Windows 10: W10 hangs prior to login screen

First, some background.
The system was rebuilt in May 2015 using a new MSI H97 Gaming 3 Motherboard, new i5 4690 CPU, 16GB (2x8GB) of new G.Skill RAM, new EVGA 750W PSU, new ASUS GTX 750 TI Video card, new case. Existing HDDs, ODD and SSDs were reused.
This machine is a dual boot system.
The 250GB SSd was dedicated to Windows 8.1 OS and Programs. The 120GB SSD was dedicated to Windows 10 Pro preview OS and Programs. The 3 x 3TB HDDs are data storage only. As the W10 preview became more stable I began using it as my default OS, and moved it to a new 250GB SSD.
The Windows 8.1 installation was upgraded to Windows 10 RTM (build 10240) in August, but the insider builds have remained my default OS. I could boot into either system and the selected system ran without any drama.
I have an Office 365 licence (the 5 install version) and at one stage (not sure just when) I de-activated the Office 365 installation on what is now the W10 RTM system.
Now to describe the issue.
I went to the Office 365 page to re-activate Office 365 on the W10 RTM system. Unless I misread the instructions the way to re-activate is to install on the system in question, so I selected "Install" and clicked on OK.
Now, when I attempt to boot into the W10 RTM system the windows logo and throbber appear, then it hangs before the login screen appears. The mouse pointer is visible and follows the mouse movements, but Ctrl, Alt, Del only results in the pointer disappearing (mouse movement brings it back.)
The automated Repair functions on the install disk do not fix this problem.
I can boot into Safe Mode, and have run sfc /scannow there, which gives a clean report. Running CHKDSK /f on the SSD with W10 RTM when booted into W10 Insider resulted in a message that the file system had been corrected. But I still cannot boot into W10 RTM.

I hope someone can point me to a solution for this - I know I can re-install, but would like to get it running again without doing that at present.

All suggestions welcome!

:)

 

Computer Freezing after Installing Windows 10 Creators Update (1703)

I have same issue. Prior to CU everything was working fine. After upgrading system boots up but can hang on login screen. I assume it messed up something within the drivers. Will try reinstalling them all...

 

Windows 10 hangs on spinning dots

same issue - spinning dots, blue screen takes hours to boot and get to the login screen. just hangs at the spinning dots just prior to the login screen. I tried EVERYTHING and eventually had to load everything from scratch new build.

safe mode worked fine - clean boot with nothing in startup didn't work. Something about passport error messages in event log though not sure if that is related.

PC was running for 5 months no problem prior. Was an upgrade from windows 7.

What could cause this?

 

I can tell half of the problem in one word "Upgrade"! You upgraded the previous build to the 10240 and are now running into the all seen too often upgrade goobers! Those can either be immediate where you know something went wrong or wait a bit to appear after some time rather suddenly.

You actually could see a repair install following the guide for that without a full clean install or simply end up dumping the upgrade entirely to resolve this type of issue once and for all by going completely fresh! Still being a new almost equal to how the 7 RC wsa when that came out 10 still needs to see a number of updates that will tend to correct some of the errors being seen. There won't be any more SP1s to worry about waiting for but some large update packs put together over time as one came out at the beginning of the month.

Besides the Disk Check tool's "dskchk /f" switch you can also try it with the "/r" switch as the alternative. F=Fix R=Repair Since you have already run the SFC your other option again still points to the upgrade to repair type of install vs a full clean install.
Upgrade to Repair type install guide: Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup
Full Fresh Clean Install guide: Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup

You'll notice that the same are seen in my signature there since a readily available reference is needed since so many will be having some type of "Upgrade Blues"! And when nothing seems to work eventually besides the repair options you have to break down and call it day saying: "Yup it's that time again!" where you simply make your preps for backing things up and then go for the gusto!

Once I dumped the original upgrade in favor of the full clean install here after that first week 10 has been running along side 7 as if it had been on all the time 7 has been! No headaches to report well still getting accustomed to the three versions newer features as well as changes in GUI mostly!

 

Thanks for the prompt reply. If only I could boot into my W10 RTM system I'd do the "in-place upgrade." Shame that can't be done from Safe Mode. Ah well, I can see a clean install coming up, unless some-one can give me a magic bullet to fix what I have now.

 

When booted live you still have the option to upgrade but will still end up with a need to reinstall any number of programs especially those that require internet connection for activation status as well as the program's link for updates and other things. When looking at the clean install guide one of the screen will show the two options for an Upgrade or the Clean install option right under that. So you're totally out of the loop there at least once you have the media prepared unless the Reset PC option is used.





For a VM project you wouldn't be able to use the upgrade option in most situations as to why that is Xed out there. And while booted up in Windows you won't see the "Custom (advanced)" option for seeing a clean install take place however since the set up will simply roll on only seeing the necessary prompt screens come up generally during the final stages for selecting location, type of network, setting up pc name and the admin account.

In years past with the Legacy upto XP you could see a custom install take place by running the installer while in Windows not to upgrade over the version you were booted in but could set up a Windows install on another partition or drive. That was one old method for setting up a dual boot. Since that time however you either boot live for a clean install if not seeing an upgrade or start things up manually with the setup.exe file found on the media while booted in Windows and see the set up process exit the desktop and restart the system a few times as things go along.

One thing urks me a bit about 10 hanging on you right before arriving at the desktop. During the several failed upgrade attempts here on the main build later finding that additional drives lacking any OS had to be disconnected the few times the system was restarted and seemed to be progressing past the logo screen you were suddenly confronted with a dark blank screen not jet black however but seemingly lacking any vga signal. Have you made any type of hardware changes since 10 first went on by chance?

Before arriving to the last resort type of conclusion I had to ask about that since with 10 it seems tto only take one thing being awkward to gum up the works. Up until this time I could always leave the storage drives plugged when not always leaving things that way however and still see each OS drive end up with a stand alone install on them. With 10 however the rules seem to have changed a bit.

 

I have solved the issue with the login screen not appearing on my (dual boot) W10 RTM system. *Smile

Last week I copied some PowerPoint slides from a friends laptop to a USB3 flash drive to display them on my monitor. This was done while I was booted into the "Insider" system. After showing the slides I removed the flash drive and then saw that my monitor arrangement had been changed, from "Extend ... "" to "Duplicate ... " and that my right hand monitor was no longer primary. I fixed the monitior arrangement before shutting down, including making the RH monitor the primary again. So all my reboots since into "Insider" have been successful.

I have a 3rd monitor driven by the onboard graphics, which I only use occasionally. Somehow that became the primary screen, but wasn't powered on then, nor when I have tried to boot into the RTM system.

I didn't connect the changed display settings with the problem on the W10 RTM system. One of the suggestions I saw from someone who had a similar black screen when the login screen should have appeared led me in the right direction. Even though the first part of his post (hit enter and type in password etc) didn't work for me he said "next hit WinKey + P". and doing that brought up my login screen on both monitors that were powered, and the 3rd when I switched it on. The Display Settings had been switched from "Extend ... to "Duplicate ... " as well as making the onboard graphics driven 3rd monitor the primary on this system, just as it had on the "Insider" system. I have now set Display Settings to my liking in the W10 RTM system, and am posting from that system.

Why would displaying PPT slides from a flash drive change the display settings? Was there some carry-over from his laptop, which has onboard graphics driving a single screen?

 

Well that's an interesting twist there! Here the primary is on the left side as it would be in most cases for dual display set ups. With a 3rd monitor something evidently made an adjustment likely when not having used the 3rd monitor for some time and then suddenly boot into the developer build with it turned resulted in it being detected as the primary automatically since the onboard will always override the expansion card!

What will happen is often the onboard will take resources used by the expansion for it's own use leaving the card looking for a substitute as well as Windows adjusting to the change automatically seeing the onboard as the Number #1. Generally it would be advised when wanting to add onto any dual display set up to see a second video card put to use and never enable the onboard as that can clash. Some boards even went as far as seeing SLI Quad options for running four separate identical video cards one card per display on higher end gaming machines.

The slides themselves wouldn't have any effect on display settings other then Windows managing how they will be viewed. Here I can add on a 3rd display by simply adding in the same model card if still found and plug in the 24" flat screen tv close by. But the present version of UltraMon in use would likely need to be upgraded or another program that supports a 3rd display would need to be found in order to keep the same basic configuration while allowing the 3rd to mirror the primary or secondary if the option is available with the program selected. That part would be software controlled.