Windows 10 made a brick out of my laptop

[jim hardy]

Well Rufus has been formatting that USB stick for 24 hours now and reports 77% .

It is discouraging fiddling with pc's hardly anything works as described

 

[fluidistic]

Well Rufus has been formatting that USB stick for 24 hours now and reports 77% .

It is discouraging fiddling with pc's hardly anything works as described

If it takes more than a few minutes, something is very wrong. Hmm I don't see why it would need to format the USB stick.
Did you follow these steps? http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows ?
Anyway, it would be better if you started a new thread in case you're having problems putting the ISO onto the USB stick. You'd get better help.

 

[jim hardy]

Did you follow these steps? http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows ?

I thought i had. Downloaded and ran Rufus
it said "Scan the USB (forget exact noun)

so i scanned it and it reported zero errors
then i clicked 'make a bootable disk' because that's what i though was the objective and it's been formatting ever since, at 81% doing 2% per hour.
About 27 hours so far. First few % went quickly.

will start new thread later today.

 

[Bystander]

I have been "assimilated."

... and to top it all off? It appears to have given the damned thing narcolepsy ... it goes to sleep in the middle of anything requiring more than a couple minutes typing.

 

[ebos]

Check out https://distrowatch.com/. There are a ton of Linux distributions that do not require that much space. Observe that Linux Mint is on the top of the "popular" list.

OK, you're trying to put an Ubuntu on a USB stick so you need Rufus or the like. I don't know why this is because when you DL the CD/DVD version it's easy as pie. I did the Rufus thing once as well and had trouble. I got my 23 year old son to show me (when did he get better than me?) and the next time I loaded Ubuntu to a USB it worked OK. I can't remember what I screwed up the first time but it is very unforgiving if you don't do it perfectly the first time. You'll need to reformat the USB if you screwed Rufus up and need to do it again. Don't know if that will help but it is more complicated with a USB boot.

 

[jim hardy]

@Svein ,@jim mcnamara , @ anybody who's done it ---

so if i go to Linux Mint
can i put all my saved pdf's and pictures on a USB stick and reload them ? Will Mint recognize them ?
Is there a "Paint" clone for Cinnamon ?
I see there's a Firefox for Linux

It'll be a lot of work i have tons of Fukushima stuff
I would buy a new hard drive for Linux if it can read files on the other two in this machine rather than wipe them.
??

old jim

 

[Svein]

so if i go to Linux Mint
can i put all my saved pdf's and pictures on a USB stick and reload them ? Will Mint recognize them ?

I am fairly sure that you can mount a USB stick in Mint. I am also sure that Acrobat (.pdf) readers exist in the Linux world.

It'll be a lot of work i have tons of Fukushima stuff
I would buy a new hard drive for Linux if it can read files on the other two in this machine rather than wipe them.

It should be possible, see https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/ntfs-config.

 

[Bystander]

5/21/18/: Just got a notification of an "update" that may require "extra" time to download and install; I chose "remind me later." Heads up.

 

[jim hardy]

Time to try stuffing a Raspberry Pi into a junkshop Imac G4 for that retro look.
R2D2 anyone?

old jim

 

[Bystander]

"extra"

Hour and thirty for a four year old Toshiba C55-A.

 

[CWatters]

Caution: there are reports that the April 18 update of win 10 can cause issues if you are running Avast antiviris. Think the solution is to uninstall Avast, do the update and reinstall.

 

[jim hardy]

i took mine to the shop and told them "I cannot abide another minute of Windows 10 , put it back to 7."
Very glad i did.

 

[OCR]

Caution: there are reports that the April 18 update of win 10 can cause issues if you are running Avast antiviris.

I use Avast...

The issue involved a registry REG_-DWORD key that Avast had to set... it was.

I had zero problems with the update...

.

 

[nikkkom]

Way back fluidistic said:

It looks like Extensible Firmware Interface is located on the hard drive and takes up where BIOS firmware leaves off between the firmware (BIOS) and OS (Windows, Mac, Lunix, Solstice, etc) and if this is so any OS that has a tendency to overwrite the directory that contains the EFI could 'brick' a laptop.

EFI/UEFI is an abomination. Everything I read about its design is awful. I wonder how on Earth supposedly experienced software developers could design a replacement for old crufty 16-bit BIOS *this* poorly.

I always enable "old BIOS compatibility" mode first thing when I buy a new machine, and disable all "secure boot", "trusted computing" options etc.

 

[CWatters]

Anyone else having issues with notifications after the update? Mine now has a permanent "2" (telling me there are 2 new notifications) when there aren't any.

Clicking on "Don't show number of new notifications" has no effect.

 

[Bystander]

permanent "2"

Not so far, knock on wood.

 

[sysprog]

i took mine to the shop and told them "I cannot abide another minute of Windows 10 , put it back to 7."
Very glad i did.

Next you can go to:

Start > Search box > compmgmt.msc > Services and Applications > Services > Windows Update > Properties > Disabled > Apply

You'll stop getting auto-updates. It won't detect them, download them, or nag you to install them. If there's an update you actually want, you can change the setting to manual, start the service, install the update, and then set it back to disable (which also stops the service).

 

[rootone]

My latest update refuses to accept that I prefer Firefox as my default browser.

 

[CWatters]

Just noticed that I don't (always?) have to enter a password when the screen saver cuts in. Previous if I left my PC for a few mins I had to re-enter my password.

 

[sysprog]

Just noticed that I don't (always?) have to enter a password when the screen saver cuts in. Previous if I left my PC for a few mins I had to re-enter my password.

If you want that behavior, you can check the box (this illustration is as in Win 7):

I'd rather use XP in Korean (I love the Korean people, but I don't know
their language) than use Win 10:

The Win 10 screen saver interface is still similar:

If you encounter any difficulty, please feel free to contact me.

 

[Nik_2213]

Not quite as dire, but my 'its only ever had Win'10' PC is now up to seventy-something failed attempts to install an 'essential' update. Every day, it does a couple of re-starts, works up to 100 %, then announces it couldn't complete the installation and will remove the failed update. This requires several more restarts...

From time to time, the final restart hangs mid-boot. I leave such for half-an-hour, then thumb the reset switch. Windows pops up like a happy puppy that's just done a whoopsie mid-floor...

When my previous PC glitched and 'bombed' my user account, Windows blocked access to my files. I recovered them using a USB-IDE interface. Now I only keep the OS and a few essential programs on the C: Drive. My 'all users' files are on E:, backed up on F: and an external RAID box...

 

[sysprog]

Not quite as dire, but my 'its only ever had Win'10' PC is now up to seventy-something failed attempts to install an 'essential' update. Every day, it does a couple of re-starts, works up to 100 %, then announces it couldn't complete the installation and will remove the failed update. This requires several more restarts...

From time to time, the final restart hangs mid-boot. I leave such for half-an-hour, then thumb the reset switch. Windows pops up like a happy puppy that's just done a whoopsie mid-floor...

When my previous PC glitched and 'bombed' my user account, Windows blocked access to my files. I recovered them using a USB-IDE interface. Now I only keep the OS and a few essential programs on the C: Drive. My 'all users' files are on E:, backed up on F: and an external RAID box...

I think your recoverability strategy is sensible. Win 7 is overly security-enforcementarian against the real owner of the machine. In my opinion, if you are are logged in with an administrator account, the OS should do no more than warn and await confirmation if it determines that you're maybe about to hose yourself. It's your machine, and you should never get "access denied" or "not authorized" on it, if you're signed in as the owner or agent thereof. Win 10 over-mediates even more, and although in some situations it isn't as emphatic about its policiness, it still behaves unacceptably arrogantly and condescendingly.

 

[I-Love-Maths2]

Why do you people have so much trouble with Windows 10?
I definitely think it is better than both Win8 and 7
Only problems I have ever had are with the insider builds, and even that's very infrequent

 

[russ_watters]

Why do you people have so much trouble with Windows 10?

Well to answer the question in the way you worded it, but probably not the way you intended it:

I believe it is primarily due to the fact that the purpose of the software now acts against the interests of the users. MS has always had monopoly power that enabled them to essentially force customers to use their software regardless of quality(making MS agnostic at best), but now that the software is free and the users are no longer the customers, the detachment between product and customer has become a reversal.

Many if not most of the new functional (not cosmetic/interface) features have been added for reasons contrary to the interests of the users. E.G., the goal - the business model - is to use the OS to market to them and collect data from them.

I'll find the link/documentation of it when I get home, but I found out how to disable one annoying "feature" of this disconnect: MS's ability/desire to install and run software (shareware) you don't want, without asking you. You can disable that by adding a registry key.

 

[sysprog]

Why do you people have so much trouble with Windows 10?
I definitely think it is better than both Win8 and 7
Only problems I have ever had are with the insider builds, and even that's very infrequent

In the context of this thread, the question seems naively dismissive, and rather brusquely so.

Some recent updates to Win 10 have been troublesome, not only to people posting in this thread, but to many other persons. Some of the difficulties are attributable to the MS-Intel connection, by which MS is trying to update Win 10 to address recently discovered Intel predictive execution based integrity exposures and related hardware issues. The problems associated with that are exacerbated by MS not making its updates sufficiently transparent, granular, or optional. They are not adequately isolable, either, in that there is no acceptably reliable and simple path by which to regress an update that does not complete correctly, or that produces undesired results.

Thus, at least recently, MS Win 10 updates are, at best, woefully poorly packaged, and the policy of automatically seeking, downloading and applying them, is unacceptably risky to the reliability of systems that depend on the affected platforms.

 

[russ_watters]

Thus, at least recently, MS Win 10 updates are, at best, woefully poorly packaged, and the policy of automatically seeking, downloading and applying them, is unacceptably risky to the reliability of systems that depend on the affected platforms.

I've wondered how businesses are handling this (are you an IT professional?). The idea that a software company would say to a business owner "with our new software we will deliver both updates and new 3rd party programs to you without asking" is just...No!

 

[sysprog]

I've wondered how businesses are handling this (are you an IT professional?).

Most of the businesses or agencies I encounter in my professional work employ some method of stabilizing updates to workstation software, including Windows (I'm a mainframe systems programmer (and systems engineer) -- that's kind of an umbrella occupation designation, in many cases, including mine.) On my own machines, some of which have Win 7 and/or Win 10 as an optional OS, I keep Windows Update disabled (Start > Search box > compmgmt.msc > Services and Applications > Services > Windows Update > Properties > Disabled > Apply). On Win 10, I also disable Update Orchestrator Service, and anything else that can without specific approval access any external network.

The idea that a software company would say to a business owner "with our new software we will deliver both updates and new 3rd party programs to you without asking" is just...No!

I fully agree with this. On IBM mainframes, in general, no vendor-generated system modifications are allowed except by explicit action of appropriately authorized personnel. Reference: SMP/E (we sysprogs tend to deplore some SMP/E idiosyncrasies; however, appreciation of the orderliness of the associated systems maintenance methodologies, compared to the disarray and instability of many other systems maintenance methodologies, is pretty much unanimous among us).

 

[Chris Riccard]

I had a problem of win 10 shutting down after hours of being on after setting the CPU throttle to 100 percent that stopped, also I installed Linux and had use legacy bios because Linux wouldn't recognize my mouse under efi, after installing win 10 a second time now windows doesn't recognize the efi mouse?

 

[sysprog]

I had a problem of win 10 shutting down after hours of being on after setting the CPU throttle to 100 percent that stopped, also I installed Linux and had use legacy bios because Linux wouldn't recognize my mouse under efi, after installing win 10 a second time now windows doesn't recognize the efi mouse?

You're indicating multiple problems without providing sufficient information to allow an appropriately well-informed response. It's well-known that UEFI is problematic. Perhaps you could flush out one of the Win 10 problems. Right now, it seems that it won't recognize your mouse, possibly because you turned off UEFI in your BIOS. What mouse are you using? Are you trying to use it as plug and play, or did you install a driver? Providing more details may help to elicit a more useful reply.

 

[shjacks45]

I bought a laptop about 1.5 years ago with the goal of finishing my studies with it. I didn't mind if it break 1 day after getting my degree, but it just failed about 2 to 3 weeks short.
Since I had it, I used to triple boot 2 linux distributions and Windows. I got the upgrade to Windows 10 a few months ago, all went well. Recently I was forced to use a Windows program and yesterday I was rebooting several times from linux to windows and vice versa. Until in one of those reboots, Windows couldn't boot anymore, showing a "unmountable ..." error message that I googled, and apparently there was no cure (many people had the same message and the Microsoft suggestion of using a boot repairer didn't seem to have worked for a single person). So I went into linux to see if I could mount the Windows partition and I couldn't, it would tell me something about "unable to mount..". I rebooted and went into the BIOS to check out if everything was normal and to my surprise it seems that Secure boot was enabled, which is something I had disabled months ago for linux to work properly. So I disabled it again and rebooted. And rebooting lead to a black screen. This is where my laptop is currently.
Can't enter the BIOS, can't start a live CD nor live linux thru usb despite usb being the 1st option to boot from, in the BIOS. Can't do anything. Just a black screen. I tried to check if this was the screen that was broken, by plugging a HDMI cable into a TV and my laptop, but "no signal", and this used to work.
I went to the CS department of my university and headed to the hardware support part. The guy tried to enter the BIOS, etc. He couldn't do anything. He checked out if it was easy to disamble the laptop and it looks very hard (in fact it's not meant to be opened, even the battery is not removable).
I suspect everything broke because of a background automatic windows update that messed up my BIOS or firmware or something. I am currently using a slower laptop that also has some troubles with Windows messing up the booting process by reinstalling the bootloader to bypass grub and therefore linux.

I must say that I truly believe that Windows is a cheap-toy OS not serious enough to be trusted for serious matters. I can't count on it. I'm going to have my first child in a few months and I'm not going to teach him/her Windows. I believe that this OS is for old people who don't want to learn how a computer works (which is just fine but far from the majority of people). I don't know about BSD and IOS, etc. but I feel like Windows should disappear from being sold by default in most places, and should be replaced by other more serious and solid OS'es where in order to break it, you must do it yourself. Unlike Windows where who has the superuser powers is Microsoft and anyone using administrator or super user options (which was not my case). A normal user should not be able to break the OS, and this is what I was when using Windows.

First thing I do when I get my degree and come back home: Remove Windows from the slow laptop I'm currently using.
Very saddened of what it's done.

You aren't giving us the whole picture, like the type of problem laptop. You purchased the hardware of a manufacturer whose firmware no longer recognizes the disk drive. Linux would trash some early 2000s computers Bios Data Area where your disk location and type are stored. Since you enabled Secure Boot another possibility is you also enabled disk encryption for windows. If you have an el cheapo laptop (eg 32 GB storage, 2 GB ram) the Windows operating system is "an image file" virtual machine and updates go to a "update" file. UEFI Bios firmware can mount the vdisk image (locating it with bcdedit info), or for older PCs legacy bios calls NTLoader boot file to mount the volume. If your PC has multiple boot options the pressing F4 or F12 (on power on boot) might give a drive boot menu. Some mfgs give "boot from optical drive" if there is a disk in the player. Of course not being able to enter bios settings is bad, sounds like you've bricked the laptop. Most HDs I've tried to fix with Linux recovery tools still failed, even failing recovery by disassembling hardware. With great power comes great responsibility: Linux based systems allow overwriting boot firmware.

While Windows 10 has its issues, the issues described by the OP sound like hardware issues, not software issues. If the computer gives only a black screen and not even a POST or bios splash, that's faulty hardware -- there really isn't an easy way for an OS to do that. Correlation does not necessarily equal causation.

I've worked on Computers where a linux install overwrote system settings and bricked the computers. Linux install guides name careless users for causing these issues. However my experience indicates manufacturers misinterpretation of published computer standards. "Computer" because these type of issues range from Macs to PCs to tablets to phones.