Broken Windows 10 Update Causes Reboot Loops For Some Users

An anonymous reader writes: The Guardian reports that some early adopters of Windows 10 are finding their computers stuck in a reboot loop after installing a particular update. KB3081424 is a cumulative update, packaging together a group of smaller ones for ease of installation. For some users, the update continually fails to finish installing before issuing a reboot command to the PC. "It downloads, reboot to install. Gets to 30% and reboots. Gets to 59% and reboots. Gets to 59% again and then states something went wrong so uninstalling the update. Wait a few minutes and reboot. Back to login screen," said Microsoft forum user BrettDM. "This happens without fail, every single time."

Comments

No problems here

[Anonymous Coward]

What reboo..........

Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Falconnan]

No update cycle is perfect. Problems happen. But being unable to refuse an update, or roll it back, etc., is a recipe for problems galore. The wise thing for Microsoft would be to establish four basic categories of update: Security, Important, Optional, and Driver. Security updates being mandatory makes sense given the general user's overall lack of understanding. Important could be major bug fixes, feature repair, that kind of thing. Drivers should be given a warning label and made completely optional and non-automatic. Optional is optional. "We want a unified support environment" does not help the end user who cannot do his/her homework.

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[drinkypoo]

No update cycle is perfect. Problems happen. But being unable to refuse an update, or roll it back, etc., is a recipe for problems galore.

You can do all of those things, although the means are extremely non-obvious.

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[gstoddart]

This is more about making life easier for Microsoft than it is about giving a damn about users.

When I forcibly uninstalled the update to Windows 8.1 which started pushing Windows 10 at me, one of the things it said it was doing was adding a piece to monitor and evaluate how well system updates are going. Basically gather metrics on how bad they're doing.

Microsoft has decided that it's their computer, that if they feel an update needs to be applied they will, and that if it breaks for some users that's an unfortunate side effect of having your customers doing your beta testing ... but thanks for doing our beta testing.

The trend with computers and electronic devices is for the license to say "you don't own this, and you don't get a say in what we do to it". And people are going to start pushing back when they suddenly find themselves with a broken computer because Microsoft forced an update on them.

Microsoft isn't going to pay to fix it, they're not going to pay for the loss of productivity. They're simply going to say "bummer", and keep doing it.

Which if you or I did that we'd be charged criminally under the computer fraud and abuse act or something similar.

But they have an EULA which says they're allowed to.

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Falconnan]

True, but that "non-obvious" part is the problem. It should be obvious, clearly labelled, and functional. The fact I can edit the registry and not nuke a computer is great. My father or uncle on the other hand... Just lots of "no". Though, really, I suppose I should thank Microsoft for the job security.

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Culture20]

Reading the patch summaries would be nice if most of them weren't a minor variation of "Fixes an issue with Windows on some computers". That's a pretty useless summary.

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[Culture20]

That's like a movie summary of "contains frames that when viewed quickly give the illusion of motion". Of course a patch for Windows "fixes issues with Windows for some computers", but that's not a summary of what the patch does. "fixes XYZ problem with Windows ABC program when users perform a 123 action."

Re:Forced Updates-- What could POSSIBLY go wrong?

[ShaunC]

I'm sick and tired of seeing that a new version of an app is available, and the sole contents of what the update changes is "bug fixes."

Well if they were honest and said "Fixed more edge cases where ads weren't displaying" or "Increased the frequency of GPS coordinate tracking," nobody would install the update...

What reboot loop?

[Macthorpe]

This happened yesterday and was fixed within 24 hours. Good work, Slashdot.

It fixes itself?

[BenJeremy]

Ideally not a true fix, but a workaround, at least.

At least it doesn't render the users' computers inoperable.

I got the update just fine... but the Start Menu Item limitation (512 menu items max) is still not fixed with this update.

Also, the Store and "Movies & TV" windows keep popping up randomly (I believe when I watch something with media player). Very annoying.

One more thing... why the heck is the titlebar/menu coloring a hot mess? All white? There is a theme out there called "colors" that kinda-sorta fixes the issue, but it won't stick the accent color I assigned. At least it makes the desktop less visually messy. It seems that every iteration of Windows has given users fewer and fewer options to change colors and details of the user interface... while making the supplied themes progressively worse. I should be able to make Windows 10 look like XP, if I want to (I don't want to, really).

For the most part, Windows 10 is fine... but annoying leftovers from Windows 8 and this interminable menu limitation is driving me nuts.

Re:It fixes itself?

[aaron4801]

I do the same thing. People at work ask me all the time where I got a copy of Win2K. This is a business machine, I don't need a neon-colored taskbar, a bunch of slow/pointless animations or unnecessarily massive UI elements (window borders, scrollbars, etc). The last 10-15 years have seen a huge jump in display technologies, but MS seems to be tailoring every new version of Windows to smaller screens with worse resolutions. I've got dual 32" displays; I don't need the same UI as somebody using their fat fingers on a 10" tablet.

Re:Also on Windows 7 - Anyone else having issues?

[RogueyWon]

There have been any number of problems on Windows 7 in the last couple of months. In particular, KB3035583 (the update that pushes out the "upgrade to Windows 10" button and background-installer) has been causing a lot of issues for some users. In some cases, it's leading to Windows Update and the associated services going crazy in terms of CPU load and HDD access for 30+ minutes after booting. In other cases, it's even being linked to corrupted system files.

That's the most serious one I'm aware of at the moment, but there have been a good number of other horrors since the start of 2015, inflicting anything from infinite-reboot-loops to corrupted video playback on users unlucky enough to have the wrong hardware/software combinations.

MS's update testing seems to have gone to hell lately. In many respects, I am quite tempted by the free update to Win 10 Pro I'm eligible for, but the mandatory updates thing (even if Pro lets you defer them for a while) is putting me off. The fact that they stagger how long you can put off the upgrade based on whether you are Enterprise, Pro, Home or "amnesty" (the less favoured you are, the shorter the time you can delay updates) seems a pretty clear indication that MS now sees its customers as beta testers.

Re:better wait

[Chrisq]

thats why I am still waiting three months before installin ... let them go through all the frustrating hassles for me

My computer will be on the 130,000 th reboot by then you insensitive clod

Re:No problems for me

[jones_supa]

The headline clearly says that the problem only affects some users.

Re:No problems for me

[Macthorpe]

It's probably because they fixed it between the Guardian reporting it and Slashdot finally getting around to posting about it.

http://www.techradar.com/news/...

Re:No problems for me

[WoodburyMan]

"Idiot"? I really don't get the hostility? Honestly I was just saying I didn't have the issue on 4 systems. Nothing more. Nothing less. I don't understand how everyone on this entire thread thinks I'm denying the issue and acting hostile towards me. I rarely comment on /, and this is why. Seems everyone bought a jump to conclusions mat.

Open source Microsoft bootloader?

[emil]

If Microsoft believes that they have a more compelling product than GRUB that should be adopted by competing operating systems, then they should open-source it.

Re:No problems for me

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

Unfortunately, the other major desktop operating systems are almost as bad, just maybe in slightly different ways. Typical Linux distros provide no security or robustness at all when it comes to installing/upgrading/uninstalling anything that isn't part of the distro itself -- they can drop their junk anywhere, and many packages do -- and upgrading your distro is a brave thing to do on any system you rely on. OS X has similar problems. As long as these *nix systems are still based on the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard and traditional user/group/others access control model, and as long as programs can dump their executables and configuration and documents wherever they feel like, and as long as those programs can freely access each other's data, all these platforms will be limited in how much they can improve on today's standards.

Re: The biggest problem with windows

[spongman]

does suspend sedation "Just Work"? does two-finger tap for right-click "Just Work"? does wi-fi roaming "Just Work"?

oh i know. it's open source... i should just STFU and fix it myself, right?