Windows 10: Attempt to Reset the system to original condition has failed. Changes to the system have...

I've experienced this issue off an on for a while now. It occurs on all five of the Surface devices I either own or maintain (Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, Surface Book 2, Surface Laptop & Surface Go). Three devices running Windows 10 Pro and two are running Windows 10 Home.


Recently, I've noticed that my Surface Go was no longer checking for system updates. Nothing in the setting looks amiss, so I decided to reset the unit via the Recovery option under the Settings screen.


The path:


Settings->Update & Security->Recovery->Reset this PC->Get Started->Remove Everything->Remove the files and clean the drive.


After starting the process, what I would call the "first stage" completes without any problems. This stage produces a dark blue pop-up window. In the window are the words "Resetting this PC". Also in the pop-up is the spinning display, the words "This will take a few minutes and your PC will restart" along with the percent complete counter.


As noted earlier, this stage completes without an problems. The next stage is where the problem manifests itself.


The next stage consists of the black screen, the four white squares forming the Windows emblem along with the verbiage "Resetting this PC" and another counter.


At this point, attempts to reset devices fail. In the current case, the counter never reaches the 20% completion mark before the words "Resetting this PC" become ""Restoring changes". The process aborts and I'm sent to the blue screen with the message that a problem was encountered and no changes were made. At that point I simply exit out and he device reboots.


The SFC procedure fails to detect any abnormalities.


I remember a good while ago, seeing what I think is a related issue where I was unable to reset, I think it was my Surface Pro 3. I used another procedure to kick off the reset and the device gave a message about something needed to be elevated. The fix for that was to reboot the computer off of a disaster recovery drive. (Barbara Bowman provided me links to the documents outlining the steps needed to create drives and how to go about doing it).


Now, of course, I can (and have at one time or another) rebooted the five devices from their respective recovery drives and then go through the process of reapplying updates, switching the Go & Laptop out of "S" mode...etc because the normal restart procedure fails, but should the "nuclear option" become the norm?


I could see a device issue, if it was just one unit. But with five units having seen this issue, it would seem like a bit of a stretch to narrow the problem to a piece of hardware.


If anyone else has seen this before, is there a fix so I won't have to reach for a recovery drive?

:)

 

Attempt to restore the system to original condition has failed. Changes to the system have been undone

Log Name: System

Source: Microsoft-Windows-ResetEng

Date: 8/22/2017 2:03:04 PM

Event ID: 4502

Task Category: None

Level: Critical

Keywords:

User: SYSTEM

Description:

Attempt to restore the system to original condition has failed. Changes to the system have been undone.

Event Xml:

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

<System>

<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-ResetEng" Guid="{A4445C76-ED85-C8A3-02C1-532A38614A9E}" />

<EventID>4502</EventID>

<Version>0</Version>

<Level>1</Level>

<Task>0</Task>

<Opcode>0</Opcode>

<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>

<TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-08-22T18:03:04.750302400Z" />

<EventRecordID>56088</EventRecordID>

<Correlation />

<Execution ProcessID="1452" ThreadID="1456" />

<Channel>System</Channel>

 

Attempt to restore the system to original condition has failed. Changes to the system have been undone

Hello,

For us to isolate the issue in resetting your Windows 10 device, kindly respond to the questions below:

• When attempting to reset, are there any error messages that appear while in the process of resetting the device?
• Are you restoring your device to its factory default settings or are you using the Reset function in reinstalling Windows 10?

We look forward to your response.

 

System Tests run, 2 Failed results

You FAILED to list your hardware/system specs