The Windows/PC support thread

[Funk]

LordGrover said:

Funk said:

I actually have an issue with a PC I can't suss out.

I've got a spare HP EliteDesk 800 G2 which wouldn't power on; it's a decent spec (i7, 16Gb, 256Gb SSD etc) so bought a replacement mobo, swapped all the components over and it booted. Got into Windows, start getting updates and it also wanted a firmware update for the BIOS. I let it do it, it restarted and installed the BIOS update and rebooted saying it might take a while and not to remove power. 20 minutes later I know something's not right, it shouldn't take anywhere near that for a BIOS update.

Now it won't boot at all.

Not familiar with this computer, but they can sometimes take hours. They shouldn't, but they do.
If you forced a restart before it completed the BIOS is likely borked.

Hmm. The exact wording on the reboot was "This might take several minutes..." and every other machine I've ever updated BIOS on has done it pretty quickly; I thought I was being generous giving it over 20 mins. The other thing that made me think it wasn't right was that it was doing exactly the same thing over and over (the power on for 10 sec, fans spin, power off for 2 sec) which normally indicates it's already failed at whatever it was supposed to be doing.

I'll probably get another motherboard for it and give it one more shot. Would be a shame to write off a decent-spec machine.

[anonymous-user]

HM-2 said:

The upgrade from W7 to W10 is, or was, free for the vast majority of users. I don't think you can reasonably complain about the cost of upgrades if you've voluntarily turned down the opportunity to have an upgrade for free.

You can still do a free Win7 to Win10 update, the download link is still active.

As support is ending soon for Win 7 and i updated my laptop to an SSD, i bit the bullitt this week and did the update, worked OK.

Only issue i have had so far is the sound wasn't working properly. My laptop is a HP with beats audio. I managed to find a link to the beats audio drivers, so removed the generic drivers and installed those and its back to normal again.

This is the page to get the update from. https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/software-download/...

The instructions on how to do the update are on the page, i used the download tool upgrade this PC method, but also dowloaded the ISO file to disk so i have the software for an install if needed.

Only downside i am seeing is the boot up from sleep is slower, but once past that stage it works well with no noticeable speed changes so far. To get over the slow boot issue, i've changed my power settings to not sleep if the lid is closed, unless its on battery power.

[anonymous-user]

Found another issue with the Win10 update. My bluetooth onboard was no longer a supported driver, so i just bought a £5 bluetooth USB adaptor. Works a treat.

[272BHP]

What is the cheapest way to get a windows 10 license?

I need windows as a boot camp partition on my MacBook. To be honest I am surprised they still charge for the OS in this day and age and prices are all over the place 79 - 130 pound?

[Baldchap]

272BHP said:

What is the cheapest way to get a windows 10 license?

I need windows as a boot camp partition on my MacBook. To be honest I am surprised they still charge for the OS in this day and age and prices are all over the place 79 - 130 pound?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07XV9GHRQ/ref=ya_aw_oh_bia_dp?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is legitimate. I bought two.

The key arrived via WhatsApp, which is odd, but it works and the support and communication is good.

Edited by Baldchap on Sunday 22 December 12:26

[Fastpedeller]

272BHP said:

What is the cheapest way to get a windows 10 license?

I need windows as a boot camp partition on my MacBook. To be honest I am surprised they still charge for the OS in this day and age and prices are all over the place 79 - 130 pound?

I think this won't help you , as you'll want to keep the MacBook, but (following advice from here) I bought a refurbished PC complete with Win 10 for £52 - a real bargain!
ETA Prior to purchase I asked 2 different suppliers about the Win 10 licences on their refurbed pcs. - ie was I getting a proper licenced version? The one I bought the pc from was reassuring, the other just said 'it will work'. Make of that what you will, but I've had no issues, and the supplier is established many years, and happened to be cheaper as well.

Edited by Fastpedeller on Sunday 22 December 16:34

[Human]

Hi all I hope you can help me.

At work we purchased an new 4 wheel alignment machine that runs windows 10.
I would like to Chromecast the screen to 2 -3 other screens around the workshop so we don't have to wheel it around.
I'm having few strange issues though. I will download Google Chrome and install to the pc fine.
I will connect to my wireless router fine.
But if I restart the pc, Google chrome has completely un installed from the computer and I will have to connect to the wireless router every time and enter the password again.

I thought it might be issue with firewall or adware but I found windows defender is turned of and needs to be turned on by something like group.....sorry I can't remember and not by the machine right now.

Anyone can please help?

[shopper150]

Human said:

Hi all I hope you can help me.

At work we purchased an new 4 wheel alignment machine that runs windows 10.
I would like to Chromecast the screen to 2 -3 other screens around the workshop so we don't have to wheel it around.
I'm having few strange issues though. I will download Google Chrome and install to the pc fine.
I will connect to my wireless router fine.
But if I restart the pc, Google chrome has completely un installed from the computer and I will have to connect to the wireless router every time and enter the password again.

I thought it might be issue with firewall or adware but I found windows defender is turned of and needs to be turned on by something like group.....sorry I can't remember and not by the machine right now.

Anyone can please help?

Is the PC you talk of part of the 4 wheel alignment machine?
If some, some 'machines' that run windows are set to go back to the original setup after every reboot so that people don't install extra crap which causes support issues for the provided.

[Novexx]

Dual boot Win7 & 10 on separate drives?

I'm in the process of upgrading from Win7 to 10 & currently have the O/S's running on separate SSD's. Win10 was installed on a new SSD & the plan was not to use the old Win7 SSD as it would no longer be required, but.... turns out that I'll have to occasionally use Win 7. To do this I've just been swapping the SSD's as required, which works fine, but I'm not so happy with physically swapping the SSD's every time I need to access Win7.

In an ideal world I would just stick the Win7 SSD permanently into the PC & use the boot menu to change the boot disk as required to run whichever O/S is required, but there seems to be quite a few stories of this not being workable or a good idea;

Win7 & Win10 don't play well together & UEFI problems seem to be possible - is there any truth in this?

Also, Win7 & Win10 are running on the same licence (7 was supplied installed via 10 downgrade rights), although never concurrently.


Thanks for looking.

[Funk]

Novexx said:

Dual boot Win7 & 10 on separate drives?

I'm in the process of upgrading from Win7 to 10 & currently have the O/S's running on separate SSD's. Win10 was installed on a new SSD & the plan was not to use the old Win7 SSD as it would no longer be required, but.... turns out that I'll have to occasionally use Win 7. To do this I've just been swapping the SSD's as required, which works fine, but I'm not so happy with physically swapping the SSD's every time I need to access Win7.

In an ideal world I would just stick the Win7 SSD permanently into the PC & use the boot menu to change the boot disk as required to run whichever O/S is required, but there seems to be quite a few stories of this not being workable or a good idea;

Win7 & Win10 don't play well together & UEFI problems seem to be possible - is there any truth in this?

Also, Win7 & Win10 are running on the same licence (7 was supplied installed via 10 downgrade rights), although never concurrently.


Thanks for looking.

This should get you sorted: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2108-dual-boot...

Or possibly run the Win7 machine as a VM under Win10? Would probably require a second Windows licence though.

[Funk]

ash73 said:

Latest windows update (10.2004) is causing some problems, it properly banjaxed my Dad's PC this week. Recovered it via system restore, then tried to install it manually via windows update assistant and it reported "windows couldn't install this update 0xc1900223".

Didn't want to wait for Microsoft to get their act together, my Dad would just break it again, so I delved deeper. Workaround was to download the update, switch to airplane mode once it starts preparing, and let it install offline. All working now.

Others are reporting the same.

Yeah, Microsoft even held the update back because initial roll-out was causing problems.

Thing is, I don't know why they think we give a st about all these constant changes. Microsoft are actively damaging themselves by continually rolling out patches and updates that break so much stuff or change functionality.

I don't want it. I don't need my OS to be meddled with - just install it and keep it updated with security updates - fk 'feature updates' etc. I don't want new features in my OS, it just needs to get me to the things I want to do or use, that's all.

The fact they're forcing the updates is actually rather frustrating. When it's working, W10 is decent enough but when MS break something with an update it's a huge source of frustration and annoyance, not to mention the potential for things like data loss (as has actually happened in previous updates).

I just wish they'd leave it alone.

[LordGrover]

Considering the diversity they do a pretty good job IME. Admittedly I work with mainstream Dell Optiplex desktops and XPS laptops but it's very rare I see any issues with updates these days.

[Funk]

I don't disagree with security updates but they're forever meddling with the guts of it and the very fact it's across such a wide range of hardware is one of the reasons why it often causes issues. MS also gutted their testing dept, it's now broadly reliant on the Windows Insider programme but even then there aren't the right people in Microsoft listening.

The problems are deep-seated and unlikely to ever be resolved...

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/09/23/former-microsoft...

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3407712/micr...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/10/microsofts...

https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-needs-to-r...

https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-broke-one-of-its-mos...

The concept of Windows-as-a-Service is fundamentally pointless - I could understand it if we were paying a monthly fee to use the OS (and perhaps that's coming...although if this is the standard of it, I'm out) - but most people, especially enterprises, just need things to be reliable, stable and to just work.

Edited by Funk on Wednesday 15th July 14:05

[ch37]

New build issues, spec below...

All built, all fans start including the CPU one, RAM lights up and appears to be seated correctly, GPU showing no warning lights, but I get no signal when connecting to monitor (I've tried two). And yes, I'm connecting via the GPU video out.

Rebuilt from scratch, still the same issue. Once switched on it runs indefinitely, not cutting out or anything. Any thoughts?

InWin A1 Plus Mini ATX Case w/ 650W Gold PSU

Aorus X750 Pro Mini ITX Motherboard

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X CPU

Corsair Vengeance 32GB RGB Pro DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 16GB)

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2070 Super 8GB

Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD

Western Digital Blue 3D NAND 1TB M.2 SSD

Corsair ML 120mm Fans

[Funk]

Do you get a POST screen on boot? Which of the GPU connections are you using for video output?

[ch37]

Never mind, one of the two 4 pin connectors for the mobo power had dislodged, pretty much hidden from view once installed in such a tight case. Surprised I still got a light show from the RAM etc without it!

[Funk]

Glad you got it sorted - looks like a very nice spec!

[clockworks]

An elderly ex-neighbour who I hadn't heard from in 5 years called the other day to ask if I could look at her Toshiba laptop, which "fell over" doing a Windows 10 update.
As far as she was concerned, the only problem was that it wouldn't connect using her USB mifi dongle. I figured it would be relatively simple fix - delete all network devices and drivers, reboot and let it sort itself out.
I've not had much to with Windows for many years, as I use an iMac or Android stuff these days.

Unfortunately that's proved to not be the case.

I can't get into any of the options in "settings" - the main page appears, but clicking on any of the options either freezes, or the box opens and immediately closes. Same problems if I boot in safe mode.

Also, I can't type anything in the "search" box, and trying to open a browser window or the printer app freezes.

I've found a few fixes online for "re-registering" the settings app, including a command line fix and via PowerShell. The commands completed OK, but haven't fixed it.

I guess the problems run deeper than just the settings app.

Short of sending her to a shop for a complete Windows re-install, is there anything else I can try?

[Jinx]

clockworks said:

Short of sending her to a shop for a complete Windows re-install, is there anything else I can try?

Type

"Reset This PC"

At the menu. There is an option to keep users files.

[clockworks]

Jinx said:

Type

"Reset This PC"

At the menu. There is an option to keep users files.

Unfortunately the "settings" options don't work, nor does the taskbar search box