Windows 8 hangs at startup.


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OK ... so basically the installation of Windows 8 on my main PC isn't starting up as it should. I rebooted the system last night

to complete a Windows update, and on restarting the OS, it seems to just hang straight after displaying the Windows logo.

Not quite a straightforward hang-up though. It flickers the display on and off every 10 seconds or so, while it attempts to

displays the Lock screen that hides the logon screen. It seems at this point like a possible video driver issue, so the next

option is to start up in Safe Mode (F8 during boot) ... but it still does the same thing. So I can't get in via Safe Mode.

Next option, reboot as normal, then try to logon thru Remote Desktop Connection from my laptop. No luck there either!

It manages to achieve the connection, but a few seconds after the RDC session window appears, before it has a chance

to show the logon screen, the window is closed, and I'm dropped right back to the main RDC options window.

Normally at this point, I'd consider the good old "Last Known Good Configuration" option, but for whatever stupid reason,

the boffins at Redmond have decided to remove this (sometimes vital) option, or they've hidden it somewhere, so you

have to go through some needless extra steps to bring it back. They do seem to enjoy doing that to us!

My next option is to boot from the Windows 8 installer (bootable pen drive) and try some or all of the repair options.

Unless any forumers have any other suggestions. Oh, and please don't just suggest I re-install Windows. I only ever

do that as an absolute last resort when all other available options haven't worked.

Thankfully, my main PC dual boots with Windows XP ... so while it is an almost obsolete OS, it still works OK.

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A bit of an update:

It's looking increasingly likely to be a problematic video driver issue, although I could still be wrong with that assumption.

While the display still flickers on and off every few seconds (as though the Gfx card is repeatedly failing to send a signal

to the monitor) there is still an audio output while the system is attempting to display the Lock screen, and there is hard

drive activity, as though the relevant bits of the OS that normally load at this point are still loading.

So if I leave it for a minute, as far as Windows itself can tell, it's waiting for me press a key to bring up the logon screen.

Assuming this is definitely a video driver problem, how do I roll it back to the previously installed driver?

(I'll wait until there's at least 1 or 2 suggestions before I post anything more on this thread.)

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Try this. https://www.soluto.com/ That will give you all the boot up info you need to see what exactly is hanging up..

What video card are you using? If its a newer Nvidia card the newer drivers give you the option to totally remove the previous driver. It does a decent job.

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I'm assuming you have an nVidia video card and Windows updated the drivers to version 314. My system also started behaving that way after I let Windows run System Update. Only difference being that it threw a bluescreen (with the error message being: Video_tdr_failure) after a few attempts to show something on the screen (monitor flickering).

The only way I could roll back the driver was to go through system restore and revert the system updates via the automatically created restore point. Then just keep the GPU drivers from updating by disabling nVidia driver updates through the nVidia control panel.

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There shouldn't be any issue specifically with the Nvidia Drivers for Windows 7 or 8. The issue above mentions monitor flickering etc, that honestly sounds like a hardware issue.

We need more info from the OP, system specs mostly.

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A list of things that are booting up would help as well. If it happened right after a windows update you could have a software problem.. Although like xenodrome also said, I havent had any issues with any of the nvidia drivers in windows 8 and this flickering youre experiencing.

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Soluto cannot be installed, since I can't get past the point between the Windows logo, and the Lock screen in order to install it.

Or, does that program have an option to boot from a pen drive to scan a Windows installation while Windows isn't running?

My gfx card is an XFX branded ATi Radeon HD4350. It's an old(ish) card, but I don't really need anything more than that.

Other system specs ... Gigabyte P43-ES3G mainboard ((no onboard gfx) - Intel Core2Quad 2.6Ghz - 3GB PC5400 RAM.

A very modest system compared with what other folks might have, but it's good enough for my needs.

The system still boots into Windows XP (dual boot alongside Windows 8) with no issues.

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I have another ATi Radeon HD4350 gfx card, currently installed in my media centre PC downstairs. Would it help if I were to

swap them between the two machines, or would it make no difference at all? Would my main PC see it as though it was

exactly the same physical gfx card, or would it notice there had been a physical hardware change?

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It would seem that it isn't a dodgy video driver after all, but one of the latest/recent Windows Updates from Microsoft. I've setup a laptop

with Windows 8 to lend to a friend. It's a 4-5 year old Toshiba laptop with a hardware spec that couldn't be much more different than my

main desktop tower PC that the issue first occured on. I was prompted to install the latest Windows Updates (precisely 200MB) on this

laptop earlier this evening, which I did. Might as well get the latest system updates ... what's the worst that could happen?

After restarting the laptop to complete the updates, the same flickering display issue that came up on my main PC last week, reared its

head on this laptop. Thankfully, System Restore managed to fixed the issue on the laptop. My main PC has no System Restore points,

although I haven't specifically disabled System Restore, so I need a way to find out which one of the most recent Windows Updates

has caused the flickering display issue that's preventing the Lock screen appearing ... and roll that bugger back!

Meanwhile, I'm still running my main PC via dual-boot with (the soon to be officially obsolete) Windows XP . . . !

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So ... am I talking to myself here, or can anyone offer a suggestion on how to roll back or remove the update that borked

the installation of Windows 8 on my main PC? I'd prefer to be running that, than trundling along with an 11 year old OS!

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Try this. https://www.soluto.com/ That will give you all the boot up info you need to see what exactly is hanging up..

What video card are you using? If its a newer Nvidia card the newer drivers give you the option to totally remove the previous driver. It does a decent job.

There's a Soluto Windows 8 app too.

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Try this. https://www.soluto.com/ That will give you all the boot up

info you need to see what exactly is hanging up..

What video card are you using? If its a newer Nvidia card the newer drivers give

you the option to totally remove the previous driver. It does a decent job.

There's a Soluto Windows 8 app too.

As I said earlier, Soluto cannot be installed. I refer you to the first 2 lines of post #8.

I've established the issue isn't with the video driver, it's a buggy Windows update from Microsoft that has borked up

the Windows 8 installation. I need a way to identify exactly which update has caused the problem, and to remove it.

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I know you said you can't boot in there with your driver as it is. So, just as a suggestion/question...do you have another vid card you can install in it's place so you can boot into Windows 8 and get in there for troubleshooting? If so, I'd try that option.

If you don't then, maybe using an offline registry editor and editing the keys found on this site might work? There are some boot cd's you can do this with, but can't name them here as one is considered to have pirated software. UBCD doesn't support offline registry editing from what I can tell.

Of course, if none of this works, then you might end up having to re-install or talk with Microsoft directly about this, if they released an update that nuked the driver, then they have to know to fix it. :)

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Thanks for your suggestion. I did try swapping out the gfx card earlier in the week. It made no difference. This was before I

found the cause wasn't actually the video driver. Like I said earlier, when I ran Windows Update on a laptop that I'd setup

with Windows 8 for a friend, the exact same flickering display issue appeared. It was a buggy update from Microsoft.

I'll try the offline registry editor idea you suggested to try and restore the "Last Known Good Configuration" repair option,

that Microsoft's boffins decided to hide away for no good reason, since they seem to like hiding stuff from end users!

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if you have any custom theme installed it it will do exactly that....

No custom themes installed ... except on Windows XP. Sure, some custom themes can cause problems, but this is to

do with a bad Microsoft update that also caused a laptop with Windows 8 installed to have the same display issue.

tried booting into safemode?

Yes, tried that ... doesn't work. The display still flickers on and off even in Safe Mode.

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