OS will now not fully load unless in 'Safe Mode'

Hi to everyone from a Noob!

I've been working on a friend's laptop, who wanted 'Gadgets' installing, which I did (same Gadgets that run OK on my almost identical laptop, from WinAero I believe) but since then the laptop will not run in normal mode. After signing in, the desktop background and icons appear as usual, and then the taskbar icons will appear or sometimes they won't, but either way nothing will run and I am eventually greeted with a small message window stating "The following program is not responding: Microsoft Windows. You can wait for it to respond etc..." but it never does and nothing works: no Task Manager, no Start Up menu - nothing. The hard drive also eventually goes idle. Ctrl-Alt-Delete just brings up a permanent black screen around which I can move the mouse icon. I have to hard reset the laptop by pressing and holding the power button.

I have tried uninstalling the gadgets, but I'm greeted with the usual 'some components could not be removed.' In Safe Mode the laptop appears to work as it should (under safe mode conditions), I even re-installed the gadgets and uninstalled them using CCleaner, but was greeted by the same message. I've tried windows recovery back to the last update from October, and under safe mode I am told it didn't work and didn't change anything, but on reboot in 'normal' mode I am told the recovery was successful, but Windows still does not work.

At the moment I am running an AVG scan under safe mode, but any help or suggestions as to what to try next would be appreciated. I am at the end of my (little) technical knowledge of what to do next, and I'm really upset that my installing the gadgets on my friend's laptop appears to have rendered it unusable. The laptop is here and internet connected, and I am typing this on my own laptop.

Please help...

This is most likely due to a driver. I would verify they are all up-to-date. I would start with the graphics driver.

Neemobeer said:

This is most likely due to a driver. I would verify they are all up-to-date. I would start with the graphics driver.

Thanks - is there an easy 'catch-all' way to check if any of the system drivers are out of date or do I need to pick through them one at a time, assuming I know where to find them all?

You could open a command prompt and type driverquery /v /FO CSV >> %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\drivers.txt Then you can sort that list easily. Be aware that there will be a lot of generic drivers that will have old dates. The main drivers you want to look for are grahpics, wireless, bluetooth, wired network and audio will be the typical ones that cause issues. Also AV products will have drivers that can cause issues.

OK Cheers - I will have a look at that tomorrow as it's 4am here now

I'm just a bit confused as to why all of a sudden the damn thing isn't working, apart from the gadget install and uninstall nothing else was changed and no updates performed, the laptop was working fine immediately prior to the install. Maybe if I can find out what files the uninstaller did not automatically uninstall this might be of use as well?

:)

Neemobeer said:

You could open a command prompt and type driverquery /v /FO CSV >> %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\drivers.txt Then you can sort that list easily. Be aware that there will be a lot of generic drivers that will have old dates. The main drivers you want to look for are grahpics, wireless, bluetooth, wired network and audio will be the typical ones that cause issues. Also AV products will have drivers that can cause issues.

PS: I typed in your text exactly as above (and in variations of) to the cmd.exe and all I get in reply is "was unexpected at this time"

I just copied and pasted the command prompt and it put a txt file on my desktop. Try that.

Quick Update: I tried once more System Restore within safe mode, and rebooted in normal mode and at the moment everything appears to be running 'normally' although rather hectically! Resource Monitor shows everything is maxed out; a lot of system stuff going on such as Log File, Master File Table and Page File, presumably updating on the HDD. Once everything's settled down I'll try a few apps then shut down as it's now nearly 5am.

EDIT: Actually, I think I've realised what's happening - because I've rolled back the update using System Restore and that laptop is using my sole network cable to connect to the internet, I assume W10 is going through its "automatically updates without prompting" phase. For now though, at least it's doing something!

I'll post again during the day and update with what's happened :)

Thanks to everyone for their help, the laptop now appears to be working fine. Possibly some corrupted file that was replaced when rolling back the update and re-updating.

Cheers!