Windows 10 build 17686 triggers infinite lock screen loops

If you haven’t installed Windows 10 build 17686 yet, then maybe you should wait for a few more days before hitting the update button. Many Insiders reported that build 17686 pushes computers into infinite lock screen loops, preventing them from using their machines.

Here’s how one user describes this issue on Microsoft’s forum:

After installation of Windows Insider build 17686 the Lock screen appears for one second, winks off and back on, continuously.The system does not respond to keyboard input. I have not been able to get it into Safe Mode. Unplugging the keyboard makes no difference. I am not able to RDP to the system while it’s winking I unplugged my one USB disk drive no help.
I tried recovery USB media and asked it restore the previous version of Windows but it said there was a problem.

Users first thought this was a driver related problem. However, reports confirmed that AMD and NVIDIA processors are equally affected by this issue.

To fix this problem, you need to roll back your OS using the advanced options in the troubleshooting menu. If you got any error message the first time that you tried to roll back, simply try again and eventually you should be able to return to a working Windows version, as this Insider confirms:

Fortunately I was able to roll it back through the advanced options in the troubleshooter boot menu. I presume now I should wait until a newer build comes out rather than risk trying to reinstall this build

Microsoft has yet to acknowledge this problem,. However, judging by the number of reports, this is indeed a frequent problem, so the best solution is to simply pause updates for the time being.

How has your Windows 10 build 17686 experience been so far? Did you encounter other issues apart from the one mentioned above? Let us know in the comments below.

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