Windows bricked my computer, again

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 3:17 am

Back in 2014 I bought a six-core Avatar brand computer off of Amazon because I could get it for under $600 in order to play Watch_Dogs. I discover I didn't check the fine print because even though it comes with the typical packaging including discs of all the drivers and a recovery disc, the machine does not include a DVD drive! I kid you not, no optical device at all.

It also comes with Windows 8.1, which I didn't like but I could live with. Until something - an update, upgrade or what-not - bricked my computer. I could not get it to do anything beyond boot to the blue Windows logo, only it has no "star spin" where the 5 stars spin around in a circle and after they make 2 revolutions they disappear into the bottom and come back out again for two more revolutions.

So I have to ship my computer back to the manufacturer in Orange County, California. Which first, no computer stores have any old boxes (I had had the computer for a while and had gotten rid of the old box after a week), so I have to spend about $5 at a shipping supply place to purchase a box large enough to fit a tower computer. And then spend $40 to ship the computer back to them.

So about three weeks later I get the Avatar back with a report of some minor damage they also fixed. Okay, so I plug it in, hook up everything and start it up.

It's just as bricked as when I sent it to the manufacturer!

(Additional note: Amazon doesn't even sell that computer any more and I think no longer sells anything from Avatar again.)

I even go so far as to use another machine and a boot device maker program to copy the repair disk to a bootable jump drive, but I can't figure out how to get the machine to boot from a USB thumb drive. So I can't fix it after spending $45 to get a $600 computer fixed.

So I bite the bullet. Amazon authorizes me for their credit card and I buy a better quality Cybertron machine that has twice as much memory (16 GB), a DVD drive, and a few other features, (and I think it's faster) plus it's running Windows 7. $995.

My sister gave me an unused upgrade pack she got for another computer so it gets a free upgrade to Windows 7 Professional. But, stupid me, I agree (a few months later) to accept the "free" upgrade to Windows 10 Professional (would have been Windows 10 Home Premium except, of course, since I upgraded 7 I get the upgrade to 10 thrown in). I have no problems, or so I thought.

So i have that for a few months and then it starts having seizures. I can play Portal 2 Paint Gun Initiative for about 10 minutes before it locks up, sometimes stalling with the sound activated, giving a "death growl" where the last thing sent to the speaker keeps playing continuously until the machine is shut down, by holding the on/off button for 5-10 seconds, then started by pressing again after it's off. Sometimes if I'm just doing YouTube videos on Firefox I'll get three or four hours before it seizes up in growl mode. I try every suggestion I find online to try and fix it. (Fortunately my used, 4-year-old Quad Core Acer Aspire I run as a second machine works with no problems and I keep it running.)

Nothing I can find by using the Aspire, then implement to try to fix it makes any difference. I still get "growl lock up" in anywhere from a few minutes (for game playing) to a few hours (for you tube playing).

So I get sick of this. I unplug and move the Cybertron out of the way and bring the Avatar back out of the corner of under my desk where the front panel has almost come off, I reseal it, connect the monitor, keyboard, mouse and USB network adapter.

I'm figuring, if I have to, I can wipe the box and make it a Steam machine to at least play my games. So I start it up so I can see about trying to boot it off a jump drive if I can get to the BIOS to change boot options.

And I'll be a son of a hitch if the fucker doesn't start working again just fine! I've had it sitting in the corner of my desk unplugged and gathering dust for probably a year because I could not get the OS to boot. And it works fine, no problems, my Steam games work okay, watching You Tube videos is fine, works flawlessly.

So I've had it back for a few days to a week. Well, about 1 or 2 this morning, there's a dark blue "banner notice" across the screen telling me the system will restart to install upgrades in 28 minutes, and I should save my work. There are two options. Dismiss the message or reboot. All dismissing the message does is that, ten minutes later you get another banner notice that you now have 18 minutes, close message or reboot. I close the message again but that isn't going to stop it.

Have you ever played with killing tasks in XP or 7 using Task Manager to see what happens, especially if you get some programs you can't shut down otherwise? Skype is a nasty one here, closing the program doesn't, only telling it to quit and agreeing with it's question if you really want to do that. There's also a program for making DVDs that brings up the "Power to Go" desktop gadget for writing files to disc every time the machine restarts whether I want it or not and that I can neither close nor minimize. Task Manager is my friend here in evicting this constructive nuisance taking up a 2" x2" chunk of my screen.

Well, if you kill a certain process running as one of the dozen or more SVCHOST processes, you might just "hit the jackpot" and kill the RPC (Remote Procedure Call) handler. This makes Windows unable to continue, and forces a mandatory unstoppable, unpreventable, non-cancelable reboot in 25 seconds. Funny how I can never get this when I want the machine to reboot, but it can do it when it wants it.

Which is the situation here; I can keep dismissing the warning, but in 18 minutes it will reboot whether I like it or not.

So I decide to bite the bullet, I click on the start button, go to the power icon, and choose "update and restart."

"Annnd it's gone."

Bricked again. Fucking goddamn Microsoft knew my computer running Windows 8,1, which, thank Wotan has never been offered to be "allowed" to upgrade to Windows 10 - and which you can bet I will never allow - so they rammed a mandatory upgrade down my throat that bricked my computer. Again!

I did not want the upgrade. I did not need the upgrade, my computer was working fine. But they forced it onto my computer and rendered it unusable. It won't boot beyond freezing at the blue window icon.

I discover the method to get to the options is to hold down shift when booting which gives me a cyan-colored BSOD telling me my computer did not start properly. Thank you, Captain Obvious. But, I can get to options.

Nope, both Safe Mode with Networking and Safe Mode won't do it, it locks again on the blue Window logo. No stars. And other selections won't do anything. Tried putting a jump drive I think has Windows on it in the USB extender hub. Now it doesn't even go to the Windows logo. it sits with the boot information one the screen for a long time. Then the BSOD of Cap'n Obvious telling me what I already know from the last 12 forced reboots that I had to hold the power key to shut down the machine, that it didn't start up.

Microsoft licensed the wrong song from the Rolling Stones when they introduced Windows 95. They paid $5 million to license "Start Me Up" for their commercials. The Stones song that would have more accurately explained the experience with Windows is "19th Nervous Breakdown."

So I get an idea. I bring it up to the options menu. I turn off the USB extender - the hub actually has an on-off switch - then I try doing a regular boot but without virus pre-inspection. And that's how come I can talk to you now. It looks like the USB hub causes problem with Windows booting even if the only thing connected to it is my trackball.

So it seems like every time Microsoft has done an upgrade they've either caused my computer to have severely reduced functionality or has bricked it. Even if temporarily.

Billy Mays · Post by **Billy Mays** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 5:43 am

I am not sure how any of you are having such a difficult time with Windows. I have got to be the least computer savvy member on this board by a mile and I have not had a single problem with a Microsoft OS since I first started building my own PCs around the launch of XP.

I went from XP to the 7 iterations to the free upgrade to Windows 10. I go up to my local Micro Center, I tell one of the sales staff my budget, I walk out with a shopping cart full of parts and a case, assembly is easy since pretty much the only way the parts can be put together is the right way. I install the drivers and OS, and the best security programs available, and then I have a hedonistic time until something on my rig is not powerful enough to play the next game I get obsessed about, go to Micro Center, tell them what I have and what I want to do, walk out with a bag full of parts, and replace the shitty parts, rinse and repeat.

I am probably a computer caveman by comparison to the people here, and I couldn't break a windows rig if I tried. About the most annoying thing I have to deal with is the cocksucker program rearranging my desktop folders, but that's it.

Realitycheck · Post by **Realitycheck** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:14 am

Billy Mays wrote: I first started building my own PCs around the launch of XP.

dude, you're a baby around here. We've all been building pc's since windows 3.1 . No wonder we're annoyed by you

Billy Mays · Post by **Billy Mays** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:40 am

Realitycheck wrote:dude, you're a baby around here. We've all been building pc's since windows 3.1 .

That was the gist of my argument. I can't figure out how I am able to easily manage to build a perfectly functioning rig, and the man who writes in machine code can't figure out to play a thoroughly shitty game on one.

Realitycheck wrote:No wonder we're annoyed by you

Not everyone...

ICJ wrote:We like Billy Mays. No-one denies that.

Jizaboz · Post by **Jizaboz** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:21 am

Were all of these update prompts hitting you AFTER you had turned off all notifications and Windows firewall? (I assume most of us do that)

That sounds like a royal pain in the ass. 2 Windows machines at my house are very temperamental. Windows 8 laptop will crash to a blue screen if you try to touch the touch-pad too soon upon boot. Windows 7 desktop will tell you that your profile doesn't exist if you try to login too fast.

I've seen Ubuntu hose systems pretty good too (especially if power failure or something interrupts updates).

Farsase · Post by **Farsase** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:21 pm

Realitycheck wrote:
Billy Mays wrote: I first started building my own PCs around the launch of XP.
dude, you're a baby around here. We've all been building pc's since windows 3.1 . No wonder we're annoyed by you

Look at this newb who only started with Windows 3.1!

Jizaboz · Post by **Jizaboz** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 1:25 pm

Haha! I was going to joke about that too but refrained.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 6:17 pm

Wow, was that really Farsase? Haven't heard from him since the dial-up JC.

THE
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AARDVARK

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 7:35 pm

"What's the hardest part about building a PC?"

"Getting all those jumpers lined up so the right numbers are displayed when you press the turbo button..."

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Mon Nov 07, 2016 8:28 pm

AArdvark wrote:Wow, was that really Farsase? Haven't heard from him since the dial-up JC.

THE
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No, I just couldn't think of a handle to use.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Mon Dec 05, 2016 4:26 pm

Thread hijack! Not that anyone was posting in here anyway.

So, as you know, I'm dual booting Ubuntu and Win7. I've been having this wi-fi problem. If I restart the PC I have to unplug /reboot the modem for to get teh internet. It's been bugging me because I like things to work for me, not the other way around. I notice that if I boot into Linux I don't have to reboot the modem, it's only Windows that fucks with me. This is another small nail in the Microsoft coffin.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:20 am

AArdvark wrote: If I restart the PC I have to unplug /reboot the modem for to get teh internet.

Did you actually mean you had to unplug the modem, as in, a phone line adapter for dial-up internet, or did you mean the USB wi-fi adapter?

You're an idiot · Post by **You're an idiot** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 8:32 am

Tdarcos wrote:
AArdvark wrote: If I restart the PC I have to unplug /reboot the modem for to get teh internet.
Did you actually mean you had to unplug the modem, as in, a phone line adapter for dial-up internet, or did you mean the USB wi-fi adapter?

cable modems are modems too.

Tdarcos · Post by **Tdarcos** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 10:14 am

You're an idiot wrote:
Tdarcos wrote:
AArdvark wrote: If I restart the PC I have to unplug /reboot the modem for to get teh internet.
Did you actually mean you had to unplug the modem, as in, a phone line adapter for dial-up internet, or did you mean the USB wi-fi adapter?
cable modems are modems too.

A cable modem is a router, primarily, and I hae changed computers, attached devices, rebooted and restarted machines and never once had to reboot Comcast's Cable Modem. That's why I'm thinking of something directly connected such as USB or a serial port.

Of course I run double routed because I don't know the password to the cable modem (my landlord pays for the Internet because he gets it cheaper than I can because he also buys cable), and I connect to my wireless router. This PC connects by a $9 Tenda wireless USB adapter to a $14 Tenda wireless router, my other computer runs ethernet, I have rebooted both from time to tome and never once had to reboot either router for that reason.

Plus the other people in the house that connect wireless devices. Never needed to reboot for any connection or disconnection.

You're a liar · Post by **You're a liar** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 10:39 am

Comcast modems always need to be rebooted.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Tue Dec 06, 2016 4:01 pm

Well mine's a Ubee from Time Warner, or whatever they are calling themselves after this merger/buyout thing. If I boot into Windows I have to unplug the CABLE modem, If I boot into Linux, I'm fine. The question I ask is what's up wid dat? Probably some weird alphabet soup issue like DHCP or NAACP or COPD, I dunno. There's only three programs that I use Windows for because they don't offer a Linux solution and WINE doesn't like them. Other than that I'm penguin all the way.

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Jizaboz · Post by **Jizaboz** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 10:16 am

AArdvark wrote:Well mine's a Ubee from Time Warner

Those things suck. If you take it to the local office where people pay bills and return equipment, they can swap it out.

AArdvark · Post by **AArdvark** » Wed Dec 07, 2016 5:14 pm

I think I'm just going to continue to give Redmond the two fisted middle finger salute and keep my Ubuntu on the top of the boot list.
the only thing I really use W7 for is Goldwave, PowerDirector and MP3Tag. I don't need teh internet for those.

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AARDVARK