General Computer Thread

[Marc]

I am... and . Windows 10 made my laptop completely freeze and crash. As in the drive itself wasn't even running (the light was off). I wasn't able to move my touchpad or do anything, outside of hard shutting it down.

Ugh. I'm beyond angry right now. I'm livid. I hardly had any tabs open. Just five. I'm guessing it was in part due to Tumblr. But it doesn't excuse Windows. They're not off the hook with me. Others have run into this problem. In part due to the updating that they keep on doing.

Just double checked via my task manager and the disk went down for a bit, so I'm betting the culprit is update related.

have you looked through the event log to see what errors are being recorded - it's quite possible the issue that you're blaming Windows for could actually be hardware related. Even in situations were I've had a hard lock up requiring a power cycle to reset, the hard disk never spun down.

 

[Random_Spock]

have you looked through the event log to see what errors are being recorded - it's quite possible the issue that you're blaming Windows for could actually be hardware related. Even in situations were I've had a hard lock up requiring a power cycle to reset, the hard disk never spun down.

I haven't yet. But I'll check. I just had this HDD installed recently. It would suck if it were installed improperly.

I'm thinking it might be update related though.

This looks rather suspicious:

Spoiler

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client
Date: 9/13/2016 10:08:29 AM
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: (1014)
Level: Warning
Keywords: (268435456)
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: -PC
Description:
Name resolution for the name wpad timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client" Guid="" />
<EventID>1014</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>1014</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000010000000</Keywords>
<EventRecordID>3722</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="1552" ThreadID="1368" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
</System>

Ok this one is definitely weird. It took place last night.

Spoiler

Log Name: System
Source: Service Control Manager
Date: 9/13/2016 12:21:53 AM
Event ID: 7031
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: -PC
Description:
The User Data Access_fe1085c service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 10000 milliseconds: Restart the service.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Service Control Manager" Guid="" EventSourceName="Service Control Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="49152">7031</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords>
<EventRecordID>3713</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="800" ThreadID="9176" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Owner-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="param1">User Data Access_</Data>
<Data Name="param2">1</Data>
<Data Name="param3">10000</Data>
<Data Name="param4">1</Data>
<Data Name="param5">Restart the service</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

I'm still looking through it, but that took place before I shut down my laptop <-- what I mentioned first. Ok, just checked and the DNS error has occurred before now without any crashing.

I'm wondering if what took place early this morning could be some how related.

Other than that, I'm at a loss as to what's happening.

 

[Santaman]

I've had occasions where drives were spun down after a bug check/BSOD had to give the machine a hard reset to make them spin up again.

I've heard a lot about M$'s anniversary update being an absolute piece of crap, might want to rollback to the previous less buggy version..

https://www.askwoody.com

That site usually has good tips and tricks for dealing with Windows.

 

[Marc]

I haven't yet. But I'll check. I just had this HDD installed recently. It would suck if it were installed improperly.

I'm thinking it might be update related though.

This looks rather suspicious:

Spoiler

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client
Date: 9/13/2016 10:08:29 AM
Event ID: 1014
Task Category: (1014)
Level: Warning
Keywords: (268435456)
User: NETWORK SERVICE
Computer: -PC
Description:
Name resolution for the name wpad timed out after none of the configured DNS servers responded.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DNS-Client" Guid="" />
<EventID>1014</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>3</Level>
<Task>1014</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x4000000010000000</Keywords>
<EventRecordID>3722</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="1552" ThreadID="1368" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
</System>

I'm still looking through it, but that took place before I shut down my laptop <-- what I mentioned first. Ok, just checked and the DNS error has occurred before now without any crashing.

I'm wondering if what took place early this morning could be some how related.

Other than that, I'm at a loss as to what's happening.

WPAD shoulodn't have anything to do with as it only comes in to play when you're doing an autodect for a proxy server.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol

For the second one have a read through http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/13521-anyone-know-how-fix-event-id-7031-a.html - a couple of posters mention the user data access which is what you're seeing.

 

[Random_Spock]

Thanks!

I'm relatively sure that the freeze is update related. Last night, my laptop had to install some updates before shutting down. Gotta love Windows.

I really just hate them. Right now it's working on trying to download Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607, which had problems installing along with Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3150513).

I only have so much space to work with. So they're really getting on my nerves. At least the former one allows for a little leeway, but ugh... I wish I just had the control I did before with Windows 7.

 

[Santaman]

The shit heads @ M$ have decided that as of October all updates for Win8.x and 7 will be cumulative just like win 10 so forget retaining control over the older OS's now as well.

May they rot in hell...

 

[Marc]

Thanks!

I'm relatively sure that the freeze is update related. Last night, my laptop had to install some updates before shutting down. Gotta love Windows.

I really just hate them. Right now it's working on trying to download Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607, which had problems installing along with Update for Windows 10 Version 1511 for x64-based Systems (KB3150513).

I only have so much space to work with. So they're really getting on my nerves. At least the former one allows for a little leeway, but ugh... I wish I just had the control I did before with Windows 7.

Had that issue on my wife's laptop yesterday but haven't dug any further into. Think part of the problem is Windows update seeing is still being 1511 so wants to apply that update but also that because of the version 1607 should be applied as well.

Would be nice if I could get her off it for long enough to sort some of these issues out (a problem compounded by the system being fairly slow - looked at adding in an SSD but the amount of pulling apart to installed = not going to happen).

The shit heads @ M$ have decided that as of October all updates for Win8.x and 7 will be cumulative just like win 10 so forget retaining control over the older OS's now as well.

May they rot in hell...

On the other hand given the sheer number of patches that out there for Win7 and 8.x, rebuilding can be a major pain and using cumulative updates can take away some of that headache. Haven't rebuilt win8 lately but did my Win2012R2 server a couple of months back - 200+ patches for the OS alone.

 

[Random_Spock]

Had that issue on my wife's laptop yesterday but haven't dug any further into. Think part of the problem is Windows update seeing is still being 1511 so wants to apply that update but also that because of the version 1607 should be applied as well.

Would be nice if I could get her off it for long enough to sort some of these issues out (a problem compounded by the system being fairly slow - looked at adding in an SSD but the amount of pulling apart to installed = not going to happen).



On the other hand given the sheer number of patches that out there for Win7 and 8.x, rebuilding can be a major pain and using cumulative updates can take away some of that headache. Haven't rebuilt win8 lately but did my Win2012R2 server a couple of months back - 200+ patches for the OS alone.

Ah. It's good to see I'm not alone with this issue. My laptop runs pretty decently right now, but Windows... I swear. Sometimes I'd like to bean them upside the head.

So far it hasn't been able to get 1607 on. It got the other one on though. I'm going to be keeping an eye on 1607 to see what happens.

 

[Marc]

Ah. It's good to see I'm not alone with this issue. My laptop runs pretty decently right now, but Windows... I swear. Sometimes I'd like to bean them upside the head.

So far it hasn't been able to get 1607 on. It got the other one on though. I'm going to be keeping an eye on 1607 to see what happens.

According to an article that was linked on slashdot.org yesterday, Microsoft are having issues with the role of 1607 seeming due to the large number of machines it's going to.
It's trying to download but doesn't seem to be going anywhere (on a 40/10 cable connection so it should be coming through reasonable quickly).

I had to download the one update for 1511 manually to get it installed on the wife's laptop yesterday (big fucker too - 1GB so thank $deity for unlimited internet)

 

[Random_Spock]

According to an article that was linked on slashdot.org yesterday, Microsoft are having issues with the role of 1607 seeming due to the large number of machines it's going to.
It's trying to download but doesn't seem to be going anywhere (on a 40/10 cable connection so it should be coming through reasonable quickly).

I had to download the one update for 1511 manually to get it installed on the wife's laptop yesterday (big fucker too - 1GB so thank $deity for unlimited internet)

Oh I see. Looks like that automatic download plan of theirs isn't going so well. It didn't even download at all the last time I checked too.

Dang. Well that one worked out ok on my end. But my laptop can only handle so many of those. 1GB updates add up. And I only have a 500gb hard drive and over 200gb has been used on it.

 

[Santaman]

Had that issue on my wife's laptop yesterday but haven't dug any further into. Think part of the problem is Windows update seeing is still being 1511 so wants to apply that update but also that because of the version 1607 should be applied as well.

Would be nice if I could get her off it for long enough to sort some of these issues out (a problem compounded by the system being fairly slow - looked at adding in an SSD but the amount of pulling apart to installed = not going to happen).



On the other hand given the sheer number of patches that out there for Win7 and 8.x, rebuilding can be a major pain and using cumulative updates can take away some of that headache. Haven't rebuilt win8 lately but did my Win2012R2 server a couple of months back - 200+ patches for the OS alone.

Yes, but in a lot of cases you also will not be able to avoid patches that will crash machines with custom software running, quite a bitch when you have 100+ different configurations each with specific needs, a lot of programs simply will not work anymore because a patch will screw up something, usually along the line you figure out what to blacklist and keep off the machine, this will no longer be possible.

 

[Random_Spock]

Yes, but in a lot of cases you also will not be able to avoid patches that will cras machines with custom software running, quite a bitch when you have 100+ different configurations each with specific needs, a lot of programs simply will not work anymore because a patch will screw up something, usually along the line you figure out what to blacklist and keep off the machine, this will no longer be possible.

Exactly. It's a bitch not being able to do that, unless you have Pro. They're allowing people to hold off on it (via 1607), but it's not good enough. There could be some patches out there that might be detrimental to people's systems.

 

[Santaman]

I've switched to Linux for a few weeks now, running Linux Mint Cinnamon 18 LTS on a Am1 Athlon 5350, this seems to be working fine, didn't hit any big bumps, installing was totally painless and after some poking around I've been able to find everything you'll need for a web browsing, mail reading, video streaming desktop machine.

Thought I'd make a post about what I've found out so far.
Browsing: Easy peasy, its Firefox as standard browser, you can add others like Chromium or whatever you like, heck you could even use (e)Links for text browsing.

E-mail: Thunderbird, of course there are heaps of others on Linux which can/will suit about any need.

Sound and video, there's the standard stuff like VLC player, Video player for music and video's, Brasero for DVD/CD burning and I've added Audacity for converting and editing soundfiles.

Office: Libre Office with all the bells and whistles should be able to do any document task, personally I've used Abiword a lot in the past so I've added that one and for the simple stuff there's the standard text editor but I prefer Leafpad, I also use Jpilot because I have used Palm software for ages and Jpilot can use its ancient data base, I've always been too lazy to convert it to something more modern.

Graphics: standard install includes Image viewer which does just that, Gimp image editor which is good but utterly confusing so I've looked around and found a simpler but, for me, adequate image editor called Pinta.

Other useful stuff include a tool called Disks, it will show you information about your harddrive like partition info and also SMART info so you can keep an eye on your HDD/SDD to see if its not going to explode in your face anytime soon.
Psensor, its a tool for keeping track of fan speeds and temperatures of your hardware.

So what I've got is a rather nice working desktop machine, with the hardware it has it won't do any gaming though but for everything else it will suffice.

I'm not entirely Windows free yet, I have one game rig with Windows 8.1 but it only contains windows and Steam and that is all.

 

[Bagofmostlywatr]

I gave up on Windows after version 7. Mint is such a nice, usable, dependable operating system. You can totally forget it's actually Linux, much is the same way you can forget Mac OS is Unix. The Linux port of Firefox seems to work better than the Windows version in my opinion, but I tend to use Chrome.

I tend to use "Pix" for most of the run of the mill imaging work (all I do most of the time is flip, rotate, resize, brightness and crop). It pre-installed on mine when I updated to Sara, and is really, really easy to use. Gimp is very good, I'd say it's credible alternative to Photoshop, but it goes beyond my needs.

 

[Santaman]

Gimp is really a more than capable image editing program, the problem for me is that I used to be a Photoshop user, the layout of Photoshop is 1: absolutely brilliant and 2: I'm used to it after decades of using it, in Gimp stuff has other names and is located in different places which makes it hard to quickly edit stuff, of course I'll get used to it in the long run.
But for a quick fix or avatar creating Pinta works well enough.

 

[DimesDan]

So I see Win10 did a rather large update over night and have gotten rid of Media Player again!

 

[Marc]

So I see Win10 did a rather large update over night and have gotten rid of Media Player again!

Probably it's app that's deemed "incompatible" with Windows 10 (though MS has been trying to kill media play for a while).

The app removal is getting tedious. I run server essentials at home and each time I go through an insider build it nukes the essentials connector and the remote server admin tools.

 

[Santaman]

Uugh.. that's bothersome, also there are machines that are suffering from installation failures, disappearing disks, and frozen network shares, bravo Micro$oft!

 

[Random_Spock]

I just found something rather interesting.

Under 'choose how updates are installed' in the settings, there's a bit called 'choose how updates are delivered'.

I clicked on it and it lead me to this:

It's towards the bottom of the page called 'Updates from more than one place'.

Get updates from Microsoft, and get updates from and send updates to:

PCs on my local network (which I changed it to)

PCs on my local network, and PCs on the internet (which it was set on originally)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

So I see Win10 did a rather large update over night and have gotten rid of Media Player again!

It still shows up on my end. Haven't installed it though as I'm using VLC media player for the most part.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

The anniversary update also seems to disable any installed antivirus program and enables Windows Defender instead. FFS I had to uninstall and reinstall my preferred antivirus package. How many millions of man hours are wasted clearing up after Microsoft's shit? Time for a class action, methinks...