technology Laptop having an unusual issue.

[Kitty_Cat 376]

(I apologize if this isn’t in the right forum.)

Here’s what happens:

1. I turn on laptop as normal

2. It loads like normal, gives me log in screen. Everything works just fine.

3. Insert credentials. It loads for a bit longer than usual but I don’t think much of it, as it usually loads a bit longer than usual for a couple of days after a windows update (I updated it two days ago and have been on it once after the update so I doubt updating was the problem.)

4. After loading is finished, I get a black screen (though lighter than if it was off completely). I can still see and move my mouse. Mute button and caps lock stops working and I can’t do anything.

I’ve tried both restarting and shutting down fully and waiting a few minutes. No change in issue.

Laptop info:
Windows 10, fully updated. HP laptop (don’t know the exact make). 3-4 years old. Known GPU hardware issue, though I doubt it’s the cause. Has not suffered food or water damage ever.

[Kitty_Cat 376]

Update: tried Ctrl shift windowskey and b, restarting explorer.exe. Neither worked.

uninstalling recent updates is unavailable. Cannot rollback gpu, and knew uninstalling wouldn’t work (I was wary of it anyway).

currently attempting restoring system to earlier point in time.

[Kitty_Cat 376]

Another update: restore finished. Straight up gave me a BSOD of 0xc000021a meaning something important got corrupted or missing during the restore.

im currently attempting to reinstall windows, I hope it’ll fix it.

[Kitty_Cat 376]

Windows was successfully reinstalled. Now I just have to reinstall everything else..

what started as a shy desktop led me to this agony.. at least it’s fixed.

and I suppose this’ll help for future instances.

hiccup led to a hiccup which led to me having to start over. Man. My bad luck is off the charts.

[PerlsteinProps 26,385]

48 minutes ago, Kitty_Cat said:

Windows was successfully reinstalled. Now I just have to reinstall everything else..

what started as a shy desktop led me to this agony.. at least it’s fixed.

and I suppose this’ll help for future instances.

hiccup led to a hiccup which led to me having to start over. Man. My bad luck is off the charts.

Did you install windows 11?

[ExplosionMare 18,024]

Sounds like you're doing what you're supposed to do far. You are doing a lot better than I did when I posted a computer problem here . Were you able to restore all your data, though? If not, I suggest creating backups in case this happens again in the future.

[Splashee 28,543]

@Kitty_Cat

Your thread was moved to Media Discussion. This is where previous computer technical issues have been located in the past.

 

 

5 hours ago, Kitty_Cat said:

3. Insert credentials. It loads for a bit longer than usual but I don’t think much of it, as it usually loads a bit longer than usual for a couple of days after a windows update (I updated it two days ago and have been on it once after the update so I doubt updating was the problem.)

4. After loading is finished, I get a black screen (though lighter than if it was off completely). I can still see and move my mouse. Mute button and caps lock stops working and I can’t do anything.

It sound like a GPU problem. Windows 10 works a little different with the graphics subsystem from what I have seen, so I can't really know for sure.

First step is to boot into Safe Mode. Check how to do that online, since Windows 10 is doing things a little bit differently than I know. Usually it is a function key press just before the computer boots into Windows, like pressing F8, and then selecting Safe Mode.
What happens now is that Windows boots using the "fail safe VGA driver", so graphics will look and act slower than usual. But if you can make it to the desktop, I would say your GPU is not happy with the newly installed update.
Maybe installing the newest graphics driver manually can fix the issue.

 

Worst case scenario: You might have to reinstall the entire laptop from scratch. Try everything you can before doing that since it is time consuming and you do want to find the problem so it doesn't happen again.

[Kitty_Cat 376]

2 hours ago, -Buttercup- said:

Did you install windows 11?

Not yet. Not quite comfortable with change. I’ll think about it though.

 

1 hour ago, ExplosionMare said:

Sounds like you're doing what you're supposed to do far. You are doing a lot better than I did when I posted a computer problem here . Were you able to restore all your data, though? If not, I suggest creating backups in case this happens again in the future.

Yeah, like 90% of my data was saved. The data that wasn’t saved was mostly just applications that I could just reinstall like nothing ever happened. However I did potentially lose over 200 hours of hollow knight progress, but given what I could have lost I’m not super upset.

 

1 hour ago, Splashee said:

@Kitty_Cat

Your thread was moved to Media Discussion. This is where previous computer technical issues have been located in the past.

 

 

It sound like a GPU problem. Windows 10 works a little different with the graphics subsystem from what I have seen, so I can't really know for sure.

First step is to boot into Safe Mode. Check how to do that online, since Windows 10 is doing things a little bit differently than I know. Usually it is a function key press just before the computer boots into Windows, like pressing F8, and then selecting Safe Mode.
What happens now is that Windows boots using the "fail safe VGA driver", so graphics will look and act slower than usual. But if you can make it to the desktop, I would say your GPU is not happy with the newly installed update.
Maybe installing the newest graphics driver manually can fix the issue.

 

Worst case scenario: You might have to reinstall the entire laptop from scratch. Try everything you can before doing that since it is time consuming and you do want to find the problem so it doesn't happen again.

attempted going into safe mode already for troubleshooting, couldn’t fix the problem there. My GPU is fully updated and didn’t seem to have a problem with the most recent windows update, as I had logged on before without issue. I’m aware that my GPU is a bit fried and I will get a new one when I can.

I did end up resetting my laptop entirely because of a BSOD resulting from a system restore I attempted. Both the initial issue and the restore BSOD seem to be both caused by some hiccups caused by computer itself since I can’t figure it where else it could have come from (and the computer is old anyway; it’s bound to make mistakes). I don’t mind resetting in full since I have most of my data online and synced thanks to Microsoft.