Total failure of Windows Ten.

Knarph · 10 Jan 2020

Hi, I'm Knarph, I live in Holland and am new to this forum and have a huge, unoverseeable problem with the ACER laptop I bought a year ago with Windows 10 pre-installed on it. A huge problem.

Let me give you some examples:
1 - When I click on the little window up on the taskbar, nothing happens.
2 - I can not use WIFI because I don't get a list of nearby providers.
3 - Most of the 'settings' pages don't appear.
4 - When I try to update Windows, the update gets downloaded but are not being implemented in any way
5 - When I try to restore to the factory settings W10 crashes.
6 - When I try to download W10 in order to completelely re-install it, it gets downloaded, the install procedure starts up and gives the all-clear, my computer crashes at 92% and after rebooting it says that all the changes made will be undone so I'm back at square one.
7 - W10 third-party software does not at all or hardly works. (Canon Utilities for instance) Not even when it is specifically written for W10/64-bit.
8 - The problem solver has never been able to identify any problem, let alone solve it.

This is just a small part of my usual frustrations because I can not use my laptop due to its constant failure. And the daily rage it produces is killing me, my friends and family on a daily base. I even can not get rid of W10 because it's somehow interwoven with the BIOS so (according to the selling company) I can not re-partition or even re-format the main drive in order to freshly install Windows 7.
In fact, I can't install any alternative for W10, so I'm stuck with an expensive, yet totally corrupted and failing laptop.
I would like to show some screenshots but I can't because this feature also doesn't work.
Any suggestions, apart from buying a big ax to satisfactorily reduce my laptop to a pile of very small parts?

Thank you, also on behalf of my (ex-) friends and loved ones,
Frank Heuvelman, the Netherlands.

Additional info:
Operating system: Windows Ten, Home Edition.
Version: 10.0.18362 Build 18362.
Computer: Acer Asphire A315-51
BIOS Version: 3.0 /UEFI modus.

Brink · 10 Jan 2020

Hello Knarph, and welcome to Ten Forums.

Have you already tried doing a clean install of Windows 10 at boot with a Windows 10 installation USB?

Clean Install Windows 10

sygnus21 · 10 Jan 2020

Hi, Knarph, Welcome to Windows 10.

I would urge you to visit the BSOD Crashes and Debugging forum and follow the instructions at the top of the screen so that we can further diagnose what's going on with your PC. And yes, a clean install as suggested by Brink may help, but a crash dump file might prevent further issues.

Berton · 10 Jan 2020

I even can not get rid of W10 because it's somehow interwoven with the BIOS so (according to the selling company) I can not re-partition or even re-format the main drive in order to freshly install Windows 7.

Once Win10 was installed followed by Activation it got a Digital License, can use Settings, Update and Security, Recovery to reset/reinstall Win10.

Reset Windows 10

The machine may not satisfactorily run Win7 if it did not come with it nor will have the necessary files for a factory restore of Win7. I've seen this with the 2 Renewed/Refurbished Notebooks I've purchased but quite happy with them.

Win8 was the first to have the necessary information such as the Product Key embedded on the motherboard/BIOS and not have the COA/Certificate of Authenticity containing the Product Key on case.

Knarph · 10 Jan 2020

Thank guys, this will keep me occupied for the coming weekend.
I'll come back to give the results of the respective suggestions made by you.