GOS' laptop on the fritz...

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GOS

2K Club - QQ Super Nova
QQ Supporter
Joined
Apr 23, 2013
Messages
21,367
Location
Central Illinois
The heart and soul of my audio/video domain is out of commission. I have a 5 year old HP Envy laptop, which is the heart of my audio experience and it has been misbehaving for over a year now. Long story short, I could not do any updates as it would simply lock up/crash, whatever you'd like to call it. I was able to get around it in the last half year by simply disabling all updates. Regardless of that, in the last 4 days, windows 10 latest updates have disregarded that and go ahead and download. On top of that, it goes ahead and shuts down (even though I have it set to not do so), which triggers installation. so, it goes for 2 hours making me thing all if fine and at the very end of it all...it says "unable to install updates, uninstalling now" Then it takes another hour to uninstall.....only to try installing all over again.....round and round we go.

I'd had enough. so, I either have to buy a new laptop, or try to erase the slate and start over. I'm erasing the slate. Either way, I lose all my programs I've acquired that help me with my audio habits......I'll have to download them again....and then go through the hassle of remembering all the settings that made it all play nicely together in the first place.

UGH!
 
OK, how odd. While I was typing all this, my laptop finished resetting ( I thought). Only it said "There were troubles with the reset, nothing was changed"

Seriously? I can't even erase the damn thing and start over? What could be stopping it from doing this? Geez...
 
That's a drag...but I can sympathize. I have a 7-year-old Lenovo (with a one-year-old solid state drive) that had the very same problems with Windows updates. I finally backed up all my data (and as many program settings, libraries, and installer files as I could), wiped the drive clean, and did a clean install of Windows 10 (Build 1709, the latest Creators update) from a bootable USB drive. Took two days, altogether, but it's working so far. May the force be with you...

OK, how odd. While I was typing all this, my laptop finished resetting ( I thought). Only it said "There were troubles with the reset, nothing was changed"

Seriously? I can't even erase the damn thing and start over? What could be stopping it from doing this? Geez...
 
That's a drag...but I can sympathize. I have a 7-year-old Lenovo (with a one-year-old solid state drive) that had the very same problems with Windows updates. I finally backed up all my data (and as many program settings, libraries, and installer files as I could), wiped the drive clean, and did a clean install of Windows 10 (Build 1709, the latest Creators update) from a bootable USB drive. Took two days, altogether, but it's working so far. May the force be with you...

I'm pretty computer stupid honestly. so, if you do a wipe clean, then you have a shell and can't do anything? So, you first need to download build 1709 onto a USB drive?
Not sure what a bootable USB drive is...or maybe they are all bootable......

I will quickly get beyond my knowledge base here I'm sure...
 
maybe a "system restore" can take you back in time to before your troubles started.

Also, Win 10 has a lot of built in "reset" and "repair" features that Win 7 doesn't have.

One of those options will repair your system to before problems, no need to do a format and clean install, because then you lose everything, all programs and settings.
 
try repair, I think it's like an automated way of un-installing updates.

I think in win 7 you could rollback updates (uninstall them) and this still exists in win 10, it's just called something else and is more automated.

pretty sure there is a "backup" system image on a separate partition on your hard drive so worst comes to worst you simply reset using that backup and it installs all the programs that came originally with the hp

The reset, repair features in Win 10 are one of the few things I actually like and have found they work pretty well
 
Yeah--there won't be anything left on your hard drive after you wipe it (which will get rid of the hidden .dll files and other registry settings that are probably causing your update to fail and go into that vicious repeat cycle), so you'll need to boot from the same USB drive onto which you will have loaded the Windows installation files. Here are some links that may help:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/15088/windows-create-installation-media
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

I'm pretty computer stupid honestly. so, if you do a wipe clean, then you have a shell and can't do anything? So, you first need to download build 1709 onto a USB drive?
Not sure what a bootable USB drive is...or maybe they are all bootable......

I will quickly get beyond my knowledge base here I'm sure...
 
I don't know a whole lot about computers, but a while back I had some problems and tried these and they fixed it, including windows update problems and it's really simple to try.

Press your windows button, type 'cmd' then right click on the command prompt and select 'run as administrator' then enter 'sfc /scannow'. Make sure there's a space between sfc and the slash. This runs a system file checker. After that, run this prompt the same way 'Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth' which is Deployment Image Servicing and Management. I believe it compares your windows to the way it should be and fixes it. Always leave a space before each forward slash.

It takes a little while, but not too long. I had to run both about three times before I came back completely clean and fully working. It's recommended to do a restart after running both also. I also have an HP Envy. Good luck buddy. :)
 
I like the way you think--but the maddening thing is that there's just no way to permanently disable Windows Updates in Windows 10, and Microsoft is sunsetting support for builds 1511 and earlier. Windows Update just doesn't play nicely with a handful of makes & models under Windows 10. (Microsoft Level 2 support spent half a day last summer trying to fix my machine via phone and Remote Desktop and finally threw up their hands!) If there's a way for you to revert to Windows 7, though, then that would be another way out.

try repair, I think it's like an automated way of un-installing updates.

I think in win 7 you could rollback updates (uninstall them) and this still exists in win 10, it's just called something else and is more automated.

pretty sure there is a "backup" system image on a separate partition on your hard drive so worst comes to worst you simply reset using that backup and it installs all the programs that came originally with the hp

The reset, repair features in Win 10 are one of the few things I actually like and have found they work pretty well
 
I like the way you think--but the maddening thing is that there's just no way to permanently disable Windows Updates in Windows 10

At least not without taking it off line. Avid always highly recommended that once a ProTools build was stable that you remove or disable the network card. In some situations, this really is best practice.
 
I have been using a Chromebook as my main computer for the last five years and reading threads like this always reminds me of how much I miss Windows.:yikes
 
First off, if the computer will stay operational, install a backup program, or run Windows Backup and back the thing up to a USB Drive. I use Acronis. (If you search you can find a discount code, especially this time of year)
Acronis will actually clone your HD to another HD, but if you have issues, you do not want to do this.

If you can't, I would suggest purchasing an SSD that you can afford to install in the laptop. This way you still have your original HD with all of the data on it, and you benefit from having an SSD in the laptop which will greatly improve performance.

THEN - Download a program called ProduKey http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/product_cd_key_viewer.html
This will give you the proper license strings for most of your installed software, and most importantly your Windows string.

THEN - Download the Microsoft Media Creation Tool. Get a clean USB Stick of 8Gb or bigger and use the tool to create a bootable Windows 10 install source.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you bought an SSD, remove the old HD and install the new SSD.

Once you are ready, reboot your HP Latop and press the ESC key while it's booting which should give you boot options. Select 'Boot from USB' and boot the PC.

If you know how to do it, delete all partitions on the existing hard drive and recreate a new one. Let Windows do what it wants here. If you put in a new SSD, then Windows will deal with it on its own. I would suggest NOT letting Windows repair your installation. This is hit or miss and you'll never be sure you got rid of whatever is causing the issue or not. It's best to bite the bullet and start clean.

Install Windows. Once it's installed, use the Key you found using ProduKey to activate it. You should have a clean version of windows. Let it do ALL OF THE UPDATES it wants until it's done. Then install your other programs and restore data from your backup or old drive.

It's a pain, but your PC will run much better, and faster if you installed an SSD.

NOTE: If you have a hardware issue, none of the above will help. You will need a new laptop.
 
Wow, thanks for all those details Jon. It's amazing to me, that upon looking at tons of forums, etc....that I simply cannot find detailed information like you just gave me. Simply astonishing actually. I was actually trying to reset my PC again and I'm pretty sure it will crash. I have tried so many "tips" and they have all failed in the end.

In the meantime, I was already looking on the web at new laptops. Ugh....
I wasn't really wanting to spend $700-1000 right now - but I'm pretty sure that if I buy new, I will want a hybrid with both standard hard drive and SSD. Notice I said, I think. :)
 
Wow, thanks for all those details Jon. It's amazing to me, that upon looking at tons of forums, etc....that I simply cannot find detailed information like you just gave me. Simply astonishing actually. I was actually trying to reset my PC again and I'm pretty sure it will crash. I have tried so many "tips" and they have all failed in the end.

In the meantime, I was already looking on the web at new laptops. Ugh....
I wasn't really wanting to spend $700-1000 right now - but I'm pretty sure that if I buy new, I will want a hybrid with both standard hard drive and SSD. Notice I said, I think. :)

After building many high performance gaming systems over the years, my last 2 incorporated SSD drives for the OS only. The prices today are much better for doing this in your laptop, but you still might have to replace your current drive due to it probably takes up the whole bay. I utilize a back up USB drive for family photos and other personal files I can't afford lose. As a builder the hardware is simple the software will give you an ulcer, after hours of work.
 
I have an SSD for Windows and all Programs. The SSDs are really fast and so the machine boots runs the Norton Scan really quickly, seconds from Power up to useable. But SSDs, which are huge FLASH devices, will fail with repeated writes to a location, but in the last few years they have improved, which is why I use it for the OS & Programs (which reminds me I haven't made a USB bootable back-up FLASH Drive yet!). I would go for a Samsung or Intel SSD, and its a cheap option to improve your machine. My main PC is a Desktop so I have a Hard Drive for Data, plus the NAS RAID Drive, where all the data is backed up.

Wow, thanks for all those details Jon. It's amazing to me, that upon looking at tons of forums, etc....that I simply cannot find detailed information like you just gave me. Simply astonishing actually. I was actually trying to reset my PC again and I'm pretty sure it will crash. I have tried so many "tips" and they have all failed in the end.

In the meantime, I was already looking on the web at new laptops. Ugh....
I wasn't really wanting to spend $700-1000 right now - but I'm pretty sure that if I buy new, I will want a hybrid with both standard hard drive and SSD. Notice I said, I think. :)
 
After building many high performance gaming systems over the years, my last 2 incorporated SSD drives for the OS only. The prices today are much better for doing this in your laptop, but you still might have to replace your current drive due to it probably takes up the whole bay. I utilize a back up USB drive for family photos and other personal files I can't afford lose. As a builder the hardware is simple the software will give you an ulcer, after hours of work.

Some HP's have 2 drive bays. Making the C: drive an SSD and the D: drive a big old regular drive is the best bet, as HDave has pointed out. If you only have one drive bay, a 256Gb HD is OK if you're not going to stuff a lot on it. If you're going to fill it with music, then going with a 1Tb SSD is cool, or there are hybrids like this:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...7&cm_re=hybrid_ssd-_-9SIA6AH33A2187-_-Product

You put Windows on the SSD and all of your other stuff on the 1Tb. You can redirect 'My Documents' and all of that stuff to D: fairly easily.

NOTE: I have never used one of these hybrid deals, so I am NOT speaking from authority about them. I've just seen them advertised around.
 
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