Windows 10 not booting - Stuck at black screen with blinking white dash

[alzepa]

So i don't know what happened to my computer last night (Maybe it did an automatic update) I did a normal shutdown, and in the morning after I couldn't boot my Windows 10. It won't go pass the black screen with the blinking dash. Please help me, I don't want to do a fresh install. I got all my important files in this computer.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Is there more than one internal drive on this build, if so, disconnect all secondary drives and see if it will boot.

You're first problem is that you're not very smart for not having your important files backed up. Hard drives and SSD's fail. Period. All the time, everyday thousands and thousands of them just quit working. Having all your important data in only one place when additional drives or free cloud storage for backups is either cheap or free is just begging to lose all your files. If for any reason you lose your files, you will have nobody to blame but yourself. Even backing your important files up to a 20 dollar pile of DVD's is better than nothing. But with free cloud storage, there's no reason anymore for anybody to not have their stuff protected.

Ok, enough stern bashing on you for not having stuff backed up.

Have you tried booting to safe mode? It sounds like either a boot partition conflict or a driver issue. Was this an upgrade or a clean install?

 

[alzepa]

Is there more than one internal drive on this build, if so, disconnect all secondary drives and see if it will boot.

You're first problem is that you're not very smart for not having your important files backed up. Hard drives and SSD's fail. Period. All the time, everyday thousands and thousands of them just quit working. Having all your important data in only one place when additional drives or free cloud storage for backups is either cheap or free is just begging to lose all your files. If for any reason you lose your files, you will have nobody to blame but yourself. Even backing your important files up to a 20 dollar pile of DVD's is better than nothing. But with free cloud storage, there's no reason anymore for anybody to not have their stuff protected.

Ok, enough stern bashing on you for not having stuff backed up.

Have you tried booting to safe mode? It sounds like either a boot partition conflict or a driver issue. Was this an upgrade or a clean install?

Yup totally blaming myself for this. No my system only has one drive, and it was an upgrade from windows 8.1. I can't get to safe mode. Tried pressing F8 and it takes me back to the same black screen with the blinking dash

 

[Darkbreeze]

What are your system specs? Does your system have a UEFI bios and is your system in UEFI or legacy mode? You can't just "press" F8. You have to start mashing F8 repeatedly, as fast as you can, and not stop until the advanced boot menu appears. I mean actually start doing that maybe even before you hit the power or simultaneously. Some systems require Shift+F8, so try both. Barring that working, you might be able to access the boot menu using the windows installer media if you created installer media and upgraded from that. If you upgraded from within windows update, you're screwed in that regard.


You might also try unplugging your boot drive, power up until you get the no bootable disk screen, powering off, reconnecting your drive and attempting to boot again. Also, you would be wise to possibly also try resetting your bios to default settings and rebooting. Don't try each thing at once, go one step at a time.

Enabling or disabling Compatibility support module (CSM) in the bios may work as well.

 

[alzepa]

What are your system specs? Does your system have a UEFI bios and is your system in UEFI or legacy mode? You can't just "press" F8. You have to start mashing F8 repeatedly, as fast as you can, and not stop until the advanced boot menu appears. I mean actually start doing that maybe even before you hit the power or simultaneously. Some systems require Shift+F8, so try both. Barring that working, you might be able to access the boot menu using the windows installer media if you created installer media and upgraded from that. If you upgraded from within windows update, you're screwed in that regard.


You might also try unplugging your boot drive, power up until you get the no bootable disk screen, powering off, reconnecting your drive and attempting to boot again. Also, you would be wise to possibly also try resetting your bios to default settings and rebooting. Don't try each thing at once, go one step at a time.

Enabling or disabling Compatibility support module (CSM) in the bios may work as well.

My Specs are
I7 4790K
16 GB RAM
Asus Maximus VI Impact
1 TB Hard drive
GTX 560 Ti

So basically I have UEFI Bios but don't know if my system is in UEFI or legacy mode (I don't even know what that means) So, I got into the advanced boot menu and don't know what to do. so I shut it off. I don't have the windows installer media I upgraded from within windows update. Gonna try to unplug my boot drive.

 

[Darkbreeze]

If you were able to get into the advanced boot menu, try using the instructions on the following page to access the Startup settings menu and choose safe mode with networking. Once in safe mode, go to control panel, device manager, and see if there are any problem devices, if so, right click on them and select update driver software and then update automatically to see if windows update has drivers available for them. If not, you may need to determine what device or devices has problems and find the windows 10 compatible drivers manually on the hardware manufacturers website.

http://www.howtogeek.com/126016/three-ways-to-access-the-windows-8-boot-options-menu/

For graphics driver problems, I suggest doing the following once you are in safe mode or after getting into windows in any way possible.


http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2767677/clean-graphics-driver-install-windows.html


Graphics drivers seem to be the #1 issue with the black screen or blinking cursor issues. Of course, not every user is going to have the same problem even with the same symptom, but it's a place to start.


Do not attempt to choose the refresh, reset or repair options except as a very last resort. A lot of users have had complete failures of the OS doing so and have had to do a clean install, losing all their data which they too had not backed up.

 

[alzepa]

What are your system specs? Does your system have a UEFI bios and is your system in UEFI or legacy mode? You can't just "press" F8. You have to start mashing F8 repeatedly, as fast as you can, and not stop until the advanced boot menu appears. I mean actually start doing that maybe even before you hit the power or simultaneously. Some systems require Shift+F8, so try both. Barring that working, you might be able to access the boot menu using the windows installer media if you created installer media and upgraded from that. If you upgraded from within windows update, you're screwed in that regard.


You might also try unplugging your boot drive, power up until you get the no bootable disk screen, powering off, reconnecting your drive and attempting to boot again. Also, you would be wise to possibly also try resetting your bios to default settings and rebooting. Don't try each thing at once, go one step at a time.

Enabling or disabling Compatibility support module (CSM) in the bios may work as well.

Hey I'm really really sorry, I think I've made a fool of myself. What i meant about advanced boot is actually BIOS menu. Sorry this problem really messed up my mind. I got into the BIOS, Disabled CSM, started it up, it says that my VGA isn't compatible with the UEFI Driver and then my system automatically enabled the CSM back. Tried to unplug the drive and when I start it up my CPU Fan went crazy, my CPU Temperature goes beyond 80C. Scared that I'll damage something i shut it down immediately. Oh yeah I found that my boot device is in both UEFI and Legacy UPROM mode (or something like that)

 

[Darkbreeze]

Ok, so in Auto (Both UEFI and legacy), you're probably fine. The fact that your system temps shot through the roof WITH your cpu fan going like a bat out of hell is problematic. CPU temp should be low with a fan going full blast. I'd go back into the BIOS, reset to optimal default or default values and reboot. It sounds like you are likely to need to do a clean install but I'd reset to default and see what happens. Might even be worth it to remove the cmos battery from the motherboard for a few minutes then replace it and reboot into the bios then exit and restart.

Trying to get into safe mode and doing a clean install of the GPU card drivers is the best shot at getting the system working again without reinstalling though.

 

[alzepa]

Ok, so in Auto (Both UEFI and legacy), you're probably fine. The fact that your system temps shot through the roof WITH your cpu fan going like a bat out of hell is problematic. CPU temp should be low with a fan going full blast. I'd go back into the BIOS, reset to optimal default or default values and reboot. It sounds like you are likely to need to do a clean install but I'd reset to default and see what happens. Might even be worth it to remove the cmos battery from the motherboard for a few minutes then replace it and reboot into the bios then exit and restart.

Trying to get into safe mode and doing a clean install of the GPU card drivers is the best shot at getting the system working again without reinstalling though.

Okay, I'm downloading WIN10 Clean ISO now, just in case. Gonna try to remove the CMOS battery. And if all else fails... well Clean install it is. But I'm still curios though about what happened last night. My brother said he shut it down normally. Must be the automatic update or something. Somehow I regret upgrading to Windows 10 🙁

 

[Darkbreeze]

More likely than not it was no fault of his and is related to windows updating a driver that conflicted with something from the new OS or that was held over from the prior OS during the upgrade process. It seems to be a very common mishap. I've even posted a writeup on how to stop the system from updating device drivers automatically at the following link. It's a good idea to do once you've done the clean install of your GPU card drivers so you can be sure windows doesn't change them. I'd manually update all device drivers anyhow just so I know I have the most recent and most compatible drivers, as released by the hardware OEM, not as determined by Microshaft.

Keep in mind that turns off ALL automatic driver updating, so motherboard chipset, SATA, USB, GPU card and other drivers will require manual updating, if updating is desired or necessary once you get things running smoothly.


http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

 

[alzepa]

More likely than not it was no fault of his and is related to windows updating a driver that conflicted with something from the new OS or that was held over from the prior OS during the upgrade process. It seems to be a very common mishap. I've even posted a writeup on how to stop the system from updating device drivers automatically at the following link. It's a good idea to do once you've done the clean install of your GPU card drivers so you can be sure windows doesn't change them. I'd manually update all device drivers anyhow just so I know I have the most recent and most compatible drivers, as released by the hardware OEM, not as determined by Microshaft.

Keep in mind that turns off ALL automatic driver updating, so motherboard chipset, SATA, USB, GPU card and other drivers will require manual updating, if updating is desired or necessary once you get things running smoothly.


http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

Hey darkbreeze! So i got my WIN10 clean ISO on a flash drive. Plugged it in and i have the advance boot menu now, but i dont have the startup setting to go safe mode. It looks like my computer just lost its OS suddenly. any tips at this point?

btw I can't do a reset. It says that my drive is locked

 

[alzepa]

More likely than not it was no fault of his and is related to windows updating a driver that conflicted with something from the new OS or that was held over from the prior OS during the upgrade process. It seems to be a very common mishap. I've even posted a writeup on how to stop the system from updating device drivers automatically at the following link. It's a good idea to do once you've done the clean install of your GPU card drivers so you can be sure windows doesn't change them. I'd manually update all device drivers anyhow just so I know I have the most recent and most compatible drivers, as released by the hardware OEM, not as determined by Microshaft.

Keep in mind that turns off ALL automatic driver updating, so motherboard chipset, SATA, USB, GPU card and other drivers will require manual updating, if updating is desired or necessary once you get things running smoothly.


http://www.tomshardware.com/faq/id-2763685/stop-windows-automatically-updating-device-drivers.html

So I tried to do a fresh Install, and I got this
Pic 1
clicked upgrade, got this
Pic 2
Clicked Custom, got this
Pic 3

Man.... I really f**ked up now.. really desperate at this point man. Any help would be really appreciated 🙁

 

[Darkbreeze]

Do NOT choose update or upgrade, choose Custom. It's all outlined in the following tutorial. I suggest you open that tutorial on another machine and leave it there for reference, or print it off, and follow it word for word. Be sure to delete ALL existing partitions on the drive during the process, which also is outlined in the tutorial.



How to do a clean install


Dowload the ISO here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10


Use this tool to create USB or DVD installation media using the downloaded ISO: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool


Windows 10 clean install tutorial:

http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/1950-windows-10-clean-install.html

 

[alzepa]

UPDATE : Finally manage to get my PC back on! 😀 couldn't install Windows 10 because of hard drive partitions so I went back to Win 8.1 and upgrade to 10 from there. Thanks for all the help

 

[Twitch1g88]

Is there more than one internal drive on this build, if so, disconnect all secondary drives and see if it will boot.

You're first problem is that you're not very smart for not having your important files backed up. Hard drives and SSD's fail. Period. All the time, everyday thousands and thousands of them just quit working. Having all your important data in only one place when additional drives or free cloud storage for backups is either cheap or free is just begging to lose all your files. If for any reason you lose your files, you will have nobody to blame but yourself. Even backing your important files up to a 20 dollar pile of DVD's is better than nothing. But with free cloud storage, there's no reason anymore for anybody to not have their stuff protected.

Ok, enough stern bashing on you for not having stuff backed up.

Have you tried booting to safe mode? It sounds like either a boot partition conflict or a driver issue. Was this an upgrade or a clean install?

Ok, I have the same problem that he had an I disconnected my secondary drives and now it's booted. What do I do from here? Can I reconnect my drives? Should I do a backup? What do I do to make sure this doesn't happen again.

 

[Darkbreeze]

You need to start your own thread. You can reference this one with a link if need be.