so, guess what happened?

i hadn't connected to the internet yet. all i'd done was delete some cache files, turn up the group policy and mess with some file ownership. it's only the last option that should make any difference, here.

the solution on the internet is to disable driver signing, but that's a shitty answer all around. first, i don't actually want to do that - i like driver signing, it's a good idea. it stops the cops from installing drivers on your system, for example. second, i don't get the screen to pick the option, because my lamp is burned out. i couldn't do it if i wanted to (which i don't).

previously, i just took it as a sign that i was hacked and needed to format. this time, i need to take a closer look at it. so, i disabled driver signature verification...

....and it did work.

so, i turned on the bootlogger, and it hung at afd. that's winsock. firewalls. great. but, disabling it (offline. temporarily.) didn't actually work.

i *can* boot the system, but there's obviously something loading that i don't want there.

so, i ran sigverif and, in conjunction with autoruns, i now have a list of unsigned drivers to check, and we'll have to work it via trial and error.