Windows failing to start (including safe mode, recovery setup, USB installation)
Windows failing to start (including safe mode, recovery setup, USB installation)
Hello, during the update of my NVIDIA GPU driver and setting a custom resolution, I encountered BSOD issues. It seems the problem might be linked to kernel or memory settings, so I treated it as a driver-related matter. I've tested booting from all drives, restarted in various safe modes, used recovery settings, and even disabled early malware detection. A Windows USB installation fails to load, memory diagnostics are available, and many BIOS tweaks appear to affect security and boot processes. Using the Windows USB from my license shows a white-on-black menu with safe mode options, but nothing changes compared to selecting them from the OS installation. Unless I've misconfigured boot priority, Windows boots normally but still reports driver or hardware errors like bad pool calls, IRQL not less than or equal, kmode exceptions, or page faults. I’m struggling to resolve this on my own computer and have considered switching the boot drive to another PC, repairing it via Windows installation or a VM with ddu. I’m unable to fix Windows on this machine. Recently, I changed my boot drive to GPT and enabled FTPP and secure boot for anti-cheat software. It doesn’t seem to be the core issue, as Windows appears to access files without consistently pointing out related problems.
I would skip the storage and attempt to boot from the USB. The fact it doesn<|pad|> to load also points toward a hardware problem.
First thing you should do is make sure you got a backup of all your important data on your drives. You may have to wipe them clean and also it is always a good idea to have a backup. I agree. There is a possibility the UEFI partition got corrupted in some way so the boot won't proceed. But if you remove all drives except for the USB installer, the computer won't have the choice of boot media. If the boot media still won't boot, you can try clearing the CMOS memory. If it still won't boot, it may be a corrupted BIOS and you'll need to flash the BIOS. If it still won't boot in any way, then the motherboard probably has an issue and should be RMA or repaired. Hope that helps.
I checked the original RAM in various slots, then tried the new one and it resolved the issue right away. I placed the old memory sticks back in their original positions and it still functions (temporarily). It’s unclear what caused the problem—possibly memory issues, or something connected to firmware updates, FTMP, or secure boot. I disabled certain options and enabled FTMP, setting others to off, including installing a new CPU. Since there have been no problems yet, the BIOS might have fixed it.