There was a problem resetting this PC. Stuck at 35% numerous times.

greenwood121 · 14 Dec 2017

Hello,

About a week ago, I started to notice that my windows menu/taskbar started to freeze and I couldnt open it or do anything with it, same applies to the Cortana search box. I have googled and youtubed and all of the so called "fixes" didn't work. These included, sfc /scannow and GetApp commands etc. So I have decided to reset my pc fully as I had alot of programs and files I dont use or need anyway so I decided that it would be a good idea to reset my pc to factory settings and just start over.

I have used Acer Recovery Management > Restore > Reset Your PC > Remove Everything > All Drives. During that time I got stuck at 33% while "Resetting This PC" and I waited about 36 hours, so I turned the power off and turned it back on and it went on to "Undoing Changes" and everything went back to normal, with a error message popping up once logged in saying "We ran into some problems while resetting this PC" and when I have tried to reset it again, it wouldn't let me with the same error message popping up.

Everything was fine for about 5-6 days until now.
Firstly, my NVIDIA Control Panel has completely disappeared and there is no way to actually get it up on screen (again tried several 'fixes' from google and youtube) and a Windows Update KB4054517 keeps failing to update and I know that I am not the only person with this problem as I have seen alot... and I mean alot of people that can't update their Windows to the same version. And the most annoying part about it is that every time I shut down my PC it gets stuck on "Preparing for Windows Update" and I have to power it off by holding the power button. Also, everytime I turn my PC back on, it is still showing up and I have to wait something like 5-10 minutes until the login screen comes on.

I have tried to once again, reset this pc to factory settings. Same story as before, but this time I got stuck at 35% (I let it sit there for about 24+ hours). So again, everything seems to be fine except the windows update with the annoying shut down/power on "Preparing for windows Update" crap, and still Nvidia control panel is unusable. Just about 30 minutes ago from typing this I was playing a game that got shut down with a Windows Error Message saying that I ran out of Disk Space. I went into "This PC" and noticed that I have 0 bytes left on my C drive. I have deleted a random game freeing up about 8GB, and it went back down to 0 bytes after about 20 seconds, using CCleaner I found out that there was a "Windows System Log" or something like that eating up 50Gb of DiskSpace, and it would keep increasing if I deleted anything - it would take up the whole disk space.

Now, can someone direct me on what to do? I just want to reset my PC to factory settings SUCCESSFULLY and start over. Any tips on what should I do? I read stuff about booting from a USB using a ISO or something, but I don't know how to obtain that ISO. I can't remember but I am pretty sure that when I bought this laptop about 2 years ago it didn't come with Windows Installation Disks.

SPECS:
OS Name: Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0. 16299 Build 16299
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Predator G9-791
System SKU: Predator G9-791_105B_1.11
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700HQ CPU @ 2.60GHz, 2601 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 530 8260MB (Approx. Total Memory)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 12194MB (Approx. Total Memory)
Bios Version/Date: Acer V1.11, 16/10/2017
SMBIOS Version: 2.8
BIOS Mode: UEFI

I have updated all of my drivers, except nvidia graphics card as once it gets to "Checking System Compatibility" it crashes and says that there was a problem.

Also worth noting, I have 2 drives. I mainly use my SSD for Windows, User Account and main programs/apps and I use my HDD for junk files.

simrick · 14 Dec 2017

Hi.
If you're ready for a clean install, that's what I would do. You download the ISO from Microsoft, mount it, copy the files over to a flash drive, boot to the flash drive and install Windows, deleting all partitions in the "custom" installation. We have a tutorial here with step-by-step instructions for you.

Clean Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Please be sure to delete all existing partitions as shown in step #10. Any questions, just ask. Plenty of people here to help you.

greenwood121 · 14 Dec 2017

simrick said:

Hi.
If you're ready for a clean install, that's what I would do. You download the ISO from Microsoft, mount it, copy the files over to a flash drive, boot to the flash drive and install Windows, deleting all partitions in the "custom" installation. We have a tutorial here with step-by-step instructions for you.

Clean Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials

Please be sure to delete all existing partitions as shown in step #10. Any questions, just ask. Plenty of people here to help you.

Thanks for the swift reply.

About the flash drive, does it matter if it is ntfs or fat32? I didn't quite catch that in the link you provided.

Also in step 7, it talks about entering a product key. I don't think I ever had one, and if I did I probably threw it away with the computers box.

simrick · 14 Dec 2017

greenwood121 said:

Thanks for the swift reply.

Quite welcome.

greenwood121 said:

About the flash drive, does it matter if it is ntfs or fat32? I didn't quite catch that in the link you provided.

That tut has a link to the tut for creating the flash drive using the MS tool. The tool will delete everything on the flash drive and format it as necessary. Here's the tut:
Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10 Installation Upgrade Tutorials
That's the easiest way to do it.

greenwood121 said:

Also in step 7, it talks about entering a product key. I don't think I ever had one, and if I did I probably threw it away with the computers box.

Since your machine has already had W10 installed and activated, you skip entering a key. If your system is new enough, the key will be stored in the BIOS, and Windows will pick that up during installation, and install the correct version (Home or Pro).

But, if you want to grab your key before starting this, you can use ShowKeyPlus to do that.
ShowKeyPlus - Windows 10 Forums
.

greenwood121 · 16 Dec 2017

So I have tried to do what you said with the tutorials you have linked but every time I am stuck at "Getting files ready for installation (1%)"

I have tried booting via UEFI and Legacy modes, however I couldnt disable Safe Boot for both as it was unaccessable/greyed out.

I have also tried booting by putting the USB in different USB ports, and by trying to install windows on my SSD and HDD. Every single time I get stuck at 1%.

I kind of dont have access to any other computer and I am out of ideas on what to do.

simrick · 16 Dec 2017

greenwood121 said:

So I have tried to do what you said with the tutorials you have linked but every time I am stuck at "Getting files ready for installation (1%)"

I have tried booting via UEFI and Legacy modes, however I couldnt disable Safe Boot for both as it was unaccessable/greyed out.

I have also tried booting by putting the USB in different USB ports, and by trying to install windows on my SSD and HDD. Every single time I get stuck at 1%.

I kind of dont have access to any other computer and I am out of ideas on what to do.

Okay let's try a different approach.
Have you checked the health of your drives? And, you said you have two - are they both internal? If the mechanical one is external, let's remove it for now.

Are you able to download/install Crystal Disk Info?
Download Center - Crystal Dew World
Take the Standard Edition, exe. Run it and make sure your SSD is healthy.
Then run CHKDSK on the SSD.

If all is well, let's try an in-place repair:

In Windows, plug in your W10 flash drive, right-click and select Mount (or Open with File Explorer). The Flash drive will be assigned a drive letter. Open that drive with File Explorer and run setup.exe. This will perform an in-place repair. It takes just about as much time as a new install, so be patient. You can select to keep files and applications at this point, assuming you don't have anything strange installed. Remove (uninstall) any 3rd-party anti-virus/anti-malware before doing this.

Let's see if that doesn't help.

greenwood121 · 16 Dec 2017

I did check my drives via my Acer Care program before doing a clean install and they checked out to be Healthy.

Both drives are internal.

If I remove the flash disk and try to boot the computer says it cant find a boot device. So I cant really get into Windows.

Could it be a faulty ISO? Or maybe it didnt install correctly on the USB?

When I first plugged the USB in (before installing the ISO on it) I had a windows message pop up saying it isnt running correctly and needs to be scanned/fixed, so I scanned it and turned out to be okay, however maybe thats the problem?

Is it worth buying a new USB and trying again?

simrick · 16 Dec 2017

greenwood121 said:

I did check my drives via my Acer Care program before doing a clean install and they checked out to be Healthy.

Both drives are internal.

If I remove the flash disk and try to boot the computer says it cant find a boot device.

You're not using an adapter for the optical drive for a system drive, are you? Because that may fail.

The USB may be a problem. If you can, I would get a couple new ones; and read below first:

Please have a read of this thread, specifically the solution posted by @NavyLCDR, post #9
Windows 10 usb clean install freezing at Solved - Windows 10 Forums

Unfortunately, you'll need to make a flash drive of Kyhi's rescue media to do this - not sure how you can do that without a second computer. Do you have a friend/neighbor with a computer you can use to do this? Library? Computer cafe nearby?

In post #7 he covers cleaning the disk using DISKPART, which can be done using the W10 install flash drive. This is also covered in the Acer forum here:
Acer Aspire V3-772 Windows 8.1 clean install â€” Acer Community
I know it's for W8.1, but works the same for W10. You could try this first.

greenwood121 · 16 Dec 2017

simrick said:

You're not using an adapter for the optical drive for a system drive, are you? Because that may fail.

Could you explain this a bit further? I dont quite understand what you mean by adapter for the optical drive for a system drive.

simrick said:

Unfortunately, you'll need to make a flash drive of Kyhi's rescue media to do this - not sure how you can do that without a second computer. Do you have a friend/neighbor with a computer you can use to do this? Library? Computer cafe nearby?

Would a library/university computer work? I dont think I will be able to get full admin access on it (if it is needed) as these computers can be quite restricted.

I have tried the solution you suggested to do first (the acer forum) with diskpart and... we are making progress. I am now getting a:

"Windows cannot install required files. Make sure that all files required for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code: 0x800703EE"

Before I do anything else I would like to hear your suggestion again, as this is something new so i guess something kind of 'worked'.

Edit: While doing the diskpart, I have noticed that I had '0 bytes free' on both drives, even though it said I had 118Gb free in the Windows drive partition window.

Edit 2: Tried installing again, now I get to 13% and this time Error Code: x8007002

greenwood121 · 16 Dec 2017

I tried using a different USB port and I got up to 92% very rapidly until it stopped again. I decided to open up cmd and check the disks via diskpart > list disk and it went back down to 0B free.

This happens on both; my 128Gb SSD and my 1TB HDD.

Now even if I clean the disks using diskpart it just goes back to being stuck at 1%.

I dont know what it is, but before I decided to do a clean install I would have 'Windows System Log Files' take up my entire drives in seconds out of the sudden, like I mentioned in my very first post. And I have a feeling this is happening again...