USB devices not working after Device Manager spring clean

^Nevermind.

I have got the 1703 download working now. Will come back with an update once I try the repair.

Thanks again.

The windows 10 iso can be downloaded from the Microsoft website or other websites for free.
The Microsoft website should have switched today from 1709 to 1803.
If you still need an old iso let us know.
Windows will attempt to automatically update when you least expect it.
If you prefer an older build, Ed, has a thread for blocking updates/upgrades:
Stop Windows 10 Updates Properly and Completely Solved - Windows 10 Forums

I have got all my devices workng again by doing a reinstall of 1703 on top of the exitsing 1703 (without losing any data or programs)

I tried using :-
Settings>Recovery>Reset this PC

But this approach is not possible as mounting the 1703 ISO is not recognised as a valid recovery source

Instead I mounted the 1703 ISO and then ran setup.exe

I chose the options to remember my personal files and my programs

Let windows do a clean install

This completed successfully and all drivers are working again.

Device manager shows 7 entries under Volumes after a clean install so it looks like I deleted some I should not have.

I am reluctant to let windows try any further 1709 update attempts as as it has has cost me so much time. About 45 hours over the past 2 months.

I am wondering if the 1803 update might be worth trying (using the ISO). I guess it is cumulative i.e. everything from 1709 will be in 1803.

If anybody can report that they have managed to get a Lenovo X230 onto 1709 or 1803 I would be very interested to know that it is at least possible.

Why does the Windows Update utility not provide better reporting of specifically why it is failing?

The log files from PowerShell Get-WindowsUpdateLog are useless. they do not contain any information about what happened during the actual update process. The log entries stop at the time you execute the update command and restart from the time the machine recovers after failing.

If the failure to update is being caused by a specific driver why can the update utility not report which driver is causing the problem?

^sounds like good advice with the 3 month wait.

In the meantime I will look into Ed's guide on disabling win 10 updates.

They really need to improve the error reporting. You can't fix something if the update log does not tell you what is going wrong.

the 1709 update error says:-

0xC1900101 - 0x30017
The installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation.

Microsoft says:-
An error that begins with 0xC1900101 is usually a driver error. If you see any of these error codes, try the following steps first to fix the problem. If these steps don’t work, see Resolve Windows 10 upgrade errors for more detailed technical info.

But there are hundreds of drivers!

Microsoft, if you are reading this:- We need to know what exactly is going wrong with updates in order to fix the problems.Put more detail into PowerShell Get-WindowsUpdateLog

The USB ports started failing intermittently again and then permanently.

Reinstalled 1703 again and that fixed it for a while then they started failing again.

When I plug in any peripheral it shows up in device manager with the exclamation mark.

I right-click 'update driver'
Choose 'browse my computer...'
'Let me pick from a list of...'
Select the best candidate

Then the device will work. Until it is unplugged and plugged in again...

Then we are back to square one for that device.

Are there any suggestions for kicking the USB hub back to life so it recognises ordinary USB devices like mouses and keyboards without a manual driver update?

Perform the following steps:

1) Open administrative command prompt and type or copy and paste:
2) sfc /scannow
3) dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehelth
4) chkdsk /scan
5) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

6) Run the BETA log collector and post a zip into this thread.
The beta log collector is near the bottom of this webpage:
BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums
To use the tool click extract or extract all then open.

7) Run the Microsoft tool setupdiag > post the desktop txt file into the thread using a share link (one drive, drop box, google drive)
SetupDiag | Microsoft Docs

8) Run the Lenovo diagnostics > record the tests that were or were not done > post the results into the thread
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...x230/downloads
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...loads/DS104501
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...loads/DS030861
https://pcsupport.lenovo.com/us/en/p...loads/DS028698

^Thanks for the suggestions ZBook.

I will try those things.

I have done steps 1-5

Attached are the CMD log and the DISM log. The _abridged version is just the entries following the execution of 'dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth'

The other version has entries dating back 7 weeks. (edit: the file upload system has a 2Mb limit and the full version of DISM.log is 4Mb so it is not attached)

I will now try step 6

Here is the output from step 6 Beta Log Collector