J4205-ITX Windows 10 doesn't boot after update

I've read many pages of forum posts that detail problems people are experiencing with the ASRock J4205-ITX board. By far the vast majority of those problems are issues with the HDMI port. I can't say that I ever read a problem where the J4205-ITX wouldn't boot into Windows, or the computer would inexplicably power-off, after updates were installed. I'm not saying that it hasn't happened, but it isn't something that I have come across during my research.

Such an odd problem could be caused by many things so here are a few that come to mind, in no particular order...
- An anomaly with a memory stick. I would run an extended test of the memory using a utility like memtest86 (memtest86.com). Memtest86 will create a bootable USB flash drive.
- An anomaly with the power supply or power supply cabling/connections.
- A component is overheating.
- An anomaly with the J4205-ITX in the form of a random component failure.
- A misconfigured Windows Advanced Power Options setting.
- Maybe less suspect, but possibly a rogue BIOS setting or abnormal BIOS configuration.
- A problem with a software driver.

If you discover that the Windows Recovery screen eventually appears, I believe this is now what happens when Windows 10 shuts down abnormally, or crashes, three consecutive times. One or two abnormal shutdowns isn't enough to do it, it takes three.

If the Recovery screen does appear then you should be able to access the old familiar Windows Safe Mode. Getting into Safe Mode would allow Windows to start-up with a basic configuration and then, hopefully, you can access the Windows Event logs or review the Windows crash dump files. Reviewing this information could give you a hint to what was happening with Windows just before the crash or at the time of the crash.

With Windows 10 Microsoft did a great job of convoluting the process to gain access to Safe Mode. Gone are the good old simple days when a rapid press of the F7 key at boot-up would get a menu of start-up options. Now I think the route to Safe Mode is, from some old notes of mine, from the Recovery screen first choose the Troubleshoot option, then choose Advanced Options, followed by Start-up Settings, and finally click the Restart button. When the functional Start-up Settings screen appears there are several start-up options available. I believe pressing the F4 key (even though the options are number 1, 2, 3, etc) would then perform a Safe Mode restart.

If you can get back into Windows 10 using Safe Mode you may want to change the Windows 10 crash behavior by going to the Startup and Recovery configuration.

Control Panel -> System icon -> Advanced System Settings (left sidebar) -> Advanced tab -> press the Settings button found in the section Startup and Recovery

I often find it handy to have Windows halt on any crashes and display the BSOD rather than the default behavior of restarting the computer, so uncheck the Automatically Restart option. When Windows crashes the BSOD will provide some basic information about what caused the crash that could be useful. The new Windows 10 BSOD will also show a QR Code that, if you have an internet connected tablet or smartphone with a QR Code reading app, will take you to a Microsoft support page that provides some troubleshooting help for the problem that occurred.

Obviously disabling the Automatically Restart option would only be helpful if Windows is actually crashing and, if when Windows does crash, the computer stays powered-on. Changing this setting to prevent an automatic restart might be what it takes to keep the computer powered-on after a crash.

There are some useful utility programs for analyzing crash dump files, if the files exist. A file called Memory.dmp will usually be written to the Windows folder and smaller crash dump files may be written to the Windows\Minidump folder. Utilities that I have used to review the crash dump files include BlueScreenView from Nirsoft.net and WhoCrashed from Resplendence.com. Obviously for these utilities to be useful they first need to be installed and you need to get back into Windows to use them.

I know you mentioned that Linux runs okay, but I'm sure Windows brings along more coding baggage than Linux so the way system memory is allocated and the drivers that are used by Windows is most likely going to be different.

From what I have witnessed, when Windows 10 is first installed, the drivers that are used are quite limited in function and the developer of the drivers is shown to be Microsoft. Drivers later installed by Windows Update are often drivers provided by the manufacturers of the hardware components. It is quite possible that manufacturer drivers for Windows will implement component features not provided by the Microsoft drivers or the Linux drivers.

Anyway, that is my two cents. I wish I could suggest a simple solution, but you have an odd problem that will probably take some patience to solve.

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uhrheber Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 08 Jan 2018 Status: Offline Points: 5	Post Options Post Reply Quote uhrheber Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: J4205-ITX Windows 10 doesn't boot after update Posted: 23 Mar 2018 at 6:24pm
	Guys, I have a J4205-ITX board, still at 1.4 BIOS, and I'm having a hard time installing Windows 10. I tried several versions and flavours, and some of them work at first, but sooner or later, after installing the latest updates, Windows doesn't boot up. It just tries to boot, but then the board switches off by itself. After several tries, the Windows recovery console comes up, but no option I choose there solves the problem. This is not related to the monitor, and happens with HDMI and VGA. Every Linux Version I tried works just fine. Is this a known problem (after reading the forum, I'm still not sure)? Would the withdrawn BIOS have solved the problem?

Event4101 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 23 Jan 2018 Status: Offline Points: 27	Post Options Post Reply Quote Event4101 Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 27 Mar 2018 at 5:00am
	I've read many pages of forum posts that detail problems people are experiencing with the ASRock J4205-ITX board. By far the vast majority of those problems are issues with the HDMI port. I can't say that I ever read a problem where the J4205-ITX wouldn't boot into Windows, or the computer would inexplicably power-off, after updates were installed. I'm not saying that it hasn't happened, but it isn't something that I have come across during my research. Such an odd problem could be caused by many things so here are a few that come to mind, in no particular order... - An anomaly with a memory stick. I would run an extended test of the memory using a utility like memtest86 (memtest86.com). Memtest86 will create a bootable USB flash drive. - An anomaly with the power supply or power supply cabling/connections. - A component is overheating. - An anomaly with the J4205-ITX in the form of a random component failure. - A misconfigured Windows Advanced Power Options setting. - Maybe less suspect, but possibly a rogue BIOS setting or abnormal BIOS configuration. - A problem with a software driver. If you discover that the Windows Recovery screen eventually appears, I believe this is now what happens when Windows 10 shuts down abnormally, or crashes, three consecutive times. One or two abnormal shutdowns isn't enough to do it, it takes three. If the Recovery screen does appear then you should be able to access the old familiar Windows Safe Mode. Getting into Safe Mode would allow Windows to start-up with a basic configuration and then, hopefully, you can access the Windows Event logs or review the Windows crash dump files. Reviewing this information could give you a hint to what was happening with Windows just before the crash or at the time of the crash. With Windows 10 Microsoft did a great job of convoluting the process to gain access to Safe Mode. Gone are the good old simple days when a rapid press of the F7 key at boot-up would get a menu of start-up options. Now I think the route to Safe Mode is, from some old notes of mine, from the Recovery screen first choose the Troubleshoot option, then choose Advanced Options, followed by Start-up Settings, and finally click the Restart button. When the functional Start-up Settings screen appears there are several start-up options available. I believe pressing the F4 key (even though the options are number 1, 2, 3, etc) would then perform a Safe Mode restart. If you can get back into Windows 10 using Safe Mode you may want to change the Windows 10 crash behavior by going to the Startup and Recovery configuration. Control Panel -> System icon -> Advanced System Settings (left sidebar) -> Advanced tab -> press the Settings button found in the section Startup and Recovery I often find it handy to have Windows halt on any crashes and display the BSOD rather than the default behavior of restarting the computer, so uncheck the Automatically Restart option. When Windows crashes the BSOD will provide some basic information about what caused the crash that could be useful. The new Windows 10 BSOD will also show a QR Code that, if you have an internet connected tablet or smartphone with a QR Code reading app, will take you to a Microsoft support page that provides some troubleshooting help for the problem that occurred. Obviously disabling the Automatically Restart option would only be helpful if Windows is actually crashing and, if when Windows does crash, the computer stays powered-on. Changing this setting to prevent an automatic restart might be what it takes to keep the computer powered-on after a crash. There are some useful utility programs for analyzing crash dump files, if the files exist. A file called Memory.dmp will usually be written to the Windows folder and smaller crash dump files may be written to the Windows\Minidump folder. Utilities that I have used to review the crash dump files include BlueScreenView from Nirsoft.net and WhoCrashed from Resplendence.com. Obviously for these utilities to be useful they first need to be installed and you need to get back into Windows to use them. I know you mentioned that Linux runs okay, but I'm sure Windows brings along more coding baggage than Linux so the way system memory is allocated and the drivers that are used by Windows is most likely going to be different. From what I have witnessed, when Windows 10 is first installed, the drivers that are used are quite limited in function and the developer of the drivers is shown to be Microsoft. Drivers later installed by Windows Update are often drivers provided by the manufacturers of the hardware components. It is quite possible that manufacturer drivers for Windows will implement component features not provided by the Microsoft drivers or the Linux drivers. Anyway, that is my two cents. I wish I could suggest a simple solution, but you have an odd problem that will probably take some patience to solve.