Windows 7 won't boot following driver update

I've searched for solutions to this problem as best I could, but didn't find anything exactly like what I'm experiencing, so thanks in advance for your patience with the newbie if I've missed something that covers this. I include bold not to be annoying, but to hopefully make this more scannable since I err on the side of a high level of detail. Thank you again!!!

I have a machine I built nearly two years ago that will not boot following upgrading the Motherboard utility update software (MSI Live Update 5 to MSI Live Update 6). I'm not sure if that's really the correct terminology. More details below, but system specs first

Processor: Intel i7 4770K 3.5 GHz
Motherboard: MSI z87-G43
RAM: 16 GB (2 x Patriot 8 GB 1600 MHz)
Video Card: MSI R7950 Twin Frozr 3GD5
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate, SP 1

As background, I had been having trouble attempting to get USB 3 to function properly on my machine and over the past several months, had tried update drivers using the MSI Live Update software provided with the motherboard, but USB 3 wasn't critical to my day to day use, so I just let it go when no updates for drivers could be found with that software (this was live update 5). I was curious why the LiveUpdate 5 software seemed to have not been updated for a long time, but figured if it ain't broke... Then, the most recent Windows Update was installed (3/8 or 3/9), and following that, it seems that that knocked down some barrier that was preventing MSI Live Update from accurately checking drivers and updates to that software. The first thing that was recommended by MSI Live Update 5 was that I upgrade to MSI live update 6, so I did that successfully.

Side Note: I found this thread talking about a guy who tried to flash his bios using MSI Live Update and had problems, but this isn't what I did, so I'm not sure if this pertains. All the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/1rgrx4
Upon running live update 6, I was confronted with a list of at least 6 items that reported as being pretty far out of date (some said existing version 2014). Sadly, I do not have a screen capture of that list of updates. I should have done this in retrospect. Since I have had problems with driver updates on previous Windows machines, I decided to tackle the recommended downloads / updates one at a time, beginning with the USB 3 driver update since that was the one big thing I noticed. I downloaded and installed the recommended USB 3 line item from the list and the system prompted me to restart.

Upon that and all subsequent restart(s), I receive a blue screen (image01BSOD.jpg, attached). I AM able to enter safe mode by holding F8, and enter the BIOS by using the F11 key. In safe mode, the system boots and I am able to view all my files, leading me to believe that it is simply a driver problem.

Things I have tried:

System Repair (I don't recall if this is the exact term MS uses, but it's the automatic repair option Windows recommends if I simply don't press anything on boot up). After one blue screen my system goes here. I've tried allowing this to complete several times, but it yields a message saying it can't find the problem and I should try system restore (image02WindowsError) . So, I tried...

System Restore. I have five options for previous states to restore to, which I thought would do it, but to no avail. Each state restore seems to run to completion successfully, but then the system restarts and I am left with the same blue screen with the same error message.

I was fairly firmly convinced that it was a problem with the USB 3 drivers, since that was the only element I installed/changed between system reboots, so I started the system in Safe Mode and disabled the USB 3 bus controller driver. Same BSOD and error message.

Next I did some searching about this issue and found something that recommended uninstalling the relevant USB 3 drivers. I think this may have been a mistake, but I did indeed do that in Safe Mode, but still no solution.

I know a little bit about computers, but am certainly no expert (I had someone walk me through building my existing system), and have little experience messing with BIOS settings. I found a few pages that indicated I might be able to use a flash drive to load some set of default or safe BIOS settings that would allow me to boot my machine, but to make sure I know exactly what I'm doing because I could ruin my machine if I do this incorrectly, which scared me off without having a very explicit set of instructions on how to perform that. Perhaps this is as easy as that? I'm thinking that, for now, I will use safe mode to save any vital data, list of installed programs, and I've saved my current BIOS settings onto a flash drive. My main concern is that if I were to boot from a flash drive I would like to avoid messing up any of my existing data or settings.

I have contacted MSI describing this issue and they said to mail them back the motherboard since they think it's a hardware problem, but it just doesn't seem like that is what happened and that this is probably a driver conflict issue. Again, I'm no expert, but could an update like that ever damage the hardware functioning of the MB? I certainly wouldn't think so.

Thanks for any assistance the community can provide on this issue, and apologies for the very long message.

Secondary issue / appeal for advice to satisfy my curiosity regarding the origin of this problem:

I'm also seeking advice in regards to whether people think this sounds like a hardware problem. As I said, I'm no expert, but it would be a huge coincidence that immediately after the USB 3 driver change and switch to MSI Live Update 6. In fact, I even suspected this would happen after enacting updates that were so far delayed for some reason. I had long suspected that something was wrong with my system preventing Live Update from scanning properly. It seems that whatever windows update changed allowed that program to finally run properly, and so lots of really old updates that should have been happening over a long period of time were recommended all at once. It also occurs to me that instead of selecting one item at a time to try to be safe in installing the recommended updates may have been a mistake, as perhaps one update would have affected the other (like if there was a USB general update, and a USB 3 update, perhaps I installed the USB update before installing another update it relied upon to run properly. I hope that makes sense. I guess what I mean is that if there is an update from 2014 that the system is presuming you have installed, then you try to install only an update from 2016 it could confuse the system to the extent that I'm experiencing now).

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