Question Unable to reinstall Windows 10 with USB thumb drive

[silversmithy]

So I am currently working on 2 different older HP computers. This one is a quad core a6650f. I already reinstalled Windows 10 on it with a USB thumb drive I used for the media creation tool through Microsoft about 7 months ago. I recently decided to switch out video cards from a GT 740 4gb back to the HD 6450 1gb as it will only be used to occasionally play old games. Long story short I cannot completely uninstall the Nvidia drivers so there is screen flickering going on, etc. I have very little if any vital personal stuff on this pc so at this point I figure just do a full reinstall of Windows 10 again. Problem is that the computer is not automatically booting from the USB drive as it did last time I did this, and when I go to boot options and choose USB to boot from I just get the black screen with flashing cursor and goes nowhere. This is the same USB drive I used on this same computer so not sure what the issue is. I can go to system restore and choose to reset the PC using CD, USB, etc., but not sure if that will get me the same results. I am striking out on all fronts here. Anyway any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vov4ik_il]

Have you tried DDU yet? That should clean out the drivers completely. Flickering might be something else btw.

 

[Cj-tech]

So I am currently working on 2 different older HP computers. This one is a quad core a6650f. I already reinstalled Windows 10 on it with a USB thumb drive I used for the media creation tool through Microsoft about 7 months ago. I recently decided to switch out video cards from a GT 740 4gb back to the HD 6450 1gb as it will only be used to occasionally play old games. Long story short I cannot completely uninstall the Nvidia drivers so there is screen flickering going on, etc. I have very little if any vital personal stuff on this pc so at this point I figure just do a full reinstall of Windows 10 again. Problem is that the computer is not automatically booting from the USB drive as it did last time I did this, and when I go to boot options and choose USB to boot from I just get the black screen with flashing cursor and goes nowhere. This is the same USB drive I used on this same computer so not sure what the issue is. I can go to system restore and choose to reset the PC using CD, USB, etc., but not sure if that will get me the same results. I am striking out on all fronts here. Anyway any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

You may need to format the flash drive and run the media creation tool again to make it a bootable installation media. I had one that stopped working after a period of time, I think it might have become outdated or corrupted somehow.

 

[silversmithy]

Did think about that, but I currently don't have the internet where I am at and using my phone as a hot spot is pure torture. I think there are other issues so I figured I would just reinstall Windows. If only I could......

 

[silversmithy]

Okay, thank you. I will reformat the thumb drive and redo the media creation tool. Will see what happens.

 

[Colif]

did you hit enter when you saw flashing cursor? it could be waiting for confirmation to boot off USB. i know that used to be a thing booting off DVD

 

[silversmithy]

Have you tried DDU yet? That should clean out the drivers completely. Flickering might be something else btw.

I did install DDU earlier and ran it in safe mode. I chose GPU, and Nvidia drivers to be uninstalled. It found drivers and supposedly finished cleaning and restarted. Flickering continues. Went ahead and ran DDU again in safe mode, and it looks like it found and uninstalled same drivers again. Restarted, screen flickering still there. Am I missing something here?
So just to reiterate. The flickering has just occurred in the Windows home screen and usually starts when I click on the volume button in the lower right. Also what seems to get it starting is opening different things from Windows home screen like files/folder tab at the bottom. The flickering never seems to happen while gaming that I can remember. Could this be a Windows update issue?

 

[TerryLaze]

This is the same USB drive I used on this same computer so not sure what the issue is.

same USB port as well?!
When you go into your bios to choose the USB does it show up twice?!
Some show uefi and legacy entries for every device and you have to choose the correct one.

Flashing cursor usually shows that the device booted but has no idea what to do now because it can't find the boot files.

 

[vov4ik_il]

It looks like it needs monitor settings adjusted.

The flickering has just occurred in the Windows home screen and usually starts when I click on the volume button in the lower right. Also what seems to get it starting is opening different things from Windows home screen like files/folder tab at the bottom. The flickering never seems to happen while gaming that I can remember. Could this be a Windows update issue?

Just to make sure, you are running a portable build off a USB stick? If so, you would have to make a build for YOUR system, universal ones are not that universal.

 

[silversmithy]

Thanks for responding. So what I have is a Windows 10 desktop computer that was given to me by a friend some time ago. I wanted to reformat it and set it up with a clean install of the latest Windows 10 build not just an update. So I downloaded the media creation tool from Microsoft onto a USB drive and everything went fine.
I upgraded the video card from the included hd6450 to a GT 740. I decided to go back to the 6450 as the desktop is quite old and limited so wanted to save the 740 for something else. I did not have DDU when I uninstalled the drivers for the gt 740 initially, and then reinstalled the 6450. Had volume issues right away, and after that I initially noted that when I would click on the volume button the screen would flicker before I could adjust volume level. Now this always happens with that action, and even sometimes when clicking on other apps from the desktop screen. I have not noticed this at all when playing a game.
With this going on and not being able to find a fix I tried to just wipe the slate clean and just reinstall 10 again with the USB I used previously, but it just sat there at a black screen with flashing cursor for what seemed like a long time. This is what initially prompted my posting.

I did go ahead and do another more recent download of Windows 10 again as was recommended by someone here.
Before doing this I thought I would give DDU a try to see if this would help. I ran DDU in safe mode and it found the Nvidia drivers and completes the cleaning and restarts. The issue is still present.

Before I try to reinstall Windows again I am wondering if this flicker is actually driver related, update related or if I somehow did not run DDU correctly?

Update. So I ran DDU out of safe mode and seemed to go smoothly. At the end just before DDU closed and the PC restarts the screen flashes at least a couple of times before the restart. After PC restarts problem still there.
Wondering if I need to address the Intel GPU or Audio options in DDU? Would it be wise to just have DDU remove the 6450 drivers and reinstall? I don't think the card is bad. As a last resort I will just go ahead and try the reinstall of Windows 10, but not sure how that will go. This issue did not exist until after switching graphics cards. By the way if I should have opened up a new post re: the graphics card issue at some point please let me know, and I apologize. It is what prompted the reinstall issue.

 

[silversmithy]

It looks like it needs monitor settings adjusted.

Just to make sure, you are running a portable build off a USB stick? If so, you would have to make a build for YOUR system, universal ones are not that universal.

It looks like it needs monitor settings adjusted.

Just to make sure, you are running a portable build off a USB stick? If so, you would have to make a build for YOUR system, universal ones are not that universal.

I did try to adjust monitor settings but very few options popped up in advanced settings and the option to change Hz was greyed out and locked at 60Hz.

 

[silversmithy]

So I completely uninstalled the AMD drivers with DDU, and then reinstalled. The same screen flickering at the same time occurs. What initiates the flicker is trying to adjust the volume. The volume option is AMD high definition audio.
I went into device manager and scrolled down to audio. Under audio there are 2 High definition audio listed and states working properly. I went ahead and disabled one of these, and this resulted in no volume options, and the volume icon in the lower right desktop screen is crossed out. I am puzzled by this as I thought that the audio was running through the HDMI utilizing AMD. I am wondering if there is a way to just uninstall the AMD high definition audio as this is conflicting with pre existing drivers that seem to take precedence. Otherwise I am completely in error and it is something else. I really believe the answer lies in a audio issue, but just a guess.