Start10 hosed my computer - TWICE!

from Stardock Forums

I have a Dell Venue 11 tablet that I recently upgraded from Windows 8 to Windows 10.  I was also running Start8, which had been working flawlessly for me since installation.  When I installed Start10, it seemed to work fine until I power cycled the computer.  At that point, the device got stuck in a loop where it would give me the login screen wallpaper and then a grey screen - and rapidly switch between the 2 endlessly.  There was no way to stop this that I could find (including using the attached keyboard). 

I chalked it up to it being a Windows problem, and I never like to do an OS upgrade on top of another OS.  So I decided to start from scratch, do a clean install of the OS, and begin again.  I got Windows installed, installed Firefox, and a couple of Dell drivers.  I install Start10 again - on this fresh new machine - and PRESTO!  There's my boot loop.

Booting into safe mode fails (I get the boot loop), booting into the Dell recovery options or ANYTHING else that needs to touch Windows to work fails.  I got my Windows update OTA, so I don't have a clean ISO to create a bootable recovery drive.  So it looks like I have to start from scratch - again - in order to fix the issue.

Obviously I won't be buying Start10.  The good news is that I have a new hobby (reinstalling Windows).  Thanks for that.

start10
3,579 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

That is weird.  We have had no other reports of anything even remotely similar and booting into safe mode should prevent any part of Start10 even starting up.

Is your version of Windows 32 or 64 bit?

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

32 bit (Intel Atom based device).  Device passes all pre-boot diagnostics, and on a clean installation of Windows 10 behaves totally normally.  It's only when Start10 is installed does this behavior occur.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting nem0nic1, reply 2

32 bit (Intel Atom based device).  Device passes all pre-boot diagnostics, and on a clean installation of Windows 10 behaves totally normally.  It's only when Start10 is installed does this behavior occur.
End of nem0nic1's quote

I will get someone to check 32 bit in case something for missed as the bulk of installs would be 64 bit which could explain the lack of other reports.

Do you have any particular antivirus / antimalware software running?

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

The first time i had ESET Smart Security installed.  After the reinstall, i only had Windows 10 and Firefox installed.