2018 Creator's Update-Insurmountable Black Screen Of Death

I bought a new Dell XPS 15 9560 last year but just took it out of the box two days ago to use. It came with Windows 10 Pro x64 and a Buffalo Blu-ray Burner since the laptop has no internal optical drive. I was assured by Dell that this Buffalo Blu-ray burner would also play DVDs. I assume that's correct and I'm assuming that I don't have to install the software that came with it (to enable the watching of Blu-ray movies) for the DVD function to work but I really don't know. I didn't take the Buffalo drive out of the box until yesterday, trying to get my laptop to boot by using A Windows 10 Rescue Disc, a Windows 10 ISO DVD and an Ultimate Boot DVD so I have no prior experience with it.

It took many hours for Windows to update to the current date since the laptop has been sitting in a box, unused, for fifteen months. After all the updates were done, but NOT INCLUDING the Creator's Update because it hadn't been offered yet, I installed Office 365 Home. No other software was installed, including browser software. Office was working as it should, just as it does on three of my other computers. I then installed the Creator's Update and restarted my laptop as instructed.

That's the end of it. That's when it all went downhill. I've had a black screen and freezes ever since. I have to do a hard shutdown every time I attempt something as it never gets past the black screen or it freezes and then goes black again. I did manage to get to Recovery in Windows, but when I chose to reset Windows everything froze and I was then presented with a black screen. After many, many attempts I was able to get to System Restore when a Dell Support Assist window appeared. Once System Restore was initiated, the screen froze, the screen dimmed and then locked up. Another hard shutdown ensued. The Dell Support Assist presented itself again and I chose Recovery but as you can imagine, the screen locked and dimmed. I managed to get into Setup by using F2 but once there the screen froze and dimmed again. I then did many more hard shutdowns until I was able to access the boot order menu using F12. It then froze and dimmed. More hard shutdowns were needed before I determined that I was not going to be able to use F8 to access Safe Mode. I cannot enter Safe Mode as the F8 key does nothing.

It's now at the point where I get absolutely nothing but a black screen after every hard shutdown and restart, and I can't use the Buffalo drive because I can't change the boot order so that the laptop boots from the drive. Restarting with any of the previously mentioned Rescue Discs in the Buffalo drive does nothing, which is to be expected.

Any ideas or should I simply call Dell and let them send a technician? I have a four year Premium Warranty on this laptop so the technician will not cost me any money. I don't expect Dell to be able to do anything online or over the phone because I can't boot into Windows so that they can remotely diagnose the problem.

Thank you in advance for your time and any assistance provided.

Sounds like you may as well do a clean install using the latest version of Windows (build 1803).

You can freely download that (the Tutorial section has details if you are unsure), as it does for creating bootable disks.

I don't know what build you tried to upgrade your PC to- the 'creator's build' is an old build.

F8 to access Safe Mode. I cannot enter Safe Mode as the F8 key does nothing.

This function is deprecated in win 10- it won't work in general. Basically Win 10, especially with an SSD, boots too fast for it to be useable.

Safe Mode: You can add that to the boot menu if you wish (see the Tutorial section). Otherwise you basically can't boot to Safe Mode unless your PC is bootable- which is a conundrum.

You mention System Restore- that's irrelevant when considering upgrades. It's only relevant when restoring to a state in the same build.

Another option to consider is that your PC probably has a manufacturer's recovery partition.

After all the hard boots, I suggest you also check your disk.

Clearly given your contract, you may as well make use of it. You don't know what other issues might arise in upgrading Windows.

Good move.. sounds like a fundamental problem which is best left to Dell.

You mention System Restore- that's irrelevant when considering upgrades. It's only relevant when restoring to a state in the same build.

System Restore would indeed work if I could access it. I simply need to go back to the time before the April 2018 update was installed. System Restore is not irrelevant in my situation.

Assuming you mean the upgrade to 1803, I reiterate- restore points are
a. deleted by design when upgrading to a new build - as they should be.
b. would be totally irelevant as they only apply to a particular major build.

If to a Windows update, rather than an upgrade, then yes, of course, they are then applicable as they always have been.

Just for interest, there is a way to do that as you may know, but only if you can boot from an external medium which you say you couldn't (which as we've said suggests something more basic). You can use a Win 10 bootable medium, and via 'Repair your computer' get to an option 'Go back to previous build' to start restoring the previous version of Windows.

When you get your PC back, first thing to do- start creating your first base disk image using e.g. Macrium reflect (free). Even if your disk fails you can restore your PC/partitions to a previous working state. We strongly urge all users to use disk imaging routinely.