors as well

There should be little downside to an in place upgrade repair.
Customized Windows settings will be reset to default.
The iso can be downloaded to the desktop or to a flash drive.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade | Windows 10 Tutorials
Download Windows 10

Samuria said:

Run a full disk check and check for bad sectors as well

Thanks for the suggestion, which did not occur to me, given that I have never encountered this particular situation. (I think that is a well-written excuse....).

The log file for the chkdsk session did report some problems that it fixed. I don't know what they mean, but that does not matter. In Stage 3, it examined the security descriptors, cleaning up 12892 such entries and compacting the security descriptor stream. In Stage 5, it corrected errors in the Volume Bitmap.

I don't know if the first improvement I saw was due to chkdsk, but my desktop appeared instantly for the first time in a while, instead of seeing a black screen for a while, or, after another reboot or two, a desktop but with empty icons for a while. I did not watch the rest of the log-on procedure, but when I returned, it had finished and everything that should be there was.

zbook said:

There should be little downside to an in place upgrade repair.
Customized Windows settings will be reset to default.
The iso can be downloaded to the desktop or to a flash drive.
Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade | Windows 10 Tutorials
Download Windows 10

I did an in-place upgrade, which seemed to have worked very well, until I did a Windows Update search, which returned KB4100347. After it installed, the reboot was quite bad. The first thing I noted was that the internet icon had a red mark, which I knew meant that I had no connection; having encountered that in the past, I thought that it would be easy to remedy. It wasn't.

I clicked on the icon, and had to wait an unusually long time to get the password entry box; when it appeared, I got the expected "Welcome" screen, followed immediately by a totally black screen which lasted for what seemed, under the circumstances, to be interminable. I was eventually taken to the desktop, but all of the icons were empty, filling in sequentially. This had not happened before installing the KB.

I rebooted, and had a somewhat better experience, in that the Welcome screen remained visible until I again got a black screen that lasted approximately 37 seconds, with the empty icons there again. I am going to remove KB4100347 to see if that fixes matters; if so, I still have a program that can be used to block specific Windows 10 update, which I may use for that KB. I am, however, uncertain as to what, if any, danger that might cause to my computer; I will do a search for that.

It took me a while to figure out why I had no Internet. The troubleshooter said that the DNS Server was not responding, which meant nothing to me, but then I noticed that, after installing the KB, my connection was changed from my wifi to the DSL modem, which is not enabled to allow my computer to connect to the internet; rather, the modem feeds the router, which feeds the net to my computer. A subsequent reboot went better yet, but still not what it should be. (I hope I have these in order.)

All this aside (other than an almost-forgotten thank you for your response,) the problem with PaintShop Pro that started this entire process was not fixed by either the dskchk nor the in-place; I have notified Corel of this.

Report into the thread what happens with the removal of the Windows update.
Black screens are often due to problems with GPU drivers.
If the black screen happens again click these 4 keys simultaneously:
control + shift + windows + b
report into the thread what is seen and heard

Open the website for the computer manufacturer > download the drivers for each to the desktop:
Intel
Nvidia
Support for XPS 8900 | Drivers & downloads | Dell US


1) uninstall the Nvidia GPU and Intel GPU drivers using DDU (display driver uninstaller)
2) re-install the Nvidia GPU and Intel GPU drivers from the Dell website
3) make sure that you check the clean install box and if available install the physx driver.
Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 17.0.8.2 (or a newer version if available)
Display Driver Uninstaller: How to use - Windows 7 Help Forums
NVIDIA
Download Display Driver Uninstaller - MajorGeeks

All drivers are up-to-date, according to Dell a few days ago.

As for the rest, I'm going to first remove the KB, on the grounds that before it was installed, the reboot process performed correctly.

When windows is up to date there can be corruption in the operating system and registry.
In a similar fashion when drivers are up to date they can become corrupt.
If the removal of the windows update fixes the problem then you are set.
If the removal of the windows update does not fix the problem then uninstall and reinstall the drivers.

zbook said:

When windows is up to date there can be corruption in the operating system and registry.
In a similar fashion when drivers are up to date they can become corrupt.
If the removal of the windows update fixes the problem then you are set.
If the removal of the windows update does not fix the problem then uninstall and reinstall the drivers.

Before I get into details, I must make it clear that I am NOT being argumentative. I simply need and/or want to understand. You clearly already do that, but it is mainly beyond anything that I comprehend.

1. I deleted the KB; This time, the password box on the log-on screen appeared in just a few seconds, which was better, but it still took too long to get to the desktop, and the icons were empty. This is the very sort of thing that I don't understand: As I wrote earlier, at the end of the in-place install, the password box was quick to appear, and the desktop equally fast (no black screen first,) with the icons all populated. I have often seen a black screen for a much shorter time than now, and it has always disappeared after a few reboots.

2. There is something that occurred to me I should add to this discussion, based on a reply I received from Corel after the latest reboot: If I run msinfo32, and click on Windows Error Report, I get a lengthy list of errors. With today's reinstall of W10, all the errors are dated today, but curiously are all time-stamped starting a few hours from now.

Would it be helpful were I to post at least a few of the error entries? Might they be caused by registry corruption?

3. Which brings me to this, which was going to be number 2 before I thought of what became that number: How could I check the registry for corruption, and, if such is found, repair it? I want to take this step by step, and would like to investigate the registry issue before the driver one. (No actual reason, simply how I feel about this, which falls directly at my lack of knowledge about whatever it is.)

Perform the following steps:
1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
4) chkdsk /scan
5) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

6) There are two log collectors: DM and BETA
The beta log collector will collect more useful folders and files and at sometime will replace the DM log collector.
The link for the beta log collector is in the bottom half of this web page:
BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums
Run the beta log collector and post a zip into this thread.
(extract all > open)