Windows 7 Windows Update causes desktop to go blank while updating

[Matthiasa4]

Hello,

I got some serious problems. About one week ago I accidentally cut off power of my pc while he was updating. When rebooting I got nothing but a blank desktop image, unable to give any input (mouse, keyboard, control + shift + delete). Control + shift + delete made the screen go black, so I assume this was my computer "loggng off" (enter caused the blank desktop screen to appear again).

Normally I fix my computer problems myself, so I started to reboot in safe mode. This worked without flaws, I could start the system repair and startup repair. This however, made no changes (still got the blank desktop screen on booting windows in normal mode).

Then I decided to reinstall Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit entirely (on my ssd). There where a few problems (original installation cd wasn't recognized), but in the end (with someone elses cd), I got it running. I decided to start installing my motherboarddrivers (LAN, onboard VGA, ...). All went well. Then I installed the VGA drivers of my dedicated nVidia GTX 570, and there it went wrong; upon restart: same blank desktop. This time I had some input: I could right click on desktop, make new folders, go into configuration manager. But no cmd, no task manager, no msconfig, ...

So, I thought: my VGA card broke down; and I tried another one (nVidia 9800GTX). Same problems.
Fresh installation, now on a conventional 750GB HDD. Again: all went well, even installing the VGA drivers (note: I didn't install the mobo drivers by then). So I though: it's my ssd that broke down. Then I tried to install Windows 7 on my SSD again; runned like a charm. I first installed my nVidia drivers, then my mobo drivers and we're back at the blank desktop again.

So: my last option was: clean install; VGA drivers, and only LAN-drivers (not internal VGA drivers for my mobo). This went well. So I thought it was all settled. I started doing Windows Update, and this is where it went wrong again: during Windows Update, my desktop went blank again (in the background). Now I really don't know what to do further. One of the error codes I got was: 80246005. I tried the catroot2 fix when I was still able to use CMD next time I installed Windows, but upon doing the updates, I got the blank screen again.

Another note: upon booting, I am unable to go into safe mode: when using the arrow keys, nothing happens for some seconds, then suddenly, it jumps a few places (the amount of times I used the arrow keys), but then the counter is gone and enter doesn’t work.



To summarize:

- Windows Update doing really weird

- Driver conflict?

- I don't think my graphical card/hard disk broke down (maybe motherboard issues?)


I hope someone can help me on this, I'm trying to fix this for a week already, and I'm really getting frustrated about it...


Thanks in advance and best regards,

Matthias


Update 1: Sometimes, when trying to reinstall Windows, I get a 0x80300024 error code, even though I just formatted and removed the hard drive. I think formatting with Ubuntu solves this problem.

 

[kemical]

Hi Matthias, I notice reading through your post that after you initial event problems appeared only after installing your motherboard drivers particularly the VGA portion. When you use windows update do you check which updates are being installed? Update might be trying to update your VGA drivers by default. Try changing the update settings to 'check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them'. This way you can check through and uncheck anything to do with your VGA.

 

[Saltgrass]

It sounds like kemical is correct regarding the Drivers being offered through Windows Update.

But since we have no information on your system, do you have onboard graphics as well as the Nvidia card? Can you try just the onboard to see if it works. And if you do have onboard graphics, how is the bios set up as to which video source to use?

 

[Matthiasa4]

This seemend to be the problem! The Intel HD 3000 drivers were in the update list, but I forgot to turn them off indeed. I got onboard graphics (Asrock Extreme4 Gen3, Z68 Motherboard Series Manufacturing - ASRock Inc.) and a dedicated Asus GTX570. Currently, I did all the updates except the drivers, and my system is running smoothly on the GTX570 with all other updates installed. I don't know what could be the issue with the drivers, as I have never experienced the problem before I messed up Windows Update (and I did install all of the drivers then).
Anyway, system is up and running atm, thanks a bunch already guys!!

 

[kemical]

Glad to hear you got things sorted. As a rule I tend to not use drivers downloaded with WU as I prefer more control over which actual driver version is installed.