Windows 10 update bricks HP laptop - no Office, Settings, Wifi...  

Last week my daughter's laptop initiated a Windows Update. This appeared to OK until the restart, when it entered a loop - “Attempting to recover installation”, “Restoring previous version of Windows” then another reboot attempt ad infinitum.

I changed the boot settings and booted from an installation disk (created via the Media Creation Tool) and got to the repair options. Uninstalling a Windows Update failed. System Restore (to a point before the update) executed but failed to solve the problem.

I than managed to put it in Safe Mode and tried booting from hard disk. To my surprise, despite showing "Safe Mode" on screen, it went into exactly the same loop. In other words, trying to restore Windows trumped Safe Mode.

Next port of call - the Kyhi recover disk, booting into Windows PE. This has at least enabled me to copy data and (though it probably is a waste of time now) creating drive images via the disk's inbuilt Macrium. I don't think there is anything else useful i can do with it at this stage.

I was continually retrying a hard disk boot after each attempt. Nothing doing - until yesterday morning when it booted up successfully, at least to the extent of asking me to sign in and getting to the desktop.

Problem solved? Of course not! Here is a little smorgasboard of what won't work:
- Office applications simply fail to open (whether using the desktop shortcut or the application executable itself). Non-Microsoft applications generally do.
- Clicking the Start button has no effect - no menu, no searchable list of programs
- Right clicking the Start button does work, so I can get to the Command Prompt and Control Panel
- No method of getting to Settings works, so I cannot view Windows Update history (and when I tried to generate a log from the .efl file TraceRpt.exe crashed with an error).
- The wireless adaptor is not recognising any available Wifi network. I think the menu option to look is non-operational. Internet via Ethernet is available.
- AVG Free says computer protection is turned off, even if I successfully run a virus scan!
- Device Manager, chkdsk and dism do not show any problems.

I suspect that this just scratches the surface of what is wrong

While any help would be welcome, I am not really expecting anything much. I am on the point of giving up and reinstalling Windows 10, as the above seems pretty clear evidence of a corrupt installation. As I understand it, every program will then have to be reinstalled.

I expect that I can do this, though if I priced up my time I would probably come up with a figure well in excess of the laptop's value (perhaps I should just get her a new one for Christmas).

I am just totally hacked off that Microsoft can get away with putting out updates that can wreck a computer installation. I have been told before that I ought to think of an Update as a completely new operating system but that really does not excuse unleashing this rubbish on the world.

Thanks, Dalmina

My daughter has (had?) Windows 10 Home. As laptops tend to be, it was bought off the shelf. I always customise my desktops and paid a little bit more for Pro. (After booting from the Kyhi disk it told me it was Enterprise v1803 but that ain't so; not sure why it would tell me that about Windows PE though).

A feature update - well, I suppose software companies usually describe bugs as features.

Agreed she should have been better prepared defensively but 90 per cent of users in the country are probably less IT savvy that she is and probably don't back up data properly, let alone image a drive. We are led to believe that System Restore or rolling back an update will come galloping to the rescue. I haven't looked afresh at the "Go back..." link that you posted but I have a nasty feeling that anything that does not involves reinstallation will fail because it requires something less screwed up as a starting point.

In one way I am fortunate because I can do some things with the bricked PC. I can see the Windows key, for example. I can't see the Office key from within Office, as it won't open but I'm yet to see if I can actually open the b*****red registry; if so keys for programs ought to be listed there, I think. Most of the other software consists of free software which can be downloaded afresh. The exceptions are HP "utilities" (aka bloatware). I would hope that anything needed in the way of drivers for hardware will be downloaded automatically but hey, what do I know?

Just looked at the link. Laptop came with Win 10 installed so no previous version of Windows to go back to. I'm assuming the link does not cover rolling back to earlier versions of Windows 10.

Astonishingly, it seems to have just sorted itself out. So I'm happy at the outcome, if not at the obstructions and blind alleys that were in my way. Most of what follows is posted as potential assistance/warning to anyone else contemplating throwing their laptop in one of those lakes that features on the login screen. TBH I had started to think in terms of replacement, which is ridiculous for a two year old machine.

Earlier today I stuck the Ethernet cable back in and a screen popped up which told me (something like) I could not have security updates until I had upgraded Windows. And "we were working on it". A couple of hours later, no issues with restarts going wrong during the process and it booted up OK, including access to Office and recognising Wifi. It seemed slow to start up but that may be junk that my daughter has put on there. I didn't check whether sound is working (that was the issue with previous updates) but right now I don't care!

So, a week after starting, we appear to have a successfully updated/upgraded Windows 10. I've seen that there have been problems with an update (presumably this one) on some manufacturers' kit (including HP) and that the update had been paused. Perhaps that has been sorted and the update made generally available again. It didn't get offered last time I plugged the cable in a couple of days ago. And of course there was absolutely zilch in the way of telling you there was a problem, or what to do.

In effect, Windows seems to have been in a barely usable form of limbo for a week. I was very close to reinstalling from scratch, which I dare say some would have attempted well before now.

The moral seems to be that it really is worth waiting sometimes, even if you are carrying around a slim grey brick for a week. But how on earth are users to know?

I have downloaded Macrium Free onto the laptop. I also tried to do Malwarebytes but Chrome blocked the download as a dangerous file! I have also put the excellent Belarc Advisor on there. This gave me a number of licence codes and gave me the last five characters of the Office code, saying that the full code was not held on the computer. It also warned that the licence code for Windows itself might be a manufacturer's generic code, and that I would need the actual code, as carried on a sticky label on the laptop. Neither of our laptops has such a label and I don't think they have been removed. That ought to imply that they were individual keys but I was anticipating finding otherwise if I actually had to reinstall.

I could see windows_old but at that stage I wasn't thinking of trying to use it so what - if anything - it contained I am not sure.

Now I've posted this it will no doubt go south again...

To get the simplest thing out of the way first, HD Sentinel reports the hard disk as PERFECT. No point in posting an image of that.The Windows installation is now v1709. This morning it was v1607. So it seems that the update causing the issue was not related to v1803 or v1809. Or to put it another way, there might be more pain to come.

Now that I can look at Windows Update history, I see that update 2018-09 for v1709 (KB4090007) is said to be in the state "requires a restart to finish installing". It has had several restarts already so that seems odd. I did do a "net stop wuauserv" yesterday (Computer Shopper advice which seemed worth a try) but that clearly did not stop the download/upgrade which did actually take place.
The following KBs are shown as installed today:-
4094276
4293700
4078408
4055237
4055994
4467681
4134661
plus update and security update for Adobe Flash Player.

I can see AGENT_INSTALLING_FAILED in one entry in ReportingEvents.log for today. In fact I can see a succession of FAILED entries going way back. Todays's failure says that it failed to install what appears to be MicrosoftStickyNotes (do I care?) with error code 0x80073d02. Earlier fails have a range of error codes.

I should also say that the laptop has the Windows 10 Update Assistant installed. I am unfamiliar with how this works.

I see now that the system is showing "No Audio Output Device is installed", which was the issue that bugged her and me a year or so ago. On Device Manager "Intel High Definition Audio" is shown with a yellow exclamation mark under "Other devices". I tried updating the driver - nothing found. Under "Sound, video and game controllers" I have "Intel(R) Display Audio", said to be working properly.

The only other annoyance is that it is demanding passwords for the Wifi networks so I've got to look them up again!

Before doing anything else I am going to image the drive in its current pretty much working state. Then I'll try chkdsk but as that was reporting no errors earlier in the week and HD Sentinel is happy, I suspect it will reveal nothing new.

I'll start off by saying thanks for all your advice, as I hadn't done earlier.

The restart installed 2018-11 for v1709 and nothing shows a restart needed.

As far as I can see the laptop has all the functionality it should have except for sound, which is going to be tomorrow's task. Oh, and fetching the poor s*d grappling with it a nice cold beer.

The network adaptor was recognising wireless networks but not connecting, even with the correct passwords. After googling this, I uninstalled the adaptor, leaving it to be reinstalled automatically. It is now fine.

My desktop is on v1803 BTW and is fine, and that's on an eight year old machine that was upgraded from Windows 7. I'll look at the links on stopping updates unless/until we want them tomorrow. To use a technical expression, I'm knackered!