Really strange Win 10 problem. Ever run into this?

[drnick5]

Hi folks,

I had a Toshiba laptop come in that wasn't booting. Was giving a black screen and eventually gave an error that the BCD was messed up. Pulled the drive and found it had a ton of bad sectors. I installed a new SSD, did a new Win 10 install of 1809 from a USB drive. Installed drivers and updates and rebooted.

After the reboot, it goes to the Windows logo with the white spinning circle, and then goes to a black screen. (no mouse cursor or anything, nothing on the screen at all, its as if its stuck between the boot process and showing the login screen or desktop)

What really strange, if I press the power button and put it to sleep, then wake it up, it works perfectly! I can log in and have no other issues, unless I restart or shut it down. When I boot it back up, it has the same issue.

Anyone run into something like this before?

 

[backwoodsman]

I'd be looking at recent updates, to see if there's a new driver or something that's causing the issue. If the new install was OK until you ran updates, that seems likely.

 

[drnick5]

I'd be looking at recent updates, to see if there's a new driver or something that's causing the issue. If the new install was OK until you ran updates, that seems likely.

I installed 1809 from a USB I had created. It did this on its first restart (before installing updates) I did try installing other updates after to see if it would fix it, but its still having the same problem.

My only idea is to try wiping it again.

 

[backwoodsman]

I installed 1809 from a USB I had created. It did this on its first restart (before installing updates)

In that case I'd try an older 1809 (from a while before the problem first occurred), or 1803. If it works, install updates and see if it quits. Then work from there.

 

[Porthos]

BIOS. Do you see it on an external monitor? If so update the bios.

 

[drnick5]

Well I finally figured this out!

I did a fresh wipe and reinstall, this time with no updates, did a few test restarts and it worked fine. I installed only the graphics driver via windows update, and the screen went black. put it to sleep, woke it up, screen comes back up.

I removed the driver, and the screen works fine (although, at low resolution)
I went to intel's site, and it seems this graphics driver isn't supported in Win 10 (strange... as the customer has been using this on Win 10 for a while now, with no issues until his hard drive died)

I went to Intel's site and found the latest driver (from 2015, for win 8.1) and installed that, same problem...

I even tried using Snappy Driver origin, it doesn't seem to find any drivers for the Intel HD 3000 graphics this laptop has.

Any other ideas? At this point I think I need to tell him the laptop needs to be replaced, as its no Win 10 compatible. (toshiba has no drivers for win 10 listed on their site)

 

[backwoodsman]

I'd offer him the option of going back to whatever Windoze it came new with. If there's not some other reason it needs to be replaced, that'll make it useful for at least a couple more years.

 

[Porthos]

Any other ideas? At this point I think I need to tell him the laptop needs to be replaced, as its no Win 10 compatible. (toshiba has no drivers for win 10 listed on their site)[/QUO

BIOS. Do you see it on an external monitor? If so update the bios.

 

[Porthos]

I'd offer him the option of going back to whatever Windoze it came new with. If there's not some other reason it needs to be replaced, that'll make it useful for at least a couple more years.

We can agree to diasgree. For me the cost of that would be as much as getting a refurb e6530 with a I5 and 8 gigs of memory and using the new SSD in it.

 

[backwoodsman]

We can agree to diasgree. For me the cost of that would be as much as getting a refurb e6530 with a I5 and 8 gigs of memory and using the new SSD in it.

I doubt it. Getting and configuring a refurb will take at least as much time as installing the old Windows, and then there's the cost of the refurb. Going back to the older OS is the cheapest option but probably has the shortest expected lifespan; whether it's the best fit for the customer is for him to decide, not me.

 

[drnick5]

At this point, I don't install windows 7 unless I have no other option. And even then, I charge more for a win 7 install as the driver hunt takes much longer, and windows update take forever!
When I quoted the replacement, the customer asked about a new laptop, but for this use, this one seemed fine.... I actually didn't realize how old the laptop was until I ran into this issue, as it seems to be in pretty good shape for its age.

At this point im throwing in the towel, I've gotten it to work correctly a handful of times with the Windows update provided driver, but just when I think its working, I'll do 1 more restart, and its back to the black screen. So its possible there is some other hardware issue going on.

 

[Porthos]

Getting and configuring a refurb will take at least as much time as installing the old Windows

30 minutes on a SSD and an up to date image. I do not do anything (install) non Windows 10 for less $250 labor. I can get a
E6530 Laptop 2.7GHz i7 3740QM 8GB - Nvidia - 1920 x 1080 with a 256 gig ssd and sell it for $450 and still make $150 in profit including up to 40 gigs of data from the old computer.

 

[Porthos]

At this point, I don't install windows 7 unless I have no other option. And even then, I charge more for a win 7 install as the driver hunt takes much longer, and windows update take forever!

Exactly.

 

[backwoodsman]

At this point, I don't install windows 7 unless I have no other option. And even then, I charge more for a win 7 install as the driver hunt takes much longer, and windows update take forever!

Win7 updates are very fast now, not super slow like they were 1-2 years ago, and there are very few if you use a recent Win7 ISO.

30 minutes on a SSD and an up to date image. I do not do anything (install) non Windows 10 for less $250 labor.

Wow, no way I could charge anywhere near that, and no need to either. Win7 install, drivers, updates, and restore customer's data takes something under an hour of my time, and maybe half a day on a workbench. Again, that may or may not be the best option for a particular customer, but it's a disservice to the customer not to offer it and let him choose.

 

[drnick5]

Win7 updates are very fast now, not super slow like they were 1-2 years ago, and there are very few if you use a recent Win7 ISO.


Wow, no way I could charge anywhere near that, and no need to either. Win7 install, drivers, updates, and restore customer's data takes something under an hour of my time, and maybe half a day on a workbench. Again, that may or may not be the best option for a particular customer, but it's a disservice to the customer not to offer it and let him choose.

With Win 7 going End of life about a year from now, I think its a disservice to clients to reload Win 7 at this point. In a year they'll need a new computer anyway, might as well do it now.

 

[Porthos]

With Win 7 going End of life about a year from now, I think its a disservice to clients to reload Win 7 at this point. In a year they'll need a new computer anyway, might as well do it now.

Exactly. There are no excuses for a HOME user not to go Win 10. I am not seeing the issues others post about including updates and feature updates.

 

[backwoodsman]

With Win 7 going End of life about a year from now, I think its a disservice to clients to reload Win 7 at this point. In a year they'll need a new computer anyway, might as well do it now.

That's where the "let him choose" comes in. If Win7 really won't work for him in a year, then it's probably better to upgrade now. I realize this will send some folks into convulsions, but XP still works fine for a few folks' needs, and Vista still works fine for some more. 7 will work fine for some for several more years, even if not for others. It's the customer's money; I really don't understand the unwillingness to let him make an informed decision on how best to spend it.

 

[Porthos]

I really don't understand the unwillingness to let him make an informed decision on how best to spend it.

I do give an informed choice, But the money spent by customer is ALWAYS better my way.
Clients always see it my way and follow my advice. Better value/cost for them.

 

[Porthos]

I do give an informed choice, But the money spent by customer is ALWAYS better my way.
Clients always see it my way and follow my advice. Better value/cost for them.

For example on bench now. Older HP win7 desktop bad drive. Client just tried to factory restore "worked" but was screwed up.
New SSD $80
Install Win 7 $250
Install Win 10 $80
The client had no Data. You guess his choice. He was given the choice.

 

[NJW]

I had a Toshiba laptop ...

Always picky machines, in my experience. I don't think any of the (consumer) models are officially supported for Win10. Use the last drivers from Toshiba (installed in compatibility mode, if necessary) and disable driver updates.