Updating from 10240 to 1607 for Pascal Support --> BSOD Loop, Startup Repair Fails: Stumped

[rustyspoork]

Background:
I bought a graphics card (1080Ti) for my custom gaming computer running Windows 10 (10240).
I'm upgrading from a 770.

Play-by-play:

• 
  Updated to the latest driver with Geforce Experience.
  Shut down.
  I replaced the card and booted up.
  Booted fine, but the display running on the 1080Ti was running at 1024x768 (instead of 1920x1200).
  (Figured this was normal)
  Waited for startup programs to calm down.
  Changed the display resolution to native.
  Device Manager doesn't have any idea what the card is (lists it as VGA-Compatible with a warning icon).
  Checked for driver update.
  Tried to install.
  "Not compatible with my version of Windows"
  Tried downloading the driver directly: same issue.
  Try to install the driver automatically and manually with Windows from Device Manager. No luck.
  (think to myself, maybe an error message knows what it's talking about for once. check for updates)
  I install some updates and it reboots.
  More updates available including 1607.
  Restart to install and it gets all the way through the update process (100%) with one or two reboots.
  Reboots one last time and BSOD: System Thread Exception Not Handled.

It's been doing this ever since, no matter how many times it tries to boot. I've taken the card out and it still does it (using only the onboard graphics in the processor). There's no driver listed with the BSOD stop code and startup repair always fails. I took a look at the SrtTrail.txt file and everything passed.

I'm stumped at this point. I tried to run a chkdsk on one of the startup repair attempts and it said it would run it at the next system startup. It started up and BSOD'ed again, but didn't restart immediately (it's been like 20 minutes now), so I'm hoping it's doing chkdsk behind the BSOD (I can't tell if the drives are active or not for all the fan noise).

I have another PC at work running 1607 that I can make some kind of media if I need to, but I don't know how to proceed at this point.

Let me know if I can add any more relevant info about my system or the steps I took to get here.

Thanks.

EDIT:
I should add that Safe Mode doesn't work either.

 

[Paul NZ]

Get the mediacreation tool https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Run it get the ISO make sure you get the right version you upgraded to..

Get Rufus http://rufus.akeo.ie/

If the mobo has a UEFI BIOS, select GPT partition (put the flash drive in a port first). If it doesnt select MBR

Add ISO, click start. Wait for it to finish. Reboot change the bootdisk to the flash drive then boot from it

Get to the setup screen delete all partitions install windows.

Enable AHCI secureboot (if its a UEFI BIOS) and UEFI before you install Windows. If youre installing 64 bit

If you've got more than 1 hdd in the case, unplug them. Install on whatever hdd. Connect the other hdds after

 

[rustyspoork]

So the nuclear option was definitely NOT what I was looking for.

It turns out it had nothing to do with my graphics driver. Something about my system before the upgrade and the fact that I had Intel RST SSD caching enabled was the issue.

Here's the short version of how I fixed this problem.

Disable SSD caching from the Intel RST ROM.
Roll back the update with the "Go back to the previous build" option in the startup repair screens.
Once booting into the old OS, update motherboard drivers to the latest versions.
Uninstall all graphics drivers (I used control panel and then DDU to make sure).
Install the update to windows and choose to download updates now rather than after (I used a bootable flash drive made with rufus from an image downloaded this week, but I don't think this matters because that failed a bunch of times the exact same way before it finally worked).
Immediately run windows update until you are up to date.
Reboot to make sure everything works.
Install the card and driver.
Reboot.
CREATE A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT (I didn't use it but it can't hurt).
Enabled SSD caching with the newly updated RST utility (one of the "drivers" for my motherboard from the ASUS site).
Reboot several times to provide peace of mind.

So some combination of SSD caching and the un-updated 1607 was the issue (I think). Anywho, my system is all set now, so I'm going to accept my own answer.

Thanks for the speedy reply, Paul, even if it was pretty pessimistic (albeit totally warranted historically and currently).

 

[Paul NZ]

Sweet well at least you found the prob !