PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Fun-Fun-Fun Microsoft Update Gone Bad

Weather aside, any time I see a thread concerning Windows updates I have to chime in with comments. These are general, not directed at anybody.

1. The single best thing to do with these issues is to let MS reinstall Windows like Jim did. Forget about trying to diagnose the problem, just back up your stuff and reinstall, that wipes out any "helpful" tweaks you may have done or possibly someone else did you didn't know about. Ever seen recommendations on this forum to use Biab's Return To Factory Settings to solve weird problems? Same thing.

2. I do not mess with my system at all. I know some love to try to uninstall or disable Edge for example, I don't care just leave it alone. If a piece of software is having a problem with Windows and their tech support tells me the easy fix is to simply go into the Registry and do something, that's it for that software as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going there. For over 20 years I've never "tweaked" my system. I leave it exactly how Mother Micrusoft likes it and I've never had any serious update issues.

There is one small thing others have reported. Audio settings. Sometimes an update will shut off my audio, I'll see in the system tray the audio has been muted and I know I didn't do it and occasionally someone will say their power management settings changed although I've never seen that.

The only serious issue I've ever had was not the sort of update we're talking about here it was the "update" from Win 7 to 10. I kept getting hangup's with the system totally freezing up and finally did some searches and found out Avast can cause it and I was using Avast at the time. I tried disabling it and no go, I had to completely uninstall it and then 10 installed. After that I use Windows Security, formerly Defender. It's basically as good as any other AV out there.

3. Many times if a discussion about really bad update failures gets down to technical details the person will give away the fact they're a big time tweaker. They think they're "optimizing" or "helping" their system. They think they know better than MS. They don't.

4. Age of the system. Computers are not an appliance or some piece of lawn care equipment that can last 10-20 years. If somebody's system is that old and they're having these update problems, it's time to update the hardware. Just one example of many I could give is the power supply. They fail all the time but it's usually not an obvious on/off thing. A failing power supply can do random things that interferes with the entire system including booting problems. Same with memory, same with mobo components. I usually replace my system every 5 or 6 years max.

Anyway, what does all this boil down to if you're having this level of major issues because of an update?

Reinstall Windows or buy a new system. To me the test to see if it's a hardware issue is the reinstall. If it won't reinstall or it does reinstall but you're still having problems then it's a hardware issue and it's best to junk it and buy a new one. Unless it's a newer system, in that case it may be worth it to let a pro check it out.

Bob

Here's the problem with my trip. Of the 8 stops I want to make 5 of them come from Boondocker's Welcome. And 4 of those 5 are not accepting guests because of Covid concerns. I need to be stopping at places with 110v power so I have heat overnight. Once I get far enough south I'm okay, but North Carolina, parts of Georgia and such, that weather is so unpredictable it's pretty risky to do anything. Shooting now for late February to see what the hosts are doing.

So I can count on you to fly your drone over my house and watch it while I'm gone?

Bob , part of this whole "I'm too skeered to update" stuff is people's perception of what "problem" means. One update reset my sound to use the onboard sound hardware and I use my Focusrite. Rather than allowing that to make me go out in search of Valium, I hit the Windows key, selected System, then devices, and routed my audio back to the Focusrite. Where some found that a reason to damn the existence of Microsoft, I saw it as an "I know what I need to do" and just did it. It took about 6 seconds of my life, and life went on. As long as computers have been on our lives, I just don't understand why the simplest of troubleshooting still sends people off the deep end.

When I first got my Jeep Renegade, I joined a forum to see what I could learn from people about the nuances of the car. One particular guy, some Charlie Weaver looking hayseed from Indiana somewhere, found a reason to post angry rants EVERY DAY about the STUPIDEST things. Once he went on a 4 day rant because when you set the cruise control, the speedometer doesn't always match your cruise control speed. (Somehow he missed that simple concept of gravity and physics that if you are going even 1 degree uphill your speed is affected.) Another time was that when you turn on the radio, which includes Sirus/XM, it takes 8 seconds to boot and asks you to accept a user's agreement for the U-Connect software in it. If you leave it alone, it defaults after 5 seconds. His complaint was that it added 5 seconds to the time it took the radio to start working. 5 seconds. And he did that about EVERYTHING! Including that his auto sensing wipers didn't work, without grasping that his particular model was NOT EQUIPPED with them!!

When you look for things to irritate you, you will find them. Some people choose to live in a world where it rains every day.

Now we have to deal with the onset of "I like XP! Why is Windows 11 coming out??"

Hey, run XP if you like. Go back to MS-DOS 3.1 if you like. NOBODY CARES! Chances are you won't be able to run it anyway so your computer will not be updated to it, so that's all moot. Of my 5 computers, 3 will not run it, and I don't care. Windows 10, 11, 13, 17 or any other prime number... whatever. All I care about is getting online. (And annoying people.)

Those kind of people still think cars, television, rock'n'roll and the internet are all just passing fads!

My favorite story ever was when I had an in-home repair business one of my clients was a judge. Meaning she went to high school, college, law school, worked as in intern and then passed the bar, worked as a lawyer for years and was then appointed to the bench. That would indicate she was a pretty smart woman. She called me one night at 11:10 to say her kid was playing some pinball game and the computer locked up to where the power button wouldn't even turn it off. I said "You woke me up for THIS? Did it occur to you at all to pull the power cord out of the wall? Judge." THAT is what I hear when people complain that their 10 year old laptop won't run a new OS.

(In Tim The Toolman Taylor's voice)

Spend money.
Buy new computer.
Oogh Oogh.

All the people wanting to be the richest corpse in the graveyard... SMDH