Windows 8 has destroyed itself

G-MAN2004

G-MAN2004

G-MAN2004

Caporegime
Joined
4 Jul 2004
Posts
30,779
I was playing a game on Steam earlier and decided to go and eat. Closed the game and left my laptop for an hour only to come back and find out it had restarted, broken Windows Defender and was showing multiple video errors. I couldn't find a way of turning Defender back on and there didn't seem to be any solutions for that error code, so I did a refresh...

And now...

Utterly ruined. My laptop is now slower than something from the 90s, and everything I try to open causes it to crash. However, I did manage to finally get task manager up and there is something using 100% of my disk called 'Windows Module Installer Worker'. It won't let me end the process though as it just starts back up instantly and crashes everything.

Finally managed to get through to settings and try another refresh, but it's been stuck on 99% for over an hour (the previous refresh took about 10 minutes).

Getting very impatient now and coming close to throwing it at the wall. What on earth is going on?
 
According to google apparently its caused by a windows update failure and the only work around if your affected by it is some complicated messing around with disabling various processes and other tweaks.
 
Do you know a refresh wipes out all the drivers? haven't a clue what happens with an OEM computer.

But, Rroff... a refresh takes it back to like the point of a clean install. So what became borked should be cleaned out.
 
I'm assuming (could be wrong) its installing the latest updates at the end of the refresh (thought that was default bahavior but could be wrong).
 
Yeah, driver issue is fine. Never had this problem before when I've refreshed.

Another weird thing is that a refresh deletes all programs, which it has, but I don't have any extra HDD space from it. In fact, I have less than when I started, despite plenty of games, Photoshop, etc. being removed. :confused:
 
Yeah, default is to install automatically. As good as refresh is, I've used it only once but I don't like to use it unless it's an absolute must as it also wipes out the activation file triggering another internet activation slot.

I think, you'll have a Windows.old folder. Plus if I remember correctly it leaves a html on the desktop from all your programs thats been removed. Or really whatever was installed at that time.
 
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I had something similiar happening to me on my laptop, caused by a failed update (the infamous KB2756872...). Once I managed to get the update to install, Windows 8 was missing a lot of things. Refresh didn't work so I gave up and did a complete fresh install. Luckily I had a Win 7 partition so I didn't lose anything valuable... But honestly, I don't feel as comfortable doing Win 8 updates compared to previous Windows...
 
After many, many hours of waiting for a refresh, it's finally working! :confused: No idea what the problem was, or the updates it installed, but it seems to be back to normal now. How odd.

Now for the arduous work of reinstalling all of my programs and drivers...

Thanks.
 
Odd indeed. Are you on an SSD or mechanical? I remember a refresh taking less than 3 - 5 minutes can't remember exactly but it wasn't hours.
 
Pretty sure its nothing to do with his HDD definitely sounds like a known issue with one of the windows updates.
 
Yeah, but which one?! If it's the one from a few weeks ago then it's already been dealt with. If it's a new one, we need to know.
 
theheyes said:
Yeah, but which one?! If it's the one from a few weeks ago then it's already been dealt with. If it's a new one, we need to know.
Click to expand...

I don't even know what caused my laptop to crash and disable Windows Defender in the first place, never mind updates. :p

After I refreshed, it installed over 50 updates so I haven't a clue if one of them made it slow or not.
 
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