Windows 10: Windows stuck on spinning dots

Hi,


I i have a desktop, which has been running Windows 10, updated from Windows 7. Yesterday when I tried to start it up, it got stuck at the black screen with the Asus logo and black spinning usually, but now frozen dots. In the past it has occasionally been slow at this point, taking a few minutes but eventually getting past it, but yesterday it was stuck indefinitely.


After a few manual restarts holding down the power button it tried to start the windows recovery and also got stuck on the spinning dots screen.


I tried to boot from a USB with the Windows 10 installation media on it. When I booted from this UEFI I get stuck at the same screen. When I boot from legacy I get the Windows logo and spinning dots, also stuck.


I even tried my old Windows 7 install disk - stuck again with the four coloured dots which become the windows logo.


I could not enter safe mode. I think my solid state drive makes it impossible to do this with Shift + F8.

I was however able to run Ubuntu from a CD and get the files I wanted from my hard drive phew!.


I then realised that when loading from a disk, it's slow enough to start windows in safe mode. For some reason I could only do this with the Windows 7 disk, so I tried that. I tried to install Window 7, reformatting the largest partition of the hard drive. There were a few others which I left which used 100s of MB. The installation runs and after unpacking the disk and getting some way through the installation, the PC restarts. I then got to the windows boot menu where it asked if I wanted Windows 10 or 7, I chose 7 and an error message appeared. Sorry, I can't remember it exactly, something to do with a system 32 file missing I think.


I then installed Ubuntu, overriding Windows, in the hope that I could then install Windows afresh. When it came to installing Windows via CD or USB drive I once again get the frozen spinning dots screen.


I've even tried unplugging my graphics card, SSD, DVD drive, and extra USB ports from my motherboard, so that only the CPU and RAM is plugged in. I can use the mobo graphics and boot from the USB stick in the mobo, but I once again get to this screen with the frozon spinning dots. I've also tried isolating my RAM, but not improvement there either.

Sorry for the very long question. If someone can help I will be eternally grateful!


Many thanks,

Oliver


PC specs:

Motherboard - Asus Z170M-PLUS

CPU - Intel i5 6600K @ 3.5GHz
Graphics - AMD Radeon R9390

RAM - 2x Crucial Ballistix Elite DDR4 8GB 2400MHz

:)

 

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