Question Black screen of death after installing Windows update.

[MancPete]

Hi:

The above occurred earlier this evening on my laptop.

I did create a system restore point BEFORE installing the updates, but as I have nothing but a black screen I can't get to System Restore!

By keying-in F8 whilst booting-up I can get into Advanced Options / Troubleshoot & then System Restore. But then I get an error box: "To use System Restore, you must specify which Windows installation to restore. Restart this computer, select an OS, and then select System Restore". That just takes me back to the Troubleshoot option. If I restart the computer I just get a black screen anyway.

If instead of System Restore I go into System Repair, it does a "diagnosis" and then tells me it can't repair the PC & directs me back to Advanced Options / Troubleshoot.

If I try Uninstall Updates / Quality Update, it just takes me back to the Troubleshoot option. If I try Uninstall Feature Updates instead, it says it cannot uninstall then suggests Troubleshoot / Reset PC, but I can't see a Reset option.

I haven't tried any other Options (UEFI Firmware / Cmd prompt, etc), as I am not familiar with them and don't want to make the problem worse.

So I know what the problem is - it's the Windows Updates I installed, of which there were 2, possibly "drivers". How can I uninstall them? When the laptop boots up (which it does, making the usual booting-up "noise"), instead of the PIN screen appearing, I'm faced with a black screen, with no way of getting to the system restore point.

The black screen occurred AFTER I had downloaded the updates. Looking back now on the Updates page on the laptop I am using to type this, I see that it was an Optional update - "Driver Updates(1) - Intel Corporation - Bluetooth - 23.70.0.2." I left it 5 mins or so after it restarted.

Can you assist?

 

[MancPete]

Further to the above: I linked the laptop to my TV with a HDMI cable and was able to get back to System Restore. All OK. I then uploaded Windows Updates MINUS the Optionals - and the laptop fell over again. So, I repeated the HDMI procedure and all was OK.

This means that the cause of the problem was one (or more!) of the supposedly "safe" Windows Updates. So the question is: how am I to know which of the supposedly "safe" updates was responsible - there were a LOT of them. Surely, trial-and-error cannot be the answer here? How is ANYONE to know which Updates are "safe" and which not? Is it best to just ignore Windows Updates altogether?

I'd appreciate some advice here!

 

[blazorthon]

What model laptop is this and what version of Windows? When was the last time it ran updates before this happened? How many updates were there?

 

[MancPete]

Thanks for your response, blazorthon.

Model: 3XS Vengeance 4090, 240Hz, QHD, 16.9, 16Gb, NVIDIA RTX 4090, Intel Core i9, 1490HX, 64GB DDR5, 2TB SSD, Windows 11, 7X1RO.
(I don't know what half of that means, I've just copied it out).

The last time the laptop ran updates was a few weeks back when there were Windows 11 updates to be run. This time, there were more updates than usual (5-6), including one "cumulative" one.

The laptop is working OK now, thanks to the procedure followed above at 08:56 this morning. The Windows Update screen is advising "Up to Date". I'm now wary of going near the damn thing in case it installs something and everything falls over again. Had I not created a System Restore point just prior to installing the updates, I'd have been stumped.

I'm all for keeping up-to-date, but at what cost?