Can't Install Windows 10

[Monogamously]

Hi everyone, new to the forum, relatively new to HP in general. Got my new HP Omen on Monday and I was extremely pleased with it! Until last night, I installed Avast antivirus, which immediately corrupted the Windows 10 installation. Very strange errors, denied access to System32 processes. Error after error until I just couldn't click anything at all (several restarts later, with varying degrees of reactivity from the OS) So I decided that it was definitely Avast causing the problem, as it had been fine before that point with no other software changes. I am by no means an IT specialist, but I can do a fresh install of Windows 10 no problem. 

For info: I haven't changed any hardware at all

Step 1 in my heroic plan to fix this issue: 

Installing Windows 10 from a FAT32 12GB Kingston USB memory stick. 

Installation went smoothly - Until it came to restarting the PC to continue the installation. This round of trying got me BSOD with error code "CRITICAL PROCESS DIED" and restart loop. 

BIOS was set up as follows - Boot priority with USB Hard Drive in 1st, OS Boot Manager (Toshiba NVRMe 256gb factory default from purchase)  2nd followed by Floppy disk etc.

Step 2

Installing Windows 10 from another, new, FAT32 16GB Kingston USB memory stick

(I created yet another Windows 10 image from the Media Creation Tool)

At this point I had done some reading, that there were some compatibility issues with NVRMe / M.2 drives and Windows 10, the suggested solution being installing with Secure Boot disabled. 

Installed with Secure Boot disabled - This time it restarted and DID get past the restart loop - But was then stuck on "Getting Ready" for approximately 2 hours. Tried resetting and got yet another BSOD with the same error code as above.

Step 3

Installing Windows 10 from the same USB memory device as Step 2.

Had done yet more reading, and an IT friend of mine suggested unplugging the 1TB SATA HDD which also came with my product as a default, disabling secure boot AND enabling legacy boot. 

Windows 10 installer finished running, got past restart loop AND (!) "Getting Ready" started preparing devices, then came to a screen which stated: "Why did my computer restart?" Windows claimed that a problem caused the PC to restart, but that it believed that an update would fix this, followed by instructions to click "next" to connect the computer to the internet - upon clicking "next" a screen presents saying: "Just a moment" followed by an unexpected restart + BSOD yet again. 

The aforementioned steps have been repeated several times each, but I didn't mention every one for the sake of clarity. These steps have also been taken / I have attempted to take: 

a) Flashing the BIOS - Not possible, no option for BIOS management in the HP UEFI Diagnostics menu (Have tried putting the correctly configured BIOS recovery USB at different times during startup to no avail).

b) Each time I have installed windows, I have deleted each partition so that only the one partition is available (if done during the time when I disconnected the HDD) or 2 partitions if I was attempting to install with both disks available.

Extra information: 

The OS boot manager is set to use the 256gb SSD (The computer was delivered with Windows 10 installed on this disk, as is obviously preferable due to reduced start times etc). 

There IS a recent BIOS update, but as I mentioned before, it's not possible to install it (most likely because there actually isn't an OS installed on the PC per se)

I feel like I've spent hours trawling forum upon forum, have called HP support twice now, the latter of the two conversations ending in them sending some kind of diagnostic kit to me in the post. Microsoft support was next to useless as well. In addition to spending hours and hours of trial and error style Windows 10 installation. I have fresh installed Windows 10 on dozens of PCs for friends, family and myself, and not once ever has it been this difficult. If anyone has any suggestions, please help me out here... The PC is only 3 days old as I've said, and if I can't get a satisfactory result from this in the next couple of days, I'm sending it off for professional repair and fingers crossed it's a hardware issue which the warranty will pay for 😛 Thanks in advance! 🙂

[mdklassen]

> Got my new HP Omen on Monday and I was extremely pleased with it!

Which release of Windows (1709? 1803?) was preloaded?

Did you connect to the Internet, and allow Windows Update to make its software changes, i.e., security-updates for each month between either Sept-2017 or March-2018, and/or to upgrade from 1709 to 1803 ?

> Until last night,

Two days ago was the "second-Tuesday" of the month -- the timing for Microsoft to release the "September 2018" security-updates, and make more software changes.

Did you install AVAST before or after Windows Update did its work?

> I installed Avast antivirus, which immediately corrupted the Windows 10 installation.

> it had been fine before that point with no other software changes. 

Excluding the changes applied by Windows Update ?

Since you were installing to the 256 GB SSD, "System Restore" should have been enabled -- Windows disables it for "tiny" disk-drives, e.g., a 32 GB SSD found in the low-end tablets.  If it was enabled, then did you try using "System Restore" to rollback your computer to a checkpoint taken just before you installed AVAST?

> Very strange errors, denied access to System32 processes.

I have seen that happen, when during the "login" Windows process, an Input/Output error while loading the "profile" for the ID failed to complete.  Instead, Windows created a "temporary-profile", which lacks some of the "permissions" to access applications and/or save files into the "Documents" folder.

Hopefully, your disk-drive does not have any Input/Output errors.

The way that you can check is to restart, and choose to launch the built-in HP Hardware Diagnostics, and to run the short (a few minutes) and long (more minutes) tests against the disk-drive.

> I'm sending it off for professional repair ...

Good idea. The HP Warranty on your brand-new HP computer should cover all problems, not just hardware.

Or, maybe just take it back to the retail store that sold it  to you, and exchange it.

They should have a "no questions asked" return-policy, during the first week of your ownership.

[Monogamously · Accepted solution]

Hi, thanks for the quick reply, I installed all pending windows 10 updates before I installed any software whatsoever. Restarted and checked for updates again. I installed Avast at around 23:45 in Tuesday night, and windows did install some updates earlier that evening.

I had initially tried the system restore before I attempted to install Windows 10 again, and that didn't help a jot sadly.

My SSD definitely has input output errors, since after I posted the question I tried installing again and got that exact error code after the restart.

However! HP has resolved the issue for me, my new pc is on its way! 😀 thanks a lot for the info!