Windows Won't Load Since Last Update (Video Inside)

[Vanch]

Hi,

I'm having a major issue with my PC since installing the last Windows update yesterday (1703, Creators Update). As soon as the update installed, my PC restart and loaded into Windows with no problems. I then turned my PC off for the night. When I went to load up the PC this morning, you can see exactly what happens in the short video I uploaded to Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNsnQPNqKVE). It just gets to the ASUS screen, and basically stays there forever. I left it on for 3 hours earlier, and it was still at the same screen when I came back.

I can move the mouse and the keyboard is responsive though. When I press CTRL+ALT+DEL, the mouse even does that little loading icon, so I know something is going on behind the stuck loading screen. It's like Windows has loaded properly in the background, but the loading screen won't go away for some reason.

I'd massively appreciate some help with this, thank you!


My PC specs are:

OS - Windows 10 64 Bit
CPU - Intel Core i5 6600k 3.5Ghz
Video Card - Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 4gb
Ram - 16gb DDR4
Storage - One SSD which has Windows installed, and a HDD for various misc files.

 

[Vanch]

OK, I got System Repair to load up somehow. I tried system restore, and unfortunately that didn't work. It said it restored to a previous version, but the same thing occured when I tried to load Windows.

I then tried booting via safe mode, and managed to get past the ASUS screen and into Windows, which was a good sign I guess. I then tried to restart Windows, and see if that helped but it doesn't seem to wanna get past the ASUS screen unless I boot into safe mode, as the same thing happened again.

Is there anything I can do from safe mode to try and fix the issue?

 

[ubuysa]

If you boot the Windows installation media (I realise this might be a back level version of Windows 10 but that's ok) and go into the repair option, see whether 'startup repair' can fix your issue. It sounds like a glitch during the in-place upgrade and they are not exactly uncommon.

Generally with Windows 10 upgrades (like the Anniversary Edition or the latest Creator's Edition) it's much safer to perform a completely clean install, they are after all new versions of the complete OS. I quite understand that you don't want to have to reinstall all your drivers and third party applications (which is why Microsoft provide an upgrade-in-place tool) but there is a price to pay for that convenience and unfortunately you have just paid it.

If the startup repair doesn't help I would strongly suggest you do a clean reinstall of the Creator's Edition (assuming you downloaded installation media, that's always the wise option). Otherwise do a clean install of the existing version of Windows and as soon as you can connect to the Internet run the Windows Media Creation tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10) and download the Creator's Edition again as an installation file (don't select the 'upgrade this computer' option) and either burn that to a DVD or a USB stick. Then boot that media and perform a completely clean install.