Windows 10 boots into a white screen with only the cursor visible (after system crash)

[Japseguten]

My computer has gone "full lockdown" after it crashed playing a youtube video this morning. The night before it crashed playing GTA5 so i'm guessing it has something to do with the GPU drivers, as they seem unstable (GPU is 2x GTX780's in SLI).

It boots into the BIOS just fine, but when windows starts loading the buffer wheel starts lagging, and it eventually ends up displaying a white screen with only the cursor visible.

I tried different ram sticks etc, but that hasn't worked. I have also tried using the "windows boot fixer" and doing a system restore with a USB ISO tool, but the same thing occurs..

I have some pictures on the PC I would love to have back, so thats why I'm hesitating with doing a clean install :/

 

[LukeFatwalker]

Definitely a case of a critically out of date GPU driver.

Can you boot into Safe Mode to update the drivers?

If not you can try resetting the MBR, if that doesn't work then you'll have to do a clean install of the OS.

Guides:
http://pureinfotech.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows-10/
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-do-clean-installation-windows-10

Finally, you should be running backups of your system. Don't want you to lose those photos. Look into a tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine.

 

[Japseguten]

Definitely a case of a critically out of date GPU driver.

Can you boot into Safe Mode to update the drivers?

If not you can try resetting the MBR, if that doesn't work then you'll have to do a clean install of the OS.

Guides:
http://pureinfotech.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows-10/
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-do-clean-installation-windows-10

Finally, you should be running backups of your system. Don't want you to lose those photos. Look into a tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine.

Thanks for the answer. I decided to do a full reinstall of windows as the photos on it weren't that important. I tried doing a reinstall without deleting the files first but that resulted with the setup crashing and giving me an error. I also tried doing a system restore as I had a restore point, but that didn't work either... It gave me an error.

When i finally got it working (with a full reinstall) I downloaded every windows update and let it restart, after this I tried downloading the latest Nvidia drivers, which ended up giving me a black screen with no response from the PC. Worst part being when I restartet the system, the white screen appared again... I then did another restore (which worked this time) and tried opening the nvidia control panel (as windows had automatically downloaded some 370 series nvidia drivers), but it wouldn't do anything when I pressed it, nothing happened in task manager either..

And as a last attempt i tried installing the driver that came out before the latest one, but got the same black screen, with a white screen on reset, and this is where I am at ATM ^^ As you could imagine pretty pissed. Should I try using a boot USB to reinstall the thing again?

 

[LukeFatwalker]

Definitely a case of a critically out of date GPU driver.

Can you boot into Safe Mode to update the drivers?

If not you can try resetting the MBR, if that doesn't work then you'll have to do a clean install of the OS.

Guides:
http://pureinfotech.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows-10/
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-do-clean-installation-windows-10

Finally, you should be running backups of your system. Don't want you to lose those photos. Look into a tool like Rollback Rx or Comodo Time Machine.

Thanks for the answer. I decided to do a full reinstall of windows as the photos on it weren't that important. I tried doing a reinstall without deleting the files first but that resulted with the setup crashing and giving me an error. I also tried doing a system restore as I had a restore point, but that didn't work either... It gave me an error.

When i finally got it working (with a full reinstall) I downloaded every windows update and let it restart, after this I tried downloading the latest Nvidia drivers, which ended up giving me a black screen with no response from the PC. Worst part being when I restartet the system, the white screen appared again... I then did another restore (which worked this time) and tried opening the nvidia control panel (as windows had automatically downloaded some 370 series nvidia drivers), but it wouldn't do anything when I pressed it, nothing happened in task manager either..

And as a last attempt i tried installing the driver that came out before the latest one, but got the same black screen, with a white screen on reset, and this is where I am at ATM ^^ As you could imagine pretty pissed. Should I try using a boot USB to reinstall the thing again?

I would contact your GPU manufacturer. You should let them know that there's an issue with that driver and your machine and they will likely give you a temporary fix and/or a custom driver for the issue.

Sadly though if you re-install and that driver installs without you being able to interrupt it then it's really up to them and the (adminittingly) broken drivers they forced on you.

 

[Japseguten]

Well, I think I got it figured out now. I rebuilt my whole system as I was going to sell my old case anyways, and booted up just to see if it would work using a conventional PC monitor (what I had been using before was a 4K TV), this resulted in the PC booting normaly. I could also update the GPU drivers to the most recent ones without any issues.

I can now use the TV as a monitor again too, but I haven't dared to reinstall the GPU drivers with only it connected.. Don't know for sure what happened, but alteast the PC works now...