Window 10 Broke My Computer

Earlier today, Sept. 24, 2016, Microsoft pushed an apparently routine update on my laptop when I was putting it in "sleep" mode. It was one of those "This Will Take A While" updates. Since then, my laptop has refused to even start. It is permanently stuck in startup mode. The laptop is a fairly recent Dell, came with Windows 8. I installed Windows 10 some months ago and have regretted it ever since as it causes the laptop to crash frequently. Nevertheless, it is now totally utterly unusable. Got any suggestions? (I am currently using an old Windows 7 that I dug out of a drawer.)

Restore to an earlier date. Start with pressing cntl alt delete while you are looking at that blue screen.

Using Windows Restore is probably a good idea, as suggested by "seattle".

One way to get into it reliably is to make a bootable USB installation drive.


https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2376-usb-flash-drive-create-install-windows-10-a.html

(You can use it for other things than installing Windows.)

Are you still under support from Dell? I have no idea how good their support is these days. I expect that they are ill-trained script readers, but it's possible that they are better than that.

seattle said:

Restore to an earlier date. Start with pressing cntl alt delete while you are looking at that blue screen.

This does not work. The blue screen does not appear. The Windows logo appears on a black background, followed by the Dell logo on a black screen, followed by a black screen. Then this process repeats endlessly. Ctl-alt-del does nothing.

I had the same problem after an update ran. Turns out the culprit was Razer installing some software alongside the WIndows 10 upgrade that broke my display adapter. I was able to disable it in safe mode and get my display back so I could fix the other multiple issues this upgrade caused. If you can see the monitor at the start screen you can enter safe mode by holding the shift key while clicking on the power icon and hitting restart. It will restart to a screen with various options including boot into safe mode and safe mode with networking. If you can't get as far as the start screen you can try the F8 os shift+F8 trick during restart but no guarantees that will work. Your best bet is to use your working computer to create a bootable USB as bobkn suggested and use that to repair windows.

kbennett65 said:

I had the same problem after an update ran. Turns out the culprit was Razer installing some software alongside the WIndows 10 upgrade that broke my display adapter. I was able to disable it in safe mode and get my display back so I could fix the other multiple issues this upgrade caused. If you can see the monitor at the start screen you can enter safe mode by holding the shift key while clicking on the power icon and hitting restart. It will restart to a screen with various options including boot into safe mode and safe mode with networking. If you can't get as far as the start screen you can try the F8 os shift+F8 trick during restart but no guarantees that will work. Your best bet is to use your working computer to create a bootable USB as bobkn suggested and use that to repair windows.

What did you get rid of? I'm having the same exact issue now and am currently without any gfx drivers.

I am rapidly despairing of any possibility of repairing my laptop. I went out and bought a USB drive, and can't download Windows 10 to it. Microsoft says it can't "FIND" the flash drive, although why is a mystery to me. I have tried every port on this old PC, and have rebooted numerous times with no success. I cannot get into "safe" mode on the busted laptop. I cannot do anything with the busted laptop, and it has my whole freaking life on it!

Rise said:

What did you get rid of? I'm having the same exact issue now and am currently without any gfx drivers.

Razer Firefly and Razer Synapse were the culprits for me. It seems if you have any Razer products the software and drivers install with Windows. There is no way to prevent it that I can find as Windows treats it like an important update.
I wasted hours figuring it out which makes me more than a little mad as the only Razer product I have is a mouse pad that certainly doesn't need any software or drivers

CarolKopp said:

I am rapidly despairing of any possibility of repairing my laptop. I went out and bought a USB drive, and can't download Windows 10 to it. Microsoft says it can't "FIND" the flash drive, although why is a mystery to me. I have tried every port on this old PC, and have rebooted numerous times with no success. I cannot get into "safe" mode on the busted laptop. I cannot do anything with the busted laptop, and it has my whole freaking life on it!

On the old desktop, do the USB ports show in the Device Manager control panel? Did you try the USB ports in the I/O panel in the back of the machine? Those are unlikely to be disconnected from the motherboard.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's time to STOP. Get knowledgeable help. I hope that it's readily available. (Perhaps not BestBuy's "Geek Squad". They might fix it by wiping your HD and re-installing Windows.)

Yes, the device does show up in the Control Panel on the old laptop thanks for asking. I was even able to (accidentally) copy the Media Creation Tool to the device, which does me no good whatsoever. The software download process ends abruptly every time with the message that the USB device can't be found, and suggests I refresh the list, which I do, which doesn't work.