Windows 10 1709 update gone bad...

slipd · 9 Feb 2018 at 08:11

Hi guys,

As above. An elderly friend asked me to have a remote (Teamviewer) look at his system yesterday to fix a Skype issue (webcam was playing up!) and during the Skype call afterwards I noticed that there was a lot of lag. Upon investigation it seemed to be the ongoing downloading of the 1709 update, he was at about 95%. Rural, 1MB DSL connection...

Anyway, I advised him to leave the system on overnight to finish the update but by the sounds of it this morning, he was greeted by an MS critical error - I think the update has failed possibly after restarting? He reported not having any cursor control.

Any ideas or easy fixes? Or is he going to have to get the firm in :rolleyes:

Thanks.

Rroff · 9 Feb 2018 at 08:22

No easy fix - Windows 10 will keep trying to reapply the faulty update if it detects a problem - if you get some kind of control you can try and run the update troubleshooter wizard from the control panel.

Otherwise it means messing about trying to get into recovery options (which for some daft reason they've removed the old safe mode style ability to just hit F8 on booting) to roll back and/or manually reapply the update.

LOTs of complaints on the Windows 10 discussion about this - 1709 has broken a lot of stuff for a lot of people - but MS just putting their hands over their ears by the looks of it.

EDIT: Can he log in at all? on one of my tablets I had no cursor control and grey or black screens after logging in but I could get task manager up with alt+ctrl+delete and then restart holding down shift and troubleshoot via recovery.

slipd · 9 Feb 2018 at 08:51

Thanks Rroff! I suspected as much, having read around... from what I gather, the same critical screen he was greeted with this AM is the same one that one that he ends up with even after a forced shutdown, restart etc.

From my perspective it's probably easiest for him to get a local support outfit in I would have thought?

slipd · 9 Feb 2018 at 09:56

Have just spoken to him again, apparently the error is "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation."

This link says something about restarting three times bringing up a recovery menu? Main thing I'm worried about at the minute is him losing all his stuff

AthlonXP1800 · 9 Feb 2018 at 20:14

slipd said:
Have just spoken to him again, apparently the error is "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation."

This link says something about restarting three times bringing up a recovery menu? Main thing I'm worried about at the minute is him losing all his stuff

Windows 10 1709 update went perfect on my desktop through Windows Update but failed on my Dell Laptop with same error "Windows could not complete the installation. To install windows on this computer, restart the installation." through Windows Update twice and Update Assistant once then I had enough as Microsoft never got issue fixed through both method so I used Media Creation Tool to download iso to installed 1709 update and everything went perfect. Windows 1709 update also failed on my Compute Stick, Linx 10 tablet and my dad laptop through both Windows Update and Update Assistant so install update from Media Creation Tool is always worked everytime if both Windows Update and Update Assistant failed.

Media Creation Tool is an easy fix.

No worry, your friend wont lose all the stuff when update again from iso created by Media Creation Tool.

slipd · 9 Feb 2018 at 21:46

Thanks AthlonXP1800! May I ask how you got out of the unresponsive loop to be able to use the Media Creation Tool?

AthlonXP1800 · 10 Feb 2018 at 02:14

slipd said:
Thanks AthlonXP1800! May I ask how you got out of the unresponsive loop to be able to use the Media Creation Tool?

My laptop was actually in responsive loop, restarted and went straight to lockscreen without went through Windows installation and logged in then I was greeted with error message, I clicked OK, opened Edge and downloaded Media Creation Tool created iso, mounted it and ran the setup to install Windows 10 1709 from desktop. Restarted PC and it finally went through Windows installation.

It seemed many people probably get same message in many different ways.

Did your friend get the error message at Windows 10 bootscreen, Windows installation, OOBE when you tick and filled details after Windows installation completed 100%, Windows lockscreen or on Windows desktop?

If your friend stuck at Windows 10 bootscreen in unresponsive loops then he should press and hold power button until laptop powered off, he will need to repeat it a few times probably up to 5 times until it power on kick Windows 10 into Recovery Menu and try to boot windows normal or choose startup repair or boot into safe mode. If he still cant boot Windows normal to reach desktop then you will need to download Media Creation Tool on your desktop create a Windows 10 1709 bootable USB that he will able to boot USB from UEFI to install Windows.

slipd · 10 Feb 2018 at 15:40

Thanks! I'm getting the machine couriered down here for Monday, so will be able to let you know. A few discussions listing this problem mention that if you're unresponsive and keep powering off that eventually you'll get into recovery... I just didn't want him to lose anything.

Bloody updates.

Matt_Hirst · 10 Feb 2018 at 18:58

Not sure if it 1709 update on mine, all I know is it wanted to apply an update now it's booting to black screen, can't get it to a position where can roll back - do not happy at moment.

Matt

Rroff · 10 Feb 2018 at 19:00

slipd said:
Thanks! I'm getting the machine couriered down here for Monday, so will be able to let you know. A few discussions listing this problem mention that if you're unresponsive and keep powering off that eventually you'll get into recovery... I just didn't want him to lose anything.

Bloody updates.

Best thing to do is create a bootable USB disc with the Media Creation Tool so as to be able to run a repair from that :s

Just another witless thing they seem to have done is made getting into any kind of safe or recovery mode a mess with Windows 10 - if it doesn't automatically detect a problem or you can get far enough to select restart while holding down shift you will struggle to take manual control without using a bootable USB repair/installation tool.

Matt_Hirst · 10 Feb 2018 at 19:03

Got to advanced options but don't have a restore point to restore back to.

Anyone got any ideas to fix this?

Matt

ViRuS2k · 10 Feb 2018 at 23:40

there is a fix to this boot loop issue, it happened to me today when i upgraded to the latest insider.
the work around if you want to keep your data is simple though... unfortunately i didnt at the time so had to reinstall everything.

if your in a os and your windows 10 is bootlooping due to upgrading make sure you make a windows 10 recovery usb drive with the media windows 10 creation tool
then all you do is boot that usb on startup and then select next then repair then go to trouble shooting then select startup fix or rollback if none of those work then you select continue with windows 10 boot and windows 10 will not boot loop anymore just make sure your windows 10 disk is first in the boot menu of your bios and select the usb drive with the quick boot menu

and if you dont want to run into this issue again do not shut down your computer with the shutdown option within windows and use the restart option instead and once the os restarts and you see the bios screen press the power button to turn your computer off then when you start it back up it will boot normally

for some reason there is a bug in the latest insider build that breaks bootsector or mbr when in combination with shutdown...

its how i fixed it ....

Matt_Hirst · 11 Feb 2018 at 09:36

Thanks for this, I removed all apps, applied further updates and all seems happy so far.

Just got to reinstall now.

Matt

Phil87 · 12 Feb 2018 at 15:24

The update went ok for me, but I decided to do a fresh install which took 11 minutes. That's probably going to be the easiest and quickest way to fix problems like this.

slipd · 12 Feb 2018 at 17:55

Ha, it never rains but it pours... my mates just bought his laptop over and it's stuck in an endless restarting loop! You see the MS flag and swirling dots but then it just restarts, starts doing it again :rolleyes:

My 2016 Windows 10 DVD doesn't want to know. Any ideas?

AthlonXP1800 · 13 Feb 2018 at 09:14

slipd said:
Ha, it never rains but it pours... my mates just bought his laptop over and it's stuck in an endless restarting loop! You see the MS flag and swirling dots but then it just restarts, starts doing it again

My 2016 Windows 10 DVD doesn't want to know. Any ideas?

What is your mates laptop brand and model?

slipd · 13 Feb 2018 at 22:44

AthlonXP1800 said:
What is your mates laptop brand and model?

Its a Samsung, about 3 months old? Not sure on the model, will have a proper look tomorrow

Scougar · 14 Feb 2018 at 03:10

Been through this nightmare as well. as above.. bloody updates!!! (I am now finally sick of this auto update crap)

Mine simply refused to update no matter what I did (system recovery options, specialist instructions from command line etc etc, reg hacks). Nothing would work.

Finally caved and used the media creation tool route, only to discover that it wouldn't work as an upgrade. Then discovered I couldn't install on my machine because it was not a GPT partition and the bios was in MBR mode (Legacy vs UEFI)... but I couldn't get my bios to JUST run legacy, only UEFI+Legacy, which woudln't work with the windows install tool. So had to use the MBRGPT2.exe (or something) from the command line tool from the USB media creation tool i was running (Windows PE or something), and ran the commands for that to convert my partition to GPT without losing any data on the drive. FINALLY able to clean reinstall, but unfortunately lost all my installed apps . UGH!

That means all the steam/origin is buggered as well

Windows 10 whilst I like it in some ways has been a total PITA for updates and nagging. Windows 8 was actually very good in the end, then they went the 'lets screw everyone up'.

Not only that... the CONSTANT updates when my wife is infrequently using her laptop. It is a 6GB laptop i3, and it runs dog slow thanks to win10 now, even though it came with it. It is just nuts.

AthlonXP1800 · 14 Feb 2018 at 09:21

Scougar said:
Been through this nightmare as well. as above.. bloody updates!!! (I am now finally sick of this auto update crap)

Mine simply refused to update no matter what I did (system recovery options, specialist instructions from command line etc etc, reg hacks). Nothing would work.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/08/26/windows-10-how-to-stop-forced-updates/2/

Had you tried above link workaround to stop auto update?

Scougar said:
Finally caved and used the media creation tool route, only to discover that it wouldn't work as an upgrade. Then discovered I couldn't install on my machine because it was not a GPT partition and the bios was in MBR mode (Legacy vs UEFI)... but I couldn't get my bios to JUST run legacy, only UEFI+Legacy, which woudln't work with the windows install tool. So had to use the MBRGPT2.exe (or something) from the command line tool from the USB media creation tool i was running (Windows PE or something), and ran the commands for that to convert my partition to GPT without losing any data on the drive. FINALLY able to clean reinstall, but unfortunately lost all my installed apps . UGH!

You probably made a stupid mistake selected to keep personal files only that Windows 10 will deleted windows settings and apps.

You should selected keep personal files and apps that Windows 10 will not deleted windows settings and apps.

Windows 10 Media Creation Tool setup was not much different compared to Windows 8 years ago you probably reinstalled Windows 8 a few times like I did when Windows Update messed up or corrupted that cannot be repaired.

Scougar said:
That means all the steam/origin is buggered as well

You can reinstall Steam and Origin then point to games folders and then both Steam and Origin will scan and validate files without redownload games over again.

Scougar said:
Windows 10 whilst I like it in some ways has been a total PITA for updates and nagging. Windows 8 was actually very good in the end, then they went the 'lets screw everyone up'.

Windows 10 was actually very good in the end.

Scougar said:
Not only that... the CONSTANT updates when my wife is infrequently using her laptop. It is a 6GB laptop i3, and it runs dog slow thanks to win10 now, even though it came with it. It is just nuts.

Something not right with your wife laptop, it should be much faster, possible it could be caused by bloatware that slowed it down. I have both Linx 10 tablet and compute stick used Bay Trail Atom CPU Z3735F and 2GB RAM, it blazed fast thank to Windows 10.

Rroff · 14 Feb 2018 at 09:28

AthlonXP1800 said:
Something not right with your wife laptop, it should be much faster, possible it could be caused by bloatware that slowed it down. I have both Linx 10 tablet and compute stick used Bay Trail Atom CPU Z3735F and 2GB RAM, it blazed fast thank to Windows 10.

Is that with updates enabled? if you infrequently or even semi frequently use a device Windows 10 will kick into preparing and then downloading latest updates when you boot up/resume the device and use high amounts of CPU and disc IO for the first 30-40 minutes its ridiculous and definitely has a high impact on Atom and mobile i3 devices.

On my tablets Windows 8 is much faster booting on average as it consistently boots to a working desktop in like 3 seconds while Windows 10 is highly inconsistent it might be very fast one boot and drag its feet the next it also has too much going on in the background - low level performance is much more snappy with my Z3740 tablet than my newer Atom Z8750s

thanks to Windows 10.