W700P windows update causing infinite bluescreen loop on bootup

A few days ago I was prompted by windows that the PC would be restarted to install the critical updates that were downloaded by windows update. I proceeded with the reboot. During the typical progress indicator a BSOD occured with WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. This occured 2 or 3 times until the system prompted me with options or restart buttons. If I just choose to restart I keep getting the same BSOD. So I then chose options and from there chose the option to go back to a system restore point. Which was just prior to the update being performed. This allowed it to boot normally and worked as if nothing was wrong. I procceeded to check for updates and rebooted to install them. This time all went well and it booted fine after the typical update install progess screens completed. However today I went to reboot because there was a problem with windows settings (the one from the charm and more PC settings link) not working right. And now I'm stuck with the infinite bluescreen loop on bootup with the same WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR. However this time when I choose system restore point it tells me there is none. Rather aggravating concidering just days ago there was. And attempting refresh your pc option it tells me the disk is locked and I need to unlock it. Of course no details are provided in how you do that and I can't find an answer for that. So I'm here seeking help on how do I fix things so it boots up and is as if I never installed that update? I don't know how a simple security update can critically harm bootup. This has me so angry at microsoft right now it's not even funny.

Accepted answers

All comments

billsey

Unfortunately that error usually means there is a hardware problem. This page at Microsoft gives more details that might pin it down further.

StoneRyno

Unfortunately no parameter is given on the BSOD and because I can't get into windows I can't see if there is one in the logs. After the successful installing of the update I was running for days with no issue at all so I'm highly doubtful of any hardware failing or had failed. I can only speculate at this time the update somehow messed up some part of bootup so windows fails to boot correctly and it is returning this error without parameter because maybe none of them apply. Again just speculating. I have seen posts not related to my specific issue but who got that error with parameters who were able to fix the error because it was some software related issue. But since I have lack of sufficient details at this time I have no specific course of action to follow. My main concern at this time is if I just start trying things without knowing for sure the correct course of action that I might do more harm than good. At this time I am going to install ubuntu on a USB stick so I can boot from it and backup the SSD contents. That way if I need to restore to a factory state to correct the issue I can. You know that being the last resort option.

StoneRyno

I've been pretty busy and not had any time to devote to solving this problem. However I have news to which I think will allow me to do a backup so that I can at least retain my personal files and do a restore to factory state of it (assuming that will work since the other form of system restore without losing personal files isn't working). It will boot in safe mode with network support and run just fine like that. I am able to access the network drive from the tablet so as long as it will I can use that to do the backup. For some reason I somehow managed to uninstall macrium reflect which I have relied on in the past to do backups as it does an image of the drive and can write that image file to a network drive. For whatever reason though macrium reflect won't install in safe mode. Also because I can't have both a USB KB and the ubuntu linux stick in at the same time I can't use it because there is no touch screen support in the initial choose to install or try ubuntu. I will however after I manage to get things backed up dual boot this with ubuntu as a fall back option in case anything goes wrong with windows in the future. My question at this point; will windows backup perform the backup to a network drive? And will I be able to selectively restore just my personal files from the backup?

billsey

Yes, you should have no problem doing a Windows backup to a network drive or removable media like a thumb drive. Make sure if you have apps that store data in weird places (Like C:\filedata\ instead of My Documents) that you manually add those locations. Letting Windows choose will only backup stuff from the normal places...

StoneRyno

Ok i have managed to add my network drive as the destination for the backup however clicking on system image backup says "Running in safe mode is not supported". Attempting tapping on the turn on button also says "This service cannot be started in safe mode". Putting me back to square one since according to microsoft this is windows backup for windows 8. Any ideas on what I can do from here? I suppose worse case I do a MD5 sum of the whole drive and copy paste and then check all the files with the MD5 to verify they have copied intact. But other than that I have no thoughts on my options.

billsey

It actually makes a twisted sort of sense to disable Windows Backup in Safe Mode, after all you wouldn't want to backup the thing that's causing the problem, and you wouldn't be in Safe Mode without a problem. Smiley Happy

I'm thinking go ahead and hit it with a hammer... When booted to Safe Mode with the network folder up in Explorer launch a second instance of Explorer, change your settings to show hidden files and copy everything from C:\Users\username except the NTUSER.DAT files (there will be several of them) to a subfolder in the network folder. Then check for any other stuff you might want to backup (C:\Users\Public and C:\Users\Default come to mind) and do the same with them. If you're on a domain network make sure you set permissions on the resulting folders so that anyone can access them in case you end up resetting your system entirely. That should do a good job of preserving all your data. Once you've done that go ahead and fix the issue (you might be able to get away with a refresh but you also might have to do a reset) then copy the data back if needed. Once you have the system back to normal do a full backup before you have the next issue show up. Smiley Tongue

StoneRyno

All my attempts at using methods that allow me to verify the integrity of the files once they are on my desktop PC have failed. MD5 won't run all files are either skipped or access denied. Same with attempting to archive zip lots of files being skipped. So I decided to give getting ubuntu booted from USB again. I managed to get it up and running. It has a backup utility and I can see the windows drive with it. However I can't seem to figure out how to point it to the shared drive on my desktop. I am a novice or less than that when it comes to how things work in linux. I'm a pro with windows and know how to enter network shares ex \\MY_PC\Shared in explorer would result in a popup that asks for credentials to access the share. In the backup where to save the backup to section is a drop down box that has windows share as an option and below that drop down box is several boxes for entering the details for it. They are server, folder, username, and domain name. But I have no idea what to put in each. On my desktop the shared drives network path is \\MY-PC\Shared

billsey

Linux will use SMB to access Windows shares. Make sure it's installed and active in your setup and then mount the Windows shares as drives under Linux. Details as to how to do all of that will differ slightly by distribution and version, so you get to Google some more! Smiley Happy

StoneRyno

I'm getting the rapid impression that linux is not user friendly at all. I would have thought that after as much time as it's been around since I have first attempted to mess around with it (years at least) it would be as simple and straight forward as using windows to perform the same tasks. I posted on an ubuntu forum to get help with an error with the backup software. I was able to get connected to my desktop PC but it was failing to actually backup. It would either error and say there was no room or go through the motions and say it completed successfully only to find there were no files on my desktop PC. Performing the same backup but placing it on the local drive of the tablet works fine and not only does it report the success but there are actual files that were created as a result of the process. I suppose I could just do the backup that way. Reboot into windows safe mode. MD5 the backup set copy them to the desktop PC from safe mode and then check their integrity with MD5 on the desktop PC.

billsey

There are distributions of Linux that are easier than others to use but since they are put together by pretty much all volunteers it's not surprising that they're not all the same. Once you get reasonably deep into one though it's not all that hard to use a different one. If there were a central control organization to keep the drive to usability going strong it might be better for casual users but for now it's everyone for themself. Smiley Happy

If the network drive thing isn't working, try doing the backup locally then use FTP to tranfser the resulting file to your Windows box. I use Filezilla Server for that type of functionality and it works well.

StoneRyno

I've tried a few linux distro but they have all been pretty unfriendly in the ease of usability category. To date ubuntu has been the best one I have tried. I'm not sure how the others have progressed since I have used them but I recall such nightmares as go to install an app I want to have and a dependency not be there, to go and install that to discover that the dependency is missing a dependency, and then that one needs one and so on. To others being too dependent on old school command line in a GUI OS instead of having GUIs for all that stuff. But anyways I have managed to perform the backup to the local SSD and MD5 sum it in safe mode and copy them to my desktop and verify their integrity with the MD5. The backup is done in multipart difftar.gz which appears to be a zip compatible with 7-zip. So after I factory reset, get all windows updates done, and get all my apps installed; can I just use 7-zip in windows to selectively restore files I need from it? I don't see a way to selectively restore using ubuntu's backup app. Of course if my original thought of extracting them using a zip app if viable then that is probably why the backup app doesn't have a selective restore as they probably expect people will use a zip app for that.

billsey

Or you can get real old school and use the command line in Ubuntu. The two command to investigate are gzip for the compression and tar for the archive. Smiley Happy

StoneRyno

GRRRR now I'm running into another problem. When I choose recover or reset (thought I'd give the first a shot before factory reset) it halts at insert my recovery. The recovery is a hidden partition on the machine as setup by acer so it is for all practical purposes already inserted. So why the heck is it not seeing it and proceeding as soon as I click recovery or reset? Perhaps this has shed some light on the underlying issue here and maybe if this is fixed the other issue will be fixed? I don't know but I'm getting so frustrated it isn't even funny. Thanks for your continued help by the way. At least I have everything backed up so I haven't lost anything. Now if we can just get it working normal again and hope nothing like this ever happens again. I never in all my life of working on PCs ran into a problem this severe. And I have had plenty of things go wrong with my PCs in the past. UGGG

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 135

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™