Boot hangs after Microsoft Windows 10 March 2017 Security Update

[John_97504]

Model No. 700-230qe; Product No. E6S61AV#ABA; Status: Out of Warranty

My system hangs early in the boot process at the black screen with the blue HP logo and rotating dots. This began happening the morning after the March 2017 Microsoft Security Update was installed.

The dots just stopped rotating. I powered off by pressing and holding down the power button. Upon restarting, the system said that it had not shutdown properly and it would attempt to automatically fix itself. The reboot failed saying there was an uncorrectable error and suggested Recovery.

I booted the system into Safe Mode where I ran Norton Power Eraser which found no threats. Then I ran chkdsk on the C: drive which returned a few tracks to the available pool but found no other errors. The reboot hung exactly as before.

From the Start Menu I selected F2 and ran extensive HP system diagnostics which found no problems.

Booting into Safe Mode I attempted to use Recovery Manager to restore the system to the last previous Restore Point created just before the March 2017 Microsoft Security Update installation. Recovery Manager said that that Restore Point was invalid and erased it from the list. I fell back to next Restore Point created a few days earlier. The restart hung as before.

Next I selected F11 Recovery in the Start Menu and reinstalled Windows from the system disk's Recovery partition. Reboot hung.

Then I booted from my NovaBACKUP Disaster Recovery CD-ROM and restored my last image backup. Reboot hung.

Lastly, I booted from the HP Recovery Media DVD I had created and restored that system. Reboot hung as it did in the very first instance.

Now, F11 Recovery from the Start Menu no longer works. A blank, light blue screen comes up and then the system powers off after a few minutes.

I've come to a dead end. Any help will be appreciated.

[A4Apollo]

Hi! @John_97504, Welcome to HP forums.

I understand your laptop hangs after windows 10 security update.

Don't worry I will try to help you out.

Did you make any software or hardware changes on your PC apart from updating windows?

Try updating BIOS on your PC and check if it helps.

Link to update BIOS.

Also, try the steps recommended below.

Use the following instructions to run System File Checker.
In Windows, search for Command Prompt. In the search results, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Then click Yes.
In Command Prompt, type sfc /scannow. Make sure to include the space between sfc and the /.
Press Enter and wait while System File Checker scans for corrupted files.
When scanning is complete, the results are displayed on the screen.
If the file checker found and replaced any corrupted files, restart the computer and check the performance.
If the file checker did not find any corrupted files or found corrupted files but could not replace them, go to the next step.
If System File Checker finds corrupted files but cannot replace them, use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool. DISM checks the corrupted files; then downloads and replaces the files using Windows Update.
In Windows, open a web browser.
 NOTE:
You need to be connected to the Internet to use DISM.
In Windows, search for Command Prompt. In the search results, right-click Command Prompt and select Run as administrator. Then click Yes.
In Command Prompt, type dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth. Make sure to include the space before each / in the command line.
Press Enter and wait while DISM works. This might take several minutes.
If DISM finds corrupted files, it replaces them using Windows Update. If this occurs, after DISM is finished, restart your computer and see if the performance has improved.

Refer this article to further troubleshoot the computer running slow after the windows update.

Let me know how it goes!

Have a beautiful day ahead! 🙂

[John_97504]

Everything suggested by MrRobot requires a booted Windows system, but my problem is that I cannot boot Windows.

[John_97504]

#HPExpertDay Help!

[mdklassen]

>  I booted from the HP Recovery Media DVD I had created and restored that system. Reboot hung as it did in the very first instance.

Even though the disk-drive "passed" the HP Diagnostics, it still may be the cause of the symptoms.

Can you remove your disk-drive, and connect a different disk-drive, and try to install from your DVD onto that disk-drive?

If it still "hangs", then it is your motherboard that is problematic.

[John_97504]

On the day before the Windows Update, I got a pop-up in my Chrome browser. I was using a non-administrator account at the time. I recognized this as an attempt by scam support to access my computer. The browser window was locked, so used Task Manager to kill it. I didn't think my system had been compromised, but I ran a Norton full scan anyway, and it found no threats. I continued without rebooting the system.

Perhaps I was wrong in concluding my system had not been compromised.

Here's the text from the pop-up:

virus crash-218u0se.club says:
ZEUS VIRUS DETECTED YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEEN BLOCKED
Error. Virus - Trojan Backdoor Hijack #365838d7f8a4fa5
IV: 66.190.250.175 Browser:Chrome ISP: Charter Communications
Please call computer system technician immediately on: 855-230-8792
Please do not ignore this safety alert. Your Microsoft System Has Been
Compromised. If you close this page before calling us, your computer
access will be disabled to prevent further damage and your data from
being stolen.

[mdklassen]

> On the day before the Windows Update, I got a pop-up in my Chrome browser. I was using a non-administrator account at the time. I recognized this as an attempt by scam support to access my computer. The browser window was locked, so used Task Manager to kill it. I didn't think my system had been compromised, but I ran a Norton full scan anyway, and it found no threats. I continued without rebooting the system. Perhaps I was wrong in concluding my system had not been compromised.

What you saw was just a "phishing" web-page, not a computer-virus.

You did the correct thing, by using Task Manager to close Google Chrome.

You did the correct thing, by doing a "full" scan. (Did you login to your 'Administrator' ID to do the scan? Doubtful that doing so would have made any difference, but you never know.)

I doubt that your computer was compromised by that "scary" web-page.

[John_97504]

No, I didn't login as administrator to run the Norton scan.

[John_97504]

#HPEXPERTDAY
System Recovery hangs during Software Installation phase. Using HP Part # G6H37AV DVD - WINDOWS 8.1 64B RECOVERY KIT 1 - 4 DVDs: 3 System Recovery (HP 749308-001, -002, and -003) and 1 Supplemental Recovery (HP 759781-001)

This has happened several times, and I've waited over 3 hours for it to complete. I force power-off and then back on. System begins to boot, skipped something (went by too fast), "Scanning and repairing drive (D:): 100% complete", Welcome screen for Administrator with rotating dots displayed for a minute or so, and then a window with an orange border titled "Install Windows" displaying message "Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation." Clicking the OK button restarted and the last two steps repeated.

[mdklassen]

> "Scanning and repairing drive (100% complete" ...

Even though the disk-drive passed the HP Diagnostics, it still may be the cause of the symptoms.

Can you remove your disk-drive, and connect a different disk-drive, and try to install from your DVD onto that disk-drive?

Do you have (or can you borrow) an external CD/DVD device?  Maybe, the DVD-reader in your computer is having problems.

When you boot from the DVD, can you choose to run the RAM Diagnostic?

Or, see:  www.memtest86.com  for a bootable RAM-testing program.

If your computer still hangs, then it is your motherboard that is problematic.