So -- on Thanksgiving Day, the following sequence of events happened. I'm not saying all of it was due to the latest update, but let me lay it all out:
At 1 pm, I left the room where my HP Pavilion p6616f is located. When I returned a few minutes later, the screen resolution on my display had changed. It was now set to 1400x1050, not the native resolution of my monitor, 1920x1080, where it has always been set. And my display settings told me that 1400x1050 was the highest resolution available. (In case you're wondering, this Pavilion comes with a Radeon HD 4200 display card, a cheap card that is required by the weak 250W power supply HP put in this thing, but always suitable for my needs.)
I decided to run Windows Update to see if this could be an issue with an expired (?!) display driver or something that WU might fix. When I looked, it said a cumulative update was ready to install. I selected to install it. When it completed its first install step, about 20% through the process, the computer restarted (as it will, several times, through a cumulative update), and then claimed that my hard drive was unmountable.
Fortunately, my roommate has a Win 10 laptop, so I was able to sacrifice a USB thumb drive to become a bootable media device, which let me access the computer's repair options. After a few tries where nothing happened, I finally got it to load the repair options. That let me repair the boot sector and load Windows. And even though it said it was completing the update, after it came back up, I ran Windows Update and it stated I needed to download and install the cumulative update again. And the resolution issue had not been fixed.
Well, I told my display driver to roll back to the prior version, and I got my native resolution back. I then re-downloaded and re-installed the cumulative upgrade to Build 1709. This time, though, the download took about two hours and the install about three hours.
After that was done, the resolution was back to 1400x1050 and the display settings again said it wouldn't support higher, and sure enough, the windows update also re-installed the newer driver which caused this. I tried to roll back again, and found the option grayed out -- the cumulative update had wiped the computer's memory of the earlier driver.
WU then wanted to download and install a Features Update, so I let it. At this point, the Shut down option from the Start Menu stopped working; when selected, it came up with the spinning oval (the resolution being wrong, so not a spinning circle) of dots, saying it was shutting down, then the desktop just popped back up and it just kept running.
Once the final update was done, was done, I tried all sorts of things to get the display driver to roll back, and Windows just kept failing to see older drivers. It insisted that the now-faulty driver was the latest, and would not show any other drivers than the most recent.
I told the Device Manager to remove the display adapter, figuring Windows would see and re-install the adapter, then restarted the computer. And had no display at all; the card would put out anything to the monitor.
I resisted the almost overwhelming urge to pick up the tower and throw it out into the middle of the street, turned off the computer, and went to bed.
The next day, I started it up and actually did what I expected the day before; it re-installed the device. It also installed the faulty driver. But this time, when I had it look for other drivers, it found the original driver. I installed it, and got my native resolution back.
It's still not fixed; Windows suddenly doesn't think the display adapter can support the photos option anymore, forcing it to the Windows Live Photo Gallery screen saver option, which is alternately only showing about 75% of 1920x1080 photos on my 1920x1080 resolution, or shifting full-width images far over to the right side, cutting off the right sides and leaving big black areas on the left.
I figure the initial display issue has something to do with the onboard display adapter. I am hamstrung in replacing it by the fact that my expansion slots are PCI-Express 1 and 1x16, while most currently available new cards say they are PCI-E 2.0 compatible, and very few cards will run with this 250W power supply. I found and ordered a VisionTek Radeon HD 4350 that says it will run with the 250W power supply, but I have no idea if it will have Windows 10 drivers. I sure hope Windows thinks it has enough oomph to let me do its own photos screen saver.
I am good with installing cards, but I am convinced that if I try to replace my power supply, I'll manage to permanently kill the motherboard or the quad-core CPU. So, I'm not likely to put a bigger PSU in, just to prove I can't do it at the expense of needing to buy an entirely new tower, which I can't really afford right now.
Anyone have any ideas what happened to suddenly make Windows stop respecting my display card? And anyone else have Build 1709 kill your boot sector?
At 1 pm, I left the room where my HP Pavilion p6616f is located. When I returned a few minutes later, the screen resolution on my display had changed. It was now set to 1400x1050, not the native resolution of my monitor, 1920x1080, where it has always been set. And my display settings told me that 1400x1050 was the highest resolution available. (In case you're wondering, this Pavilion comes with a Radeon HD 4200 display card, a cheap card that is required by the weak 250W power supply HP put in this thing, but always suitable for my needs.)
I decided to run Windows Update to see if this could be an issue with an expired (?!) display driver or something that WU might fix. When I looked, it said a cumulative update was ready to install. I selected to install it. When it completed its first install step, about 20% through the process, the computer restarted (as it will, several times, through a cumulative update), and then claimed that my hard drive was unmountable.
Fortunately, my roommate has a Win 10 laptop, so I was able to sacrifice a USB thumb drive to become a bootable media device, which let me access the computer's repair options. After a few tries where nothing happened, I finally got it to load the repair options. That let me repair the boot sector and load Windows. And even though it said it was completing the update, after it came back up, I ran Windows Update and it stated I needed to download and install the cumulative update again. And the resolution issue had not been fixed.
Well, I told my display driver to roll back to the prior version, and I got my native resolution back. I then re-downloaded and re-installed the cumulative upgrade to Build 1709. This time, though, the download took about two hours and the install about three hours.
After that was done, the resolution was back to 1400x1050 and the display settings again said it wouldn't support higher, and sure enough, the windows update also re-installed the newer driver which caused this. I tried to roll back again, and found the option grayed out -- the cumulative update had wiped the computer's memory of the earlier driver.
WU then wanted to download and install a Features Update, so I let it. At this point, the Shut down option from the Start Menu stopped working; when selected, it came up with the spinning oval (the resolution being wrong, so not a spinning circle) of dots, saying it was shutting down, then the desktop just popped back up and it just kept running.
Once the final update was done, was done, I tried all sorts of things to get the display driver to roll back, and Windows just kept failing to see older drivers. It insisted that the now-faulty driver was the latest, and would not show any other drivers than the most recent.
I told the Device Manager to remove the display adapter, figuring Windows would see and re-install the adapter, then restarted the computer. And had no display at all; the card would put out anything to the monitor.
I resisted the almost overwhelming urge to pick up the tower and throw it out into the middle of the street, turned off the computer, and went to bed.
The next day, I started it up and actually did what I expected the day before; it re-installed the device. It also installed the faulty driver. But this time, when I had it look for other drivers, it found the original driver. I installed it, and got my native resolution back.
It's still not fixed; Windows suddenly doesn't think the display adapter can support the photos option anymore, forcing it to the Windows Live Photo Gallery screen saver option, which is alternately only showing about 75% of 1920x1080 photos on my 1920x1080 resolution, or shifting full-width images far over to the right side, cutting off the right sides and leaving big black areas on the left.
I figure the initial display issue has something to do with the onboard display adapter. I am hamstrung in replacing it by the fact that my expansion slots are PCI-Express 1 and 1x16, while most currently available new cards say they are PCI-E 2.0 compatible, and very few cards will run with this 250W power supply. I found and ordered a VisionTek Radeon HD 4350 that says it will run with the 250W power supply, but I have no idea if it will have Windows 10 drivers. I sure hope Windows thinks it has enough oomph to let me do its own photos screen saver.
I am good with installing cards, but I am convinced that if I try to replace my power supply, I'll manage to permanently kill the motherboard or the quad-core CPU. So, I'm not likely to put a bigger PSU in, just to prove I can't do it at the expense of needing to buy an entirely new tower, which I can't really afford right now.
Anyone have any ideas what happened to suddenly make Windows stop respecting my display card? And anyone else have Build 1709 kill your boot sector?
