Corrupted Windows 10 boot screen

I had been running Windows 10 32-bit on my HP m7580n Media Center almost since last summer, having upgraded from Windows 7, which in turn was installed over Windows XP MCE 2005, the machine's original operating system.

Recently, I decided to start over by reinstalling the 64-bit version of Windows 10 1511 (the November Update version), but now I've run into a problem...

Often, when doing a cold boot or coming out of hibernate, the Windows logo boot screen will appear corrupted, just like the picture below:

Once Windows finishes loading with this corrupted screen, the monitor goes to sleep, and the keyboard freezes which means the system cannot respond to anything without having to manually power off the PC and restart it. On the second boot, usually, Windows will load fine.
The graphics card in question is an EVGA-branded NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS PCI-E (It's designed for PCI-E 2.0, but running on a PCI-E 1.1 mobo. Could that be part of the problem?). The rest of the system specs are as follows:

• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
• 4GB DDR2 (4x1GB) (Could this be another part of the problem as the graphics card uses a newer memory technology than the main system RAM?)
• 320GB SATA hard drive
• PATA (IDE) DVD burner
• RealTek PCI gigabit Ethernet card (which I'm using in place of the mainboard Ethernet adapter to take advantage of gigabit LAN bandwidth, and have the onboard one disabled via the CMOS setup)
• RealTek High Definition onboard audio
• AwardBIOS, version 3.10, dated 12-13-2006 (the latest version available from HP's support site, as this computer is pretty old. Might be part of the problem also.)

Steps I tried in order to fix this problem:

• Installed the original display drivers that came with the graphics card's installation disc, and then used the Hide Windows Updates diagnostic cab to prevent the current version from being downloaded and installed automatically. Didn't solve the problem.
• Ran "sfc /scannow". Of course, SFC found nothing wrong, which means problem still not solved.
• Set the "Adjust Image Quality" in NVIDIA Control Panel to "Performance". Problem STILL not solved.

Only thing I didn't try is Clean Boot, but I'm pretty sure that won't solve anything either.

I'm at my wit's end! If there's no way to fix this problem other than to switch back to 32-bit Windows 10, then I'd be more than happy to reinstall Windows 7 (which actually would require me to use the computer's recovery discs to reinstall Windows XP first, since the product key I installed Windows 7 on this computer with is an Upgrade key that requires an existing XP or Vista install in order to be valid), as I'm getting so @%!@ sick of the crap Microsoft is pulling with Windows 10 (including more advertising with the upcoming Redstone update).
I would gladly switch entirely to Linux, but I have a Roxio Easy VHS to DVD USB video capture device and an AverTV Volar Hybrid Q digital TV tuner USB device that I use with this computer, neither of which are supported under Linux.

I'd have to save up for quite awhile to buy a new desktop, which would of course come with Windows 10. (I would order a refurbished business-class unit, but I've had issues with that also.)

I'm not about to buy an AMD graphics card either. AMD's and Intel's drivers are absolute crap also. (I wish S3 and Trident were still around and making graphics chips.)

In this case, it might be best to do a clean boot and see if the problem improves/goes away.

Might I also suggest doing a hard drive diagnostic test as well to make sure it's not a failing HDD.

NVIDIA actually still posts new drivers for cards as old as the 8000 series for Windows 10. Pay a visit to the NVIDIA site, choose the correct options for a manual driver download, and it should show up.

Just as interesting: you can run a GTX 900 series card on Windows XP. You can with the 950 and 960, but not for the 970 and above.

Either way, do tell us how it goes once you download replacement drivers and restart the computer.

I honestly would go back to windows 7 i found alot of problems with win10 and it seems alot of nvidia cards have issues with windows 10 with microsoft coding things that causes problems

I would also try repairing your windows 10 by holding shift when you click restart there is a advanced troubleshooting menu that will pop up, give the necessary ones of those a try :)

I've reverted to Windows 7 64-bit on this computer, but now I have yet another problem... I can't get Windows Update work AT ALL! It takes forever and ever to check for updates, without ever doing anything.

I've tried every solution out there, including this, this, and even this, but of course, no "solution" posted online EVER works for me.
I've disabled automatic updating, shut off IPv6 on my network adapter, ran Microsoft's troubleshooting cabs, but obviously, none of these worked. I've even reinstalled Windows 7 multiple times to no avail.

I am so angry at Microsoft I wish they could have been broken up back in 2000 like the late Judge Thomas Jackson originally called for. Were it not for my proprietary devices I would have switched entirely to Linux years ago.

I wonder if Windows Update in older versions of Windows was deliberately sabotaged in order to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows Update is such poorly written garbage, it makes MS-DOS 6.0's DoubleSpace look reliable!

I've attached the Windows Update log zipped. Looks like the only option left to me at this point is to use WSUS Offline Updater.

For some reason, Windows 7 seems to have a problem with contacting its update servers these days, and I don't know why. It's happened with me and most new installs I've done with Windows 7 in the past year.

Otter Mii-kun said:

I've reverted to Windows 7 64-bit on this computer, but now I have yet another problem... I can't get Windows Update work AT ALL! It takes forever and ever to check for updates, without ever doing anything.

I've tried every solution out there, including this, this, and even this, but of course, no "solution" posted online EVER works for me.
I've disabled automatic updating, shut off IPv6 on my network adapter, ran Microsoft's troubleshooting cabs, but obviously, none of these worked. I've even reinstalled Windows 7 multiple times to no avail.

I am so angry at Microsoft I wish they could have been broken up back in 2000 like the late Judge Thomas Jackson originally called for. Were it not for my proprietary devices I would have switched entirely to Linux years ago.

I wonder if Windows Update in older versions of Windows was deliberately sabotaged in order to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows Update is such poorly written garbage, it makes MS-DOS 6.0's DoubleSpace look reliable!

I've attached the Windows Update log zipped. Looks like the only option left to me at this point is to use WSUS Offline Updater.

Click to expand...

I'm beginning to think you have flaky hardware...

Odd as it might sound, flaky hardware sometimes end up looking like software issues. The Windows 10 corrupted boot screen does not inspire confidence at all.

By the way, are you able to install most of Windows 7 updates via SP1 (if not installed), the servicing stack update, and then the convenience rollup? That should get you up to date. (More info here.)

Do all that and check back with me. It's very easy to blame it on a conspiracy Microsoft is pulling to push people to Windows 10, but Windows 7 updating has always felt flaky to me. Also, a hint if you do not want to use the rollup: do it a few at a time. 40 or so should be good. The mechanisms in 7 are a lot less robust compared to 8.1.

Use the Update Catalog if you need to bypass Windows Update. Should be a quickie two or three-download. SP1 if needed, the servicing stack update, and then the rollup.

Otter Mii-kun said:

I've reverted to Windows 7 64-bit on this computer, but now I have yet another problem... I can't get Windows Update work AT ALL! It takes forever and ever to check for updates, without ever doing anything.

I've tried every solution out there, including this, this, and even this, but of course, no "solution" posted online EVER works for me.
I've disabled automatic updating, shut off IPv6 on my network adapter, ran Microsoft's troubleshooting cabs, but obviously, none of these worked. I've even reinstalled Windows 7 multiple times to no avail.

I am so angry at Microsoft I wish they could have been broken up back in 2000 like the late Judge Thomas Jackson originally called for. Were it not for my proprietary devices I would have switched entirely to Linux years ago.

I wonder if Windows Update in older versions of Windows was deliberately sabotaged in order to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows Update is such poorly written garbage, it makes MS-DOS 6.0's DoubleSpace look reliable!

I've attached the Windows Update log zipped. Looks like the only option left to me at this point is to use WSUS Offline Updater.

Click to expand...

Ive noticed this on a win 7 reinstall i did on a Dell i bought let it scan for updates and overtime it will eventually pop up saying it found updates when it does stay downloading and installing it will stay saying 0% with the window open for some unknown reason but if u go over the little win update icon by the clock you will see very once in awhile that number increases but i do wonder if this was an attempt by microsoft trying to sabotage win 7 to get people to get the awful windows 10 i was a win insider and hated win10 after how many bugs it had and continues to have and microsoft still hasnt fixed them and its been nearly a year since it was released

Otter Mii-kun said:

I've reverted to Windows 7 64-bit on this computer, but now I have yet another problem... I can't get Windows Update work AT ALL! It takes forever and ever to check for updates, without ever doing anything.

I've tried every solution out there, including this, this, and even this, but of course, no "solution" posted online EVER works for me.
I've disabled automatic updating, shut off IPv6 on my network adapter, ran Microsoft's troubleshooting cabs, but obviously, none of these worked. I've even reinstalled Windows 7 multiple times to no avail.

I am so angry at Microsoft I wish they could have been broken up back in 2000 like the late Judge Thomas Jackson originally called for. Were it not for my proprietary devices I would have switched entirely to Linux years ago.

I wonder if Windows Update in older versions of Windows was deliberately sabotaged in order to get users to upgrade to Windows 10. Windows Update is such poorly written garbage, it makes MS-DOS 6.0's DoubleSpace look reliable!

I've attached the Windows Update log zipped. Looks like the only option left to me at this point is to use WSUS Offline Updater.

Click to expand...

What error message are you getting?

Team Fail said:

Just gonna add this in, but when I set up Windows 7 Pro SP1 on my laptop, I had the exact same issue, and Windows Update just keeps checking forever. You don't get any errors or anything. I even tried some of Microsoft's fixes and none of them worked. I had to resort to WSUS Offline Updater to get all my updates installed (Roughly 230!) before Windows Update could work again.

Click to expand...

There's a hard-coded cap on the number of times Windows can go fetch information from an update server in a given session, and sometimes, depending on your connection speed to your WSUS server (whether it be one of Microsoft's or an internal one for your company), it can take its sweet, sweet time to update, failing after half an hour or more of checking for the first 6 or 7 times (manual updating is typically faster in these instances).

It appears the problems I discussed here are finally solved. I let WSUSOU run then ran its installer over and over until it installed all the updates it had. With all of that taken care of, Windows Update finally did work and find some more updates (and this was after I reinstalled all of my regularly-used programs and made the system image in Control Panel's Backup and Restore).

I'm actually thinking of reverting to Windows 7 on my main laptop as well (which would be an easier task since that computer came with 7 originally, and I can use my install disc that I used with the media center desktop to do a clean reinstall and activate it with the OEM product key on the bottom of the laptop.) (I don't know how much longer that laptop is going to last since certain CTRL and ALT key combinations no longer work unless I use the keys on the opposite side of the keyboard, and it always wakes up immediately after putting it into standby, claiming the Fixed Feature Power Button woke it up, even though I never touched anything on it when I put it to sleep.)

if it is the install disc from the manufacture windows will be preactivated live learned how to add a the info to turn a standard iso to a OEM

It is smth like problem with Video Card, check drivers on it.