Windows 10 in a restart loop after Boot Camp driver installation

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Windows 10 in a restart loop after Boot Camp driver installation

I see that this is a fairly common issue, but the solution isn't clear to me.

I have a 2017 iMac running Mojave and I successfully installed the latest build of Windows 10 (1909), but when the Boot Camp Installer opens up in Windows, does its thing and prompts a Restart, it never manages to complete the restart. It gets hung up on a screen that loads after the Windows logo with the revolving balls where it's just some frozen revolving balls and then it restarts itself and repeats until the blue screen with troubleshooting options comes up. I can boot up in Safe Mode, but I don't know how useful that it for solving this problem.

I've read to try installing an earlier build of Windows 10 with Boot Camp, but the Microsoft site only has 1909 available. I've also read that I should not let the Boot Camp Installer run in Windows and that I should manually install the drivers, but I'm not sure where to find these drivers and which one(s) to install and avoid.

And is it okay to install 1909 if I install the drivers manually, or should I both install and older version of Windows and manually install the drivers? I'm looking to play games from Steam with this, so I'm assuming the more up to date the version of Windows the better.

Thanks for any help.

iMac 27" 5K, macOS 10.14

Posted on Mar 1, 2020 11:50 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Shortfatsteve Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 1, 2020 6:59 PM in response to Loner T

I did some reading around and saw that having a peripherals plugged in has caused this restart loop problem in the past. I didn't have any peripherals plugged in, but I had left my USB-C to HDMI adapter plugged in (because I unplugged the HDMI cable). Anyways, I unplugged the adapter, booted up the Windows drive and it worked this time! So it's either that adapter or having booted up on the Mac OS and then back to the Windows OS that fixed the problem.

Now I've run the Windows Updates, the Apple Software Update to get some Boot Camp updates, and more Windows Updates. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

And thanks for all your help, Loner T!

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Answer 2

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Mar 1, 2020 12:15 PM in response to Shortfatsteve

Use BCA to remove the current installation. Find a W10 1903 Retail ISO (be careful of fakes). You can post the MD5sum of the ISO and we can check, before you try to install it.

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Answer 3

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Mar 1, 2020 11:56 AM in response to Shortfatsteve

If you install W10 1909, Windows Update should give you most Apple drivers, but you may not have control.

If you install W10 1903 and older, the BC drivers should work, but you should run Windows Update, once Windows is stable.

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Answer 4

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Mar 1, 2020 6:24 PM in response to Shortfatsteve

BCA builds a W10 Installer on an internal partition called OSXRESERVED and boots from it. The partition contains the ISO and drivers to support Apple hardware during the installation. If W10 1903 is a problem, can you test with W10 1809 OctV2?

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Answer 5

Mar 1, 2020 12:21 PM in response to Loner T

Cool. I found this site : https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

Seems legit

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Answer 6

Mar 1, 2020 12:11 PM in response to Loner T

Loner T wrote:

If you install W10 1909, Windows Update should give you most Apple drivers, but you may not have control.

If you install W10 1903 and older, the BC drivers should work, but you should run Windows Update, once Windows is stable.

Well 1909 is installed but stuck in a reboot loop. Can I run Windows Update from one of the Troubleshooting options? Or if I want to use 1903 do I have to do the whole Boot Camp installation again or can I do that from the Troubleshooting options too? I'm a bit of a Windows novice (we use it at work but IT runs the backend stuff).

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Answer 7

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Mar 1, 2020 2:09 PM in response to Shortfatsteve

You may want to consider MSDN as an option. Post the MD5sum once you download the file. The second line is the output.

openssl md5 Win10_1909_English_x64.iso 
MD5(Win10_1909_English_x64.iso)= 86c16116ebacf9b29e4766dd479b5a79

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Answer 8

Mar 1, 2020 4:23 PM in response to Loner T

I tried W10 1903 and got the same results: stuck in a reboot cycle. I downloaded the Win10_1903_V2_English_x64.iso from this site. The MD5sum is

MD5 Win10_1903_V2_English_x64.iso = ba2e91ee7dab4b1415e4120a5c4fabed

Not sure what I'm supposed to check it against. Are those available online somewhere?

In any case, should I start over and when the Boot Camp installer launches in Windows, cancel it and do the Windows Updates instead? You said it would also download all the necessary drivers.

Thanks again.

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Answer 9

Mar 1, 2020 5:44 PM in response to Shortfatsteve

I found this site where I could verify the MD5sum and it checks out for the 1903 v2 iso I downloaded and the 1903 v1 I downloaded just in case. So it seems that whatever's causing the problems is associated with the Boot Camp Installer in Windows.

So what is it that the BCI does exactly? It's just installing a bunch of drivers? Or is there more, like something to allow you to change the startup disk before a restart, etc? If I just use Windows Updater is there a site where I can download whichever drivers it missed?

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,536 points

Mar 1, 2020 7:24 PM in response to Shortfatsteve

Shortfatsteve wrote:

So it's either that adapter or having booted up on the Mac OS and then back to the Windows OS that fixed the problem.

Peripherals always cause an issue.

Now I've run the Windows Updates, the Apple Software Update to get some Boot Camp updates, and more Windows Updates. Is there anything else I should be worried about?

Create a Windows System Restore point, before you start using the system and installing other software.

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Answer 11

Mar 1, 2020 4:35 PM in response to Loner T

Also, I checked the MD5sum of the 1909 file and it's the same as the one you have above. That one was downloaded from the Microsoft site from the link in a Boot Camp support article.

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Windows 10 in a restart loop after Boot Camp driver installation

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