Critical Windows 8.1 Problem

General Discussion
1

Hello there, it’s me again. I encountered a critical problem with my PC that rendered it nearly unusable, and I want to know if you, the Stonehearth Community, can help me out on this problem.

I know this isn’t a Tech Forum, but seeing as some of the people here have worked with PCs before, I want to see if they can help me with this problem.

So, as some of you may know, I have a Lenovo y510p Laptop running Windows 8.1. Ever since January of this year, my Computer has been showing signs of problems, such as black bars covering my Browser, Freezing, not Booting-Up properly, and who can forget about the infamous Blue Screen of Death. I just let these problems go because they only happened every so often and weren’t too hard to fix.

Then today, while I was in my Hotel in Orlando, I decided to work on my Laptop and finish one of my Word Documents. It failed to Boot-Up, and all I did was give me a Black-Screen right after I saw my OEM Logo pop up. I tried to boot up again, same thing. About Five-Minutes later, I got it to work, but not the way I wanted it to Boot-Up.

It gave me that Screen when Windows fails to Start correctly, and it gave me a list of Options to fix the problem. I found one that said “System Refresh”, which will basically do a System Recovery without removing your Files and Applications. I clicked on it, gave the PC my Account Password, and let it Refresh my PC.

About what seemed like an Eternity later, It finally took me to the Log-In Screen. I typed in my Password, and it loaded up my Account. It then gave me the Screen that changes Colors and tells you that it’s loading up your Applications, you know, the Screen that comes after installing Windows 8 for the first time. I was confused, but shrugged and just waited for it to load.

It then gave me my Start Screen, but all the Tiles were jumbled and were all over the place, and the Tiles I put there were gone. I was absolutely baffled why it did this, but I just clicked the Desktop Tile and instantly took me to the Desktop. I then was greeted with a horrifying problem. I realized that my PC had been restored to Factory Default, with all the original Crapware installed. I knew this because my Taskbar had the same Icons that I had when I got the PC. I then searched some of the Programs I installed, like my Antivirus and my Adobe Software, and they were uninstalled, which meant that well over a hundred dollars worth of Software was gone. My Office Software was still there, though.

I haven’t got to the worst part yet. All of the Icons, even the Recycle Bin Icon we’re too familiar with have disappeared. I tried making some Shortcuts and putting them on the Desktop, but no such luck. I later installed Chrome, and even the Chrome Icons didn’t appear on my Desktop.

Anyways, can someone help me with this problem? I would really appreciate it.

###SYSTEM INFO

  • Intel Inside CORE i7-4700MQ Processor
  • nVidia GForce Graphics Card
  • 8GB RAM
  • Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-Bit
2

Hmmm… well, I’ve had a few… issues, to say the least… with Windows 8, but nothing like this. That’s a pretty big problem. Most of the time, with the stuff that I have to fix, I just kind of have to haphazardly jerry-rig something together in the options menu of various random applications and the like, but I’ve got no idea how to fix this.

If I were you, I’d see what you can find out online, and if nothing works for a few days, I’d suggest you take it to a store and let someone who knows more about it than I do take a look at it. I’ve got a Y500, but nothing like this has happened to me. Although, I’m a little bit paranoid now.

3

I’m suspecting this may be a Disk Error or something related to that. There is a small Computer Store near my House in California which also repairs PCs, and I always relied on them whenever my older Desktop running Windows XP starts to show bad problems, and they always fixed them. I think I should send it to them when I get back from Florida.

I was thinking of sending this Info to Microsoft through an Email, and see if they can help, but first I need to see what type of Problem this is, and where to send it to.

Also, don’t worry, @ManOfRet, I’m sure this is a rare problem, though it is 100% possible that this problem could happen to someone else.

4

Ech. Well, either way, good luck with your situation! It really sucks to have that happen. A computer holds a lot of information, and it’s pretty difficult to even catalog everything that you had on there!

Uhh, by the way, why exactly did you have to go to Florida if you live in California? That’s like going from a big city to a slightly-less-big-but-still-pretty-big city.

5

Me and my Family are having a Vacation.

6

Yeah, well I got that part, but it’s just kind of funny that you’d go to Florida, of all places. Then again, I live in Georgia and get to spend a lot of time in Florida, relatively, although I’ve never been to Cali.

7

Can’t say I’ve run into anything like this with 8.1 on my Lenovo … am I right in thinking you have a relatively new machine? It might well be the work of some virus that you’ve unwittingly acquired somewhere.

I’m not sure if this is a lenovo standard feature but mine has the one key recovery which I believe will reset your system without erasing your personal files (as long as they’re in the D: drive), so that might be worth thinking about in the future.

The system refresh shouldn’t have removed your files …unless you misread it and it was actually a system restore. Windows should come pre-installed with office which might explain why office is still there?

You shouldn’t have lost access to your software as most of these things have accounts, or links through emails that will enable you to redownload everything.

As for the shortcuts, it appears like you can’t right click and send to desktop from the start menu, this link should help:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/create-desktop-shortcuts-icons

2 Likes
8

Only problem is, that drive is only about 25 GB large. Definitely NOT an option for me to store everything there.

But yeah, you are right in saying that his PC is new. It was released over the summer, I think, possibly later.

9

Yer it is rather limited … that’s with the Lenovo feature though, I was certain the in built ‘refresh’ option with windows 8 left all personal files untouched.

Also I’m sure you’d be able to increase the partition size for the D drive, although it depends how much you want to keep I suppose.

Yer, I did a quick google and couldn’t find any similar results, if something like this was due to the hardware I would have thought more results would have popped up … I mean, @EpicDwarf might have had a dodgy driver installation, I’m not that clued up on hardware issues so I’m probably barking up the wrong tree.

The only blue screen I’ve had was due to my wireless mouse usb messing up which caused a crash, nothing too sinister about it.

10

I’m not sure if I can help, but I will confirm this: I’m running Windows 8.1 and I also get the black bars problem. Not anything else though.

11

Ah, yes, I forgot to say that I, too, get the problem sometimes. There are a few bugs, no doubt.

12

I’m running Win8.1 and have so far had 2 blue screen of deaths (for different reasons too), though the first I’m pretty sure was to do with some new software/hardware (I can’t remember which, but I know it made sense at the time). Don’t get black bars, though I know I’m somewhat uncommon in using IE so perhaps it’s a Chrome thing if you and Alfie are using Chrome? Obviously this isn’t the important thing, but I have no idea on your main problem.

13

I use Chrome, and I assumed it was a problem with Chrome, not Win8.1.

14

It’s probably a problem with both together. Although I haven’t really tried to experiment and find the problem. It’s not that big of a deal, just mousing over the black bars should make them go away.

15

Or switching tab. That works for me.

16

Took a Screenshot of the problem.

untitled.jpg1920×1080 138 KB

As you can see, all of the Icons are gone, my Wallpaper had been reset to the Default Wallpaper, my ClassicShell Start-Menu had been deleted, and McAfee, Stagelight, Pokki, and other crapware had been re-installed on my Computer, as you can see based on my Taskbar and System Tray. I also had Rainmeter installed, and that disappeared too.

I would’ve taken a picture of the jumbled up Start Screen, but Windows acted like a ***** and wouldn’t let me take one.

17

Well, given that it SHOULD have reset to factory default (based on what you’re saying), that’s a pretty bad thing to see. Normally, there are the basic icons on there. You know the drill, all of those crappy apps that are pre-installed and IE as well.

18

Not to mention that Recycle Bin we’re all too familiar with.

The Recycle Bin should have stayed there. It’s the first and most important Icon in Windows!

19

Doesn’t it always? Oh, nothing good ever happens in Florida (most prominently the cannibal attack of 2012)…

DISCLAIMER:

The following story may contain technical computer jargon, and is very strongly worded. You may cut to the chase and only read the strong** text.*

My cousin had, well many problems with Windows 8.1, but one of them was one in which the BIOS didn’t think that the C: Drive was a bootable drive. After opening the computer up and forcing the parts into place myself, the BIOS found the C: Drive. Yet when the Windows logo appeared, the screen would go black. 30 minutes later, the problem didn’t fix itself. I had to use the install disk for Windows 8 to perform a system refresh, but the CD didn’t find any disks with Windows installed on them. I copied all of his files to an external drive, struggled to wipe and reformat the C: Drive (as a sole NTFS partition), and finally got to the install screen. No matter what I tried, windows refused to install on a native system. To this day, the computer is still in its state of utter and complete madness…

* HTML/CSS term for bold text

20

Don’t worry, I understood what you said.

Windows 8 was probably one of the worst OS’s Microsoft has made.

Windows 8 ranks up with such classic OS’s like Millenium Edition and Vista.