Windows 10: Update nightmares

I have recently had a nightmare with my PC. A Win10 update in late December trashed the BIOS of my mo-bo and the critical boot and other sectors of the primary drive "0" aka C:. A re-flash restored the BIOS but the USB3 ports went AWOL.

I took the C: drive out, attached it to another PC where I discovered nothing was there. I then re-partitioned and formatted the drive. I bought a new mo-bo and refitted everything.

I used my Windows installation disc, and all was fine. I restored the data and all seemed well. Then I discovered I'd used an old installation disc and that Windows it would not update past build 10240. It failed at the last part of the installation after rebooting. (It seems MS refuse to acknowledge this issue - there's thousands of similar posts.)

I had a backup image and used that, but the same failure to update occurred. But this time the Automatic Repair loaded after the reboot. A second running of the image worked and provided the update wasn't used, all seemed well.

Then my USB scanner went AWOL. Windows detected it but said no driver installed. Downloading and installing the driver failed. Then I hit a security problem, with Windows popping up red "access denied" windows. Which was odd, because I was in the supposedly hidden "Administrator" account. I rebooted, and then the Administrator account kept telling me I was using the wrong password. I now could not re-image the drive, so had to re-boot to the Automatic repair from were I could re-image the drive.

At this point I went to bed and let it do its thing. About an hour later I was awoken by a horrible buzzing noise. It was the USB backup drive. It had clearly failed. (A four year old 4TB Seagate.) Could the drive could have been dying for some time and be the cause of the faults/faulty images? (My personal data was also on another HDD in the PC so hopefully safe.)

This time I dug out my old laptop and copied the latest installation files onto a USB pen drive. I booted from this and re-installed Windows 10. This time I was asked to log in using my Microsoft Account. To be honest this was not what I wanted but there seemed to be no other option. The positive side was that it found my Win10 Licence and also my Office 2019 key. After the initial setup and updates, I'm running the current windows Ver 1809 Build 17763.107.

I have now set up 5 accounts:
Me (as a regular user)
The Wife (as a regular user)
Visitor (Guest account)
Admin2 (Administrator) and
Administrator ("Hidden" Administrator)

A new 4TB USB3 desktop backup drive arrived yesterday and seemed to work OK over night. Hopefully this now all OK.

PS: The scanner is fine.
There was also a problem with my old LaserJet 4010TN which kept stopping because the paper size was wrong, an A4/Letter thing. I thought it was driver issue or settings on the printer, but it turned out to be a worn feed roller in one of the trays. Swapping the trays around fixed that but I still need a new roller (or whole tray?).

Thanks for reading. Happy New Year.

:)

 

Windows Updated(16299.309).KB4088776 Restart is required to complete.


Hi dalchina. Good news, I followed your suggestion and reinstalled the update and now it appears as "installed correctly" *Biggrin Maybe it was not necessary to run the Windows Update Troubleshooter or maybe if necessary. But using it I do not think it could have worsened something. The installation was very fast, unlike the first time it showed step 1 and step 2 completed.

Thanks for the suggestions and for the time to respond Best regards.


And thanks for the tip of that program, I'll have it on my list.

 

Intel E5200 Gets Updated, R0 Stepping Coming Up

Intel's Pentium Dual-Core E5200 processor is getting on course for a specifications update. The chip will feature in a new, improved Wolfdale-2M core, spec'd out as the R0 stepping, from its current M0 stepping. The new stepping is intended to add new instructions, power-management features, and bring about changes in the chip-package. A short list of known changes is as follows:

• CPUID changed from 10677 to 1067A
• Power State Indicator (PSI) support with Intel 4 series chipsets
• New instructions - XSAVE and XRSTOR
• New S-spec and MM numbers
• New halide-free chip package

Due to the changed CPUID, users may require BIOS updates to detect the CPU. According to the company, E5200 R0 should be out by April 13.

Source: TechConnect Magazine

 

Intel Gives Core i3 and Core i5 Dual-Core Processors K0 Stepping Update

Intel is giving some existing 32 nm "Clarkdale" based Core i3 and Core i5 processors an update. The processors will transition to the new K0 stepping from the existing C2 stepping. The parts that will be made on the K0 silicon are Core i3 models 530 (new sSPEC: SLBX7), 540 (new sSPEC: SLBTD) and Core i5 models 650 (new sSPEC: SLBTJ), 660/661 (SLBTK/SLBTB), 670 (SLBTL). Newer and upcoming models such as the i3-550, i3-560, i5-665K, and i5-680 are already being built on the K0 stepping die. Motherboards will require a BIOS update to support the new K0 stepping processors.

The K0 stepping change includes the following highlights:

• New S-spec and MM numbers for the converting products
• Extended CPUID will change from 0x00020652 to 0x00020655
• Host RevID will change from 0x12 to 0x18
• K0 stepping package is pin compatible with C2 stepping package
• Adds Processor Context ID (PCID) support

The revised older SKUs that are built on K0 stepping will be market-available by October 16.