Windows 10: WTF just happened?!

I did the free upgrade to Windows 10 about 4 days before it expired - July 26th, if I recall. There have been a few problems along the way, but everything was working when I left for school tonight.

I came back and the screen was dark and unresponsive. I usually have my PC set to turn the screen off after 10 minutes and sleep after 20. But nada. So I had to shut the UPS off and try rebooting.

It comes up and starts spinning wheels - saying I have an inaccessible boot device! I'm about to poop myself! Never seen anything like this before! Was Windows 10 doing it or what?!

This went on for awhile, with it trying to repair itself, then rebooting, etc. NOTHING was working and I was seeing my entire computing life since 1992 flash before my eyes!

It was trying repairs and hard drive stuff ( probably a scandisk? ) and then it would just stop dead with a black screen and I'd have to shut down power and try again! Frack!

Then on one of the reboots, the BIOS boot screen says I have a new CPU and need to configure it! What?!

So I go into BIOS and it says I have an Intel CPU! I'm freaking out, because I have an AMD CPU! WTF?!

So I played with rebooting some more, and finally tried some other options - one of which was starting Windows in safe mode. It came up!

So after that. I tried just rebooting it again, and it's STILL saying that I have a new CPU, but FINALLY it magically boots into the full Windows 10 system, just like nothing ever happened!

Over ALL these years, I've NEVER made a rescue disk or restore point or any of that, because everything was so darned reliable, but I'm not sure what the heck to do now.

I have two cloned removable HD's from the Win 7 system, if I recall. Should I fire up Acronis and do one of this Windows 10 system? But what if, when it reboots, it goes bonkers again.

I'm scared, folks! Not sure what to do now!

This Asus Essentio is 6 years old and I'm wondering if some hardware has become flaky now, and failed and then recovered. But if the CPU went, it wouldn't be saying Intel, it wouldn't do ANYTHING, I don't think!

It's 11 PM here in Denver and I need to turn in, but my whole computing life, including home based part time business is on this machine. Holy cow!

:)

 

wtf?

I downloaded and installed windows mobile device center when I open the program it looks nothing like the pic on your website it is a very small window that says connection settings how do I get the rest of the program?????????

 

WTF?

Hello Yakir,

I will assume you are talking about ActiveSync.

This forum is for Microsoft Sync framework and has nothing to do with ActiveSync.

Also please add a suitable title to your post.

This posting is provided AS IS with no warranties, and confers no rights

 

Firstly, backup your PC whilst you can access the files. I would use Macrium Reflect free rather than Acronis products.

I suspect your BIOS might have been corrupted. Firstly reset the BIOS by shorting the CMOS reset pins - or you might have a push button on the motherboard for this. Else remove the CMOS battery for 1 minute then replace it. Load the BIOS defaults and check whether all is OK. If not, you could try reflashing the BIOS with the latest BIOS, hopefully one which supports Windows 10.

You can create a USB repair disk from Reflect, then boot from this to repair your boot configuration if that is also a problem - see http://www.macrium.com/help/v5/Rescu...t_Problems.htm

 

I experienced a very similar problem. I was running fine on W10 for a couple of weeks, but after accepting the anniversary update, I got into the "boot drive inaccessible" loop. After fumbling with the various options that that error screen gave me, I finally got the computer to revert to my previous W8.1 version and things are fine. I'm sticking with 8.1! I did not mess with BIOS at all.

Searching the web and Microsoft sites, I've found almost nothing on the inaccessible boot crash related to the anniversary update. I thought that i"s be OK on W10 after updating a couple of weeks ago. I had nothing to gain by upgrading from 8.1. There was no upside to upgrading, only the downside of losing a stable setup - which turned out to happen....

I'm also playing with a Linux Ubuntu/Wine box to see if I can say goodbye to Windows. I really only have 3 or 4 Windows apps that are unique. If they run stable under Wine, I'm a Linux guy. Linux desktop has made amazing progress since I last tried it.

 

Why? I've had Acronis for years, am registered and it's always worked fine.

How can that happen after 6 years? And if it was, why would it suddenly start working again like that?

It's working fine since it came back up correctly. I was wondering if Windows 10 did something. Yesterday I tried to access the Devices and Printers settings and it was cranking away for about 10 minutes with no end. I had to shut down the power, just to get it to stop. Then this happened last night.

I'm thinking it may also be time for another refurbed PC, being this one lasted 6 years but may be having hardware issues now.

 

Wow! I also did that latest update! The only reason I've kept Windows 10 was that it would cost a bunch to get it later, if I didn't, AND it seems to run things faster and smoother on this PC.

I was even wondering if the BIOS thing might have been a virus presenting itself as that, because the Windows 10 stuff kept coming right up and trying to repair things if I shut the power down and brought it back up again, giving me an Asus screen instead of the usual flowing monochrome BIOS boot screen. Could a virus have presented itself like that, by mimicking a boot screen and claiming the CPU had been changed?!

I'm afraid to mess with the BIOS, because I might lose all the settings particular to this PC. I'm not a PC tech. I was an Electronics Research & Development Technician with an ASET ( Associate in Science in Electronics Technology - 1969 ) from 1969 to 1995 and then did other things, but was never a PC tech.

I came from Win 7 and thought they were discontinuing updates on that after Windows 10 came out, so I did this. And was having a few weird problems with 7 and thinking that Microsoft may have actually been letting them happen, to get people into 10, which we also know is a big marketing move too, trying to sell stuff through 10. Years ago, I saw a lab machine that used reagents and a guy was telling me that they could have given the machine away for free ( they didn't ) because the reagents it used would cost a fortune every year. But it did things with blood cell counting that no one else did at the time.

I cant do that. I have a registered copy of AutoCAD that I still use, for one thing, and everything has been in Windows since it came out, for me. I have an envelope printing program - Dazzle, which does zip code lookups on a single envelope and then prints a bar code on it, and it's from 2002 and still runs on Windows 10.

 

"I cant do that. I have a registered copy of AutoCAD that I still use..."

I have a small, old, XP system that I keep for the sole purpose of supporting a 35mm slide scanner for which later drivers are not available. The XP system stays disconnected from the Internet and my home network. I move files via a USB key when needed.

The 4 windows apps that I need seem to run fine under Ubuntu/Wine. I still need a couple of weeks of parallel running to be comfortable. The rest of my use is cloud-based, so no concern there. I've found that Libre Office meets my limited need for an Office replacement. Time will tell if I move or not.

That said, I'd clearly prefer to stay on Windows and will run the W8.1 box for as long at I can. The cost of my time and the associated frustration over the years is taking it's toll on my loyalty.

 

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/inacce...-error-windows

 

OMG! Microsoft could be SO SUED for this! Incompatible with disk firmware?! OMG!

 

Pretty worthless advice!

Where is the recovery option for "Everything worked fine until Windows 10 Anniversary Update"?

One would think that MS would check for incompatibilities before allowing the update to proceed and trash the system....

 

How risky would reverting to Windows 7 be, at this point?

I just want to get back to smooth safe computing, without this nonsense.

Windows 10 has been out for over a YEAR, from what I gather, and if it's still threatening things like bad interactions with hard drive firmware, that's inexcusable! *Mad

But it's been my VERY long term experience and perception with Microsoft, that the company is a big muscle bound giant that really doesn't want to listen to their customers. They want to bring their dogs to work and play at their jobs, which is cool and all, but they really should listen to what their customers say and want!

As far as possibly getting a refurbed PC, which I've had good luck with Asus AMD desktops, I see that most of them are being sold now with Windows 8. Is that a nice stable release of Windows?

 

I just tried calling Asus support about the BIOS weirdness. Because I have an Asus Essentio Tower, they transferred me to Motherboard Support. The guy wanted the serial number from the back panel of the tower, but I was breaking my back, back there and trying to read the tiny numbers to him and he said none of them were correct. SO I finally took my cell and took this photo and he still didn't like the numbers. He had me open a command prompt and try to get the SN of the BIOS but that didn't work either. I think he was in Asia. I could barely hear him, with a lot of static. Now I need to find the command prompt for the BIOS SN.

But I told him what happened and he said that he'd never heard of Windows 10 changing the BIOS settings from AMD to Intel. One other guy there, before I talked with this guy, said it was possible! In short, then he says that maybe I should call Microsoft! Good luck with THAT! I'd be going around with them for WEEKS!

But I need to find the BIOS SN and how to flash it. On the web, I found reference to Asus having some kind of EZ Flash, where you can put the BIOS on a USB chip and flash it that way. This is unbelievable...

 

Why won't this work?

 

If the computer is that old I would replace the Cmos Battery (CR2032 usually) AFTER taking photos of the current Bios screens so you can restore the options if needed ....ie some are not set to "Optimised defaults" , and consider updating the current Bios if not already the latest for the MB.

The inaccessible boot device was likely cos the Bios lost it's boot order for one reason or another and the default meant it didn't auto boot to the Hard-drive any longer. Doing a Startup Repair can usually reset this for you...assuming it is set correctly in the Bios 1st.

If the Comp. was running off your UPS when you came home , it's likely you had a power failure or surge or something , which may indicate why the bios was corrupt too.

KB