Black screen after update

[pcpaul]

Hi,
I’m doing this for a friend because he has no other means to do it.
He has an HP desktop which originally had 8.1 Pro but he took the Windows 10 free upgrade some time ago and all was working fine. He recently came back to the PC and found it was doing an update so left it to run. After about 5 hours he had just a black screen although the PC was still powered so he forced a shut down.

Now when its turned on we see the windows screen with the dots doing a circle then the screen goes black and stays that way. After checking on Google I saw that re-starting in safe mode and changing graphic settings in device manager might be the fix, so I used a Windows 10 recovery usb drive and re-started. I do NOT see an option to restart in safe mode, If I select Troubleshoot>Advanced options I see “System Restore” (Says it cant do it), “System Image Recovery” (Havent made one), “Startup Repair” (Unable to repair this PC), “Command Prompt”, UEFI Firmware Settings" and “Go back to previous build” (We ran into a problem and wont be able to take you back to the previous build. Try resetting your current build - when I try resetting I get "The drive where windows is installed is locked. Unlock the drive and try again).

In desperation we even tried putting in the windows 8.1 recovery dvd but when I see all the partitions (where I choose which partition to install to) whichever one I choose says something like windows cannot be installed on this partition.

So we’re pretty much stuck and in desperate need of some expert help

Thanks
Paul

[pcpaul]

“Startup Settings” isn’t an option available and he says he upgraded to Win 10 and has been using it prior to this update (I assumed the update to be the Anniversary edition but can’t confirm it)

[jmarket]

Does it sit at the loading screen or is the screen completely blank?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

[pcpaul]

Completely black, not even a curser

[jmarket]

What graphics card do you have?

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

[pcpaul]

nVidia Quadra K4000

[jmarket]

Do you happen to have an on board graphics? If so, plug your monitor into the motherboard’s video port and see if you see video.

[Pancake]

I had that very same problem after an update.. I removed the video card and plugged into the generic windows one. it worked. I had a picture. I the went back and reinstalled the video card and still had a picture.

[pcpaul]

There is no onboard graphics connector

[jmarket]

A black screen with nothing showing (no cursor, no POST, just pure black) is a telltale sign of a hardware failure, most probably the graphics card. Do you happen to have a spare video card you can try?

Also, the Anniversary Update (AU) made sure that some devices would not work with it, and that includes some graphics cards. But if you’re not seeing anything at all, that’s a red flag that something is failing.

[Pancake]

I find it hard to believe there is no port to plug in your monitor in. Its the one with marked with a blue ring.
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[pcpaul]

jmarket, if it was a faulty graphic card would I see the repair console and the windows logo?

Pancake, I know what a vga connector looks like and there isn’t one.

[veeg]

" if it was a faulty graphic card would I see the repair console and the windows logo? "

That should be a no. If it is totally died..

[Rustys]

In desperation we even tried putting in the windows 8.1 recovery dvd but when I see all the partitions (where I choose which partition to install to) whichever one I choose says something like windows cannot be installed on this partition.

most of the time I have to delete all the partitions before you can downgrade to a lower OS.

Is this a homemade or manufactured system?

What is the make and model?

[Rustys]

PCPaul do you have any update for us?