Went to my old HP a1600 rig this morning and all I had was a black screen with the blue Window in the center. Tried to reboot and repair but nothing is working. Running Win 10. Will someone please give me tips on how to diagnose and repair? Thanks.Do you have a Windows 10 boot disc to try to boot this system off of a DVD or USB stick to know if its just a corrupt install or a hardware failure? If it doesnt boot off of a Disc or USB stick then we can go from there and process of elimination.

Is this blue window screen just the HP Splash Screen at POST or something else?Thx Dave. Don’t know what a splash screen is. What I had was the Microsoft Windows logo on a black background. PC unresponsive to mouse or keyboard. Shut off/on with power button. PC tried to repair itself but could not. Tried a couple “advanced options” which did not work. Finally tried the system reset which did work but had to reset logon password. Personal files were saved but many apps were uninstalled including a few legacy apps which are no longer available. There is now a shortcut on desktop which shows all apps/programs which were uninstalled. What a PITA! The only thing I can figure is something went wrong on an automatic update.

Do you think there is any way to restore my PC to its prior state? I have a Macrium backup image but it won’t have the uninstalled apps/programs.Why wouldn't the Macrium image have all the apps ? ?

I don't understand.Patio, I don’t really know but I remembered (maybe incorrectly) that Reflect only does files and OS, not installed software & apps.

Know what? Maybe I was thinking about Win Transfer that upgrades from 7 to 10 which did not transfer 3rd party software. It has been so long since I restored a HD from a Reflect image that I do not remember if it has software or not. If it does, I will be a happy camper.

Wish I knew what caused the original problem. Right now I am trying to restart after installing Macrium Reflect and Win is taking forever to “get ready”. Starting to think I am about to have the same thing happen again. Ok, did a quick internet search and, as usual, found my problem is not at all UNIQUE. Unfortunately no easy fix. After being stuck on the “getting ready screen for an hour, I gave up. Powered off and was able to reboot from the Macrium disc and am now installing my backup image. Will let you know what happens.

Some advise that you should let “get ready” screen work for as long as the progress circle DOTS are operating, even up to a day or more. I did not feel like waiting since it is apparent that the update install already failed once. After I get my backup image installed, MS will probably want to DOWNLOAD the problem update and the same thing may happen again unless I turn off automatic updates.Just for future reference a Macrium Image file contains everything on the HDD at the time the image was created...

So you should be good to go....bring us good news.

On another note when creating or restoring a Macrium inage the bootable media should always be used for best results...Ok, Patio you were right as usual. Restored image was complete. Problem update still will not install but at least it did not hang PC again, although I am sure it will eventually. I will start another THREAD in the Win 10 Forum. Thanks to all.Looks like you should be successful if the image is a good one and not corrupt.

Regarding splash screen, its the screen at POST, at boot of the computer to which for example HP's generally show HP logo at boot on computers before the OS is loaded. The logo was written to the BIOS, and initially reading the blue screen I was curious if it was the splash screen of the HP logo which then hands off the boot to the hard drive. The good thing is that it sounds like your hardware is healthy and for some reason your installation got corrupt. If the image is a healthy image you should be all set when that COMPLETES. Just wanted to clarify what the splash screen is even though it no longer applies to troubleshooting this. Quote from: DaveLembke on January 06, 2018, 01:44:22 PM

Looks like you should be successful if the image is a good one and not corrupt.

Regarding splash screen, its the screen at POST, at boot of the computer to which for example HP's generally show HP logo at boot on computers before the OS is loaded. The logo was written to the BIOS, and initially reading the blue screen I was curious if it was the splash screen of the HP logo which then hands off the boot to the hard drive. The good thing is that it sounds like your hardware is healthy and for some reason your installation got corrupt. If the image is a healthy image you should be all set when that completes. Just wanted to clarify what the splash screen is even though it no longer applies to troubleshooting this.