16.04 update/dist-upgrade

[Grizzly]

Hi All

After having hugep[1] problems following an attempt to get my old stable 16.04 
system to hwe, I made a complete (Duel boot with Win7) fresh install from a 
16.04.3 USB, the tried to run 

~$ sudo update -y && sudo dist-upgrade

all went smoothly, but once I re-booted I was back to the previous unuseable 
situation [1]

so I had to do a fresh install again (just Ubuntu side this time) again from my 
16.04.3 media, I decided that untill I had more info I would not 
update / dist-upgrade, thinking that I may be at end of road, if cant 
update/dist-upgrade?

meanwhile I downloaded the later 16.04.4 iso to test "if" "live usb" would run 
on same netbook, it did

Back on installed sys I tested with

~$ sudo lsb_release -a && sudo uname -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Release:	16.04
Codename:	xenial
Linux Dawn 4.10.0-28-generic #32~16.04.2-Ubuntu SMP Thu Jul 20 10:19:13 UTC 
2017 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

all was much as I expected, so I then made same test from live usb

ubuntu at ubuntu:~$ sudo lsb_release -a && uname -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
Release:	16.04
Codename:	xenial
Linux ubuntu 4.13.0-36-generic #40~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Feb 16 23:26:51 UTC 
2018 i686 i686 i686 GNU/Linux

now I am was confused by the result from "uame -a" (16.04.1 ?)

Any pointers on why & how to move forward with a working system, or what to do 
to get data that "may" help find a work-around


[1] black screen with what looks like wriggling maggots, nothing appears to 
work, Advanced, Repair pre fallback options did not help