This is a first and the craziest problem I’ve ever run into (and I’ve been working with Windows since 3.0). This has happened twice now, the 1st time on a high-end Dell Precision Tower 3620 desktop and later on a garden-variety Dell Inspiron 5567 notebook, both with different owners and a week apart, updating Windows 10 Pro from 1809 to 1903. The upgrade proceeded normally with no error messages or other problem indications but when both computers booted back up after the update, the screen went to what I’d call the “lock screen” (but no logon option was offered) with the usual Windows background (which was kind of dimmed out) and there were only 3 icons visible in the lower right-hand corner of the display. They were the “Network Access” (Internet), “Ease Of Access” and a “Power” (Shutdown / Restart) icons. The mouse cursor was active but the keyboard was dead as a doornail on both units; not even a “Ctrl-Alt-Del” response. I tried a different USB keyboard on both units with no success. I used the mouse (or trackpad on the notebook) to shut them down and that’s about all I could do, other than monkey with the Ease of Access settings, which I had no need of. Both computers could be booted into Safe Mode with Networking after 2 successive boot failures (as usual with the Windows recovery function) but Windows Update, System File Checker and DISM all would not run in Safe Mode. I did manage to run checkdisk but it reported no errors and the computers went right back into the “Dead Desktop” mode when they booted back up afterward. I may be 1 of the few guys who actually makes a “Windows 10 Recovery Disc” (flash drive) and I used it to run the “Startup Repair” option but it had no effect on either computer. The fact that they both could boot into Safe Mode should say something but I could not identify anything (video drivers, etc) that was causing the problem. I even tried pulling the NVIDIA video card out of the desktop and letting it try to use the generic integrated Intel video hardware on the mobo but that didn’t work either; the notebook uses the integrated Intel hardware by default. Neither computer has ever had a problem with Windows update (or really any Windows-related problem in general) since they were purchased; this is a first. When I called Dell ProSupport they’d never heard of the problem and told me just to reformat and be done with it but that’s not really an option with either unit, unless I want to devote a lot more time than I’m getting paid for, trying to back everything up and load the myriad apps that these customers have back on their respective computers. And what’s to say it won’t happen again? The fact that the identical same problem occurred on 2 vastly different machines should tell me something but as I said, this is a first for me with such a bizarre problem. Any ideas?
