HP Envy 4-1030 won't start in safe mode - BLUE SCREEN-

[C_Swan]

I was attempting to upgrade from Win 7 (64 bit) to Win 10 using a USB boot for a clean install. Install failed after a few hours and machine restarted with the suggestion that I check my audio driver for updates and then uninstall it before attempting Win 10 reinstall. I checked all drivers and uninstalled the requested driver. Then rebooted machine to try Win 10 OS install again. Machine blue screened with the attached error message.

I have plenty of free disk space (130 GB+) and the BIOS does not need to be updated. Main problem seems to be that machine will not let me restart in safe mode (with or without a cmd prompt) to check the drivers again and changing boot order to boot from recovery disks is not working either. Any suggestions appreciated.

[CherylG]

@C_Swan 

Not sure I understand exactly what you are attempting. For instance the statements "using a USB boot for a clean install" and  "machine restarted with the suggestion that I check my audio driver for updates and then uninstall" are completely contradictory. If you are doing a clean install no old drivers would be present-nor would Windows still be present to boot and give you driver suggestion.

A clean install is just that- you clean the hard drive off and install new fresh Windows. You would be choosing Install, then choosing Custom not upgrade. When asked where to install you would delete all partitions and let the installer create a new one and install on it.

[C_Swan]

@CherylG Thanks for the reply and I understand what you're saying. It doesn't make much sense to me either. When the attempt at a "clean install" failed for Win 10, Windows says it reset itself to the previous Win 7 version and then rebooted with the message that I "update drivers and delete audio driver" which (I assume) is now probably ironically what is causing the blue screen. I have all the drivers downloaded for my machine from HP.com on both USB drive and CD, but no way to access those .exe files - I don't know if that would matter anyway.

The problem is: now I can't boot in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with cmd prompt, can't run diagnostics to repair, and the recovery discs won't read either... the initial boot process simply moves straight through to the "starting Windows" animation with the logo and then blue screens with the attached message.