Hopeless

To update and re-cap: A normal switch on/boot always results in the blank screen cycling which is impossible to break into. Opening Windows in safe mode is possible, and my PC doesn't seem to revert to the blank screens at all when in safe mode. When I use Windows System Recovery function to try to restore things back to how they were (and when I didn't lie awake at night worrying about all this), it beavers away for a while and shuts down and re-boots the machine apparently successfully - ie no blank screen cycling. Unfortunately it displays an error message (0xc000003a, or similar) and says it couldn't delete files, and after a few minutes of normal operation, the screen cycling tends to resume for no particular reason. I've run a full system scan with a Miicrosoft malware remover I downloaded, and also a full scan with Norton, and neither showed up any problems. I'm therefore assuming that it can't be a virusy thing, unless it's a CIA level one, which I can reasonably discount. If I go to the Installed Windows Updates bit of Control Panel to try and manually uninstall stuff that arrived around last week (when this all started), there's nothing at all dated after 5th Jan. This is despite the fact that the Recovery screen shows Windows Critical updates having arrived almost every day. No idea whether this means I'm misunderstanding something or there's something up with the PC. All-in-all, my very limited technical skills and knowledge are pretty well exhausted, leaving me completely stumped. (I have a vague feeling I should have made a system backup disk at some point, but didn't). Confused, stressed and out of ideas.

Don't know what the disks/recovery partition thing means exactly (clearly, you didn't believe me when I effectively said I was an idiot). I'll give the F8 thing a go, though, and see what transpires. I'm also wondering if there's a manual way of deleting the recent updates, in case they're duff in some way. Maybe I can then manually download them again from the Microsoft site, or wherever in the ether they come from. Thanks for the help.

I have an all-in-one, touch screen Acer PC. Recently, at the end of a 'receive updates and shut down' sequence, the PC started to display a repeating cycle of grey, black, blue and coloured stripe screens, which I can't break into. The cycle returns (after Windows starts to open) after switching poiwer off and back on. After the switch off/on, I can open Windows in safe mode, and then try to restore the system to how it was a few days ago via the Restore function. This appears to work, in that it runs and automatically shuts down and reopens Windows successfully as normal. At the end, however, it displays an error message saying it didn't delete updates, and when I next close and reopen the PC, the coloured screen cycles return. Having no technical skills whatever, I don't even know what the problem is. As it started after updates, it could be an update problem, and I think I remember seeing Intel Display as the title of one of the recent updates. On the other hand, it could be some kind of virus, although my Norton Anti-Virus hasn't indicated anything wrong. I'm hoping that someone can tell me: Whether I'm dealing with problematic updates, some form of malware, or something else. How to fix whatever it is (in the simplest way, given my general IT ignorance) I'd be very grateful for some help.