Windows Version 1703 (Build 15063.786) Crashes Sporadically

[CharlieG2017]

Windows Update attempted to update to version 1703 (Windows Fall Creator) starting in August.  Windows Update crashed repeatedly and finally gave up on updating after at least a dozen attempts. In mid-November, the laptop (Pavilion 17-f124ds) again crashed repeated during Windows Update and the laptop was eventually left unable to boot Windows. I rolled the laptop's OS back to a stable configuration, and the laptop worked for a few days. When Windows Update attempted to download version 1703 again, the computer again crashed repeatedly. After more than a dozen hard resets, the laptop eventually booted, and I manually downloaded version 1703 from Microsoft. I manually installed version 1703 using a "wusa" command from a command prompt. The laptop now freezes (i.e., crashes) before Windows finishes loading. The laptop displays my background picture inside Windows and displays the Start menu and the Task View task bar pins. Windows crashes before the other application task bar pins (such as Microsoft Word, etc.) are displayed. If I boot the laptop in Safe Mode, the laptop seems to be stable and doesn't crash. Any ideas what could be wrong?

[mdklassen]

Have you rebooted, and launched the HP Hardware Diagnostics, to rule-out the possibility of "bad" hardware, such as a failing disk-drive?

Note that '1703' was called "Creators Update", and '1709' (released in 9th month of 2017) is called "Fall Creators Update".

It should be possible to update from any 2016-release of Windows directly to '1709' -- without first installing '1703'.

A "drastic" approach:

1. take an "inventory" of all the applications that you have installed (MS Office? Adobe? Audacity?),

2. backup all your Personal Files to an external disk-drive.

3. remove the current disk-drive.  Is it "out-of-warranty", i.e,. more than 1 or 2 years old?

4. purchase and install a new disk-drive. Faster? Larger capacity? SSD?

5. Download: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

6. Install it onto the new disk-drive.

7. Run Windows Update.

8. Restore from your backup.

9. Reinstall the applications listed in your "inventory".

It might take a day of your time, and $100 for a new disk-drive, but it will get your computer up-and-running.

[CharlieG2017]

I will run the hardware diagnostics tool to see if there is a bad hard drive.

I have a USB external hard drive. I should be able to download Windows 10 to it and change the BIOS to boot from the external hard drive.

If I am having hard drive problems, could safe mode still be stable?

[mdklassen]

> I have a USB external hard drive.

> I should be able to download Windows 10 to it and change the BIOS to boot from the external hard drive.

Don't use the external hard-drive.  The download tool will *WIPE* all existing files, delete the partition, and will create a 32GB partition.  All the other disk-space on the drive will not easily be usable.

Intead, for under $8 US, purchase a 8GB USB memory-stick, and the download tool will "wipe" it, and write a bootable image onto it.

> If I am having hard drive problems, could safe mode still be stable? 

Maybe, because "safe" mode does not load as much from the disk-drive.

But, if you are having "hard drive problems", immediately copy all your Personal Files to your external hard-drive WHILE YOU STILL CAN!

You can drive an automobile with a leaking tire to the repair shop, but you should not drive it from L.A. to N.Y.

[CharlieG2017]

Happy New Year! Maybe between watching football or whatever you do on New Years Day, you could offer up ideas on what could be wrong with my laptop.

I ran the 4.5 hour hardware diagnostics system extensive test, and everything passed. The items that passed are the processor, memory (extensive check), hard drive (SMART, Short DST, Optimized DST, and Long DST checks), the battery, the wireless module, the system board, and video memory. So, there is no need to replace the hard drive because the hard drive is ok. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

Any other ideas? Thanks.

[mdklassen]

> there is no need to replace the hard drive because the hard drive is ok.

> Any other ideas?

From an "elevated-privileges" command-line prompt, enter:   CHDSK  C:  /R    and press  ENTER

At the next reboot, every block on your disk-drive will be accessed, to ensure that it can be accessed.

Note that the electronics within your disk-drive may identify some "bad" blocks, and will automatically "swap" those blocks with some "spare" blocks on the disk-drive, and then return an "OK -- no problem detected" message to the computer.

Also, Google-search for "download free SPECCY".

Download, install, and run SPECCY.

Expand the "Storage" branch.

Expand the "SMART" branch.

Check all the statistics that S.M.A.R.T. has been collecting, to check, in detail, the "health" of your disk-drive.

[CharlieG2017]

I have run the Speccy program and expanded the Storage statistics. All 27 listed S.M.A.R.T. attributes state a status of good. Also, the operating temperature is 26 degrees C, which correlates to a status of good. I am running the CHKDSK command, and I will let you know what it says when it finishes.

[mdklassen]

>  I will let you know what it says when it finishes.

When it finishes, your computer probably will reboot.  So, unless you are "watching" the screen, you may miss its "final" message(s).

After the reboot, does your computer run any better?

[CharlieG2017]

For CHKDSK's stage 1, of the 578,048 file records processed, there were 0 bad file records processed. For stage 2, 712,448 index entries were processed with 0 unindexed files scanned and 0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found. For stage 3, 67,201 data files were processed and 2,033,776 USN bytes were processed. The master file table's (MFT) BITMAP attribute is incorrect and the volume bitmap is incorrect. The final results state:

951711781 KB total disk space.

202358676 KB in 386319 files.

   279724 KB in 67202 indexes.

        0 KB in bad sectors.

   680109 KB in use by the system.

    65536 KB occupied by the log file.

748393272 KB available on disk.

     4096 bytes in each allocation unit.

237927945 total allocation units on disk.

187098318 allocation units available on disk.

When I tried to run chkdsk c: /scan to find the problems with the MFT BITAP and queue them for repair, I received an error that says I need to run an offline scan. Any idea how to run an offline scan? I tried to run the command from an Administrator command prompt that was accessed by pressing ESC several times at boot-up, then F11, then Troubleshoot, then Advanced Options, and finally the Command Prompt option.

[CharlieG2017]

I believe the /x option for CHKDSK unmounts the drive so that it can be run in an offline manner.