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Major Windows 10 corruption after power outage

Anonymous
2020-04-22T02:23:03+00:00

Major Windows 10 corruption after power outage

After restarting my PC after a power outage, Windows 10 has a multitude of issues. Those issues are as follows:

  • cannot type into start menu, and generally cannot use start menu.
  • no internet connection (except sometimes in Safe Mode with Networking). When trying to see why there is no internet, things just hang or load to a blank settings page.
  • many Windows 10 settings hang on accessing it, and just never stop loading.
  • cannot launch certain programs.
  • task manager will crash.
  • Device manager shows all devices are fine.
  • hangs on loading into windows on a black screen with spinning dots for > 10s (abnormal).
  • Using windows will eventually lead to unresponsiveness.

I can confirm is it windows, and not another hardware problem, as I have put this ssd into another PC, and windows has the same issues, and that PC's ssd into this machine yields no issues.

Its also not just a one off thing, as around 3 weeks ago, I had a power outage that resulted in identical symptoms. Formatting the drive and reinstalling Windows 10 solved it. I really don't want to do that again. After that first failure, I bought an expensive surge protected power bar, which did nothing. As well, my PSU has surge protection, and the outage was from wind. I can confirm there was no surge. All the things I have tried to no success:

  • system restore from a week earlier.
  • repair install from a Windows 10 USB (install Windows 10 over the existing Windows 10)
  • sfc /scannow (returns with "did not find any integrity violations")
  • DISM /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth (returns with "no component store corruption detected")
  • start-up repair from recovery mode
  • Disk error checking and chkdsk on all drives.
  • uninstall/reinstall devices in Device Manager
  • clean boot (via msconfig and startup cleanup)
  • all troubleshooters don't find any issues
  • 3rd party registry repair software
  • ran rkill, malware bytes, windows defender scan, nothing found.

I am certainly going to buy a UPS to prevent hard shut offs of my computer, but there must be some solution better than everytime my computer doesn't shut down safely, I have to reformat a hard drive.

Can anyone please help me out, I can't find any issues. The fact that this has happened twice now has to mean something. I've had this computer for a few years now, and it's never done anything like this. Thanks in advance, I'm at the end of my rope.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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Anonymous
2020-04-22T02:59:06+00:00

Hi Jake. I'm Greg, an installation specialist, 10 year Windows MVP, and Volunteer Moderator. If you will work with me I will be here to help until the issue is resolved.

You didn't say if System Restore or Repair Install were able to run. If not run System Restore from Repair Mode or booted media: https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2294-advanc...

  1. Re-register the Start Menu from https://www.kapilarya.com/re-register-start-men...
  2. Re-register the Settings app from Option 2 here: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3175-apps-re...
  3. Test the hard drive or SSD with diagnostics:

https://www.lifewire.com/free-hard-drive-testin...

https://mashtips.com/ssd-health-test-and-perfor...

HP and Dell have hardware diagnostics triggered by tapping the ESC or F12 keys respectively as you power on.

Best is to use the HDD/SSD manufacturer's own if there is one, otherwise use Seatools bootable long test: http://blog.nowherelan.com/2013/04/04/boot-seat...

  1. Test the RAM overnight to stress it with the best bootable test memtest86, following this guide to test both sticks and slots:

https://www.wikihow.com/Test-PC-RAM-with-MemTest86

What 3rd party registry repair did you run? These are the most harmful thing one can do to Windows and can ruin it beyond repair. Even CCleaner is no longer trustworthy to use after losing their genius developer when Avast bloatware bought them.

Based on all you've tried and the ruinous registry cleaner, I would wipe the drive to reinstall doing a gold standard Clean Install in this link which compiles the best possible Install of Windows which will stay that way as long as you stick with the tools and methods given, has zero reported problems, and is better than any amount of money could buy: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

To create bootable Windows 10 Installation Media (on another PC if necessary) install Media Creation Tool and follow the directions in the middle of the download page here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-hk/software-downlo...

Insert media, boot it by powering up PC while pressing the BIOS Boot Menu Key for your PC maker given in this chart: https://www.sysnative.com/forums/hardware-tutor...

If the media won't boot you may need to enter BIOS/UEFI Setup (pressing key given in chart in link above) to turn off Fast Boot or Fast Startup first.

Choose the boot device as a UEFI device if offered, then on second screen choose Install Now, then Custom Install, then at the drive selection screen delete all partitions down to Unallocated Space to get it cleanest, select the Unallocated Space, click Next to let it create and format the needed partitions and start install - this makes it foolproof.

There is a step to rescue your files first using the booted media if you don't have them backed up: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki...

You will get and keep the best possible install to the exact extent you stick with the steps, tools and methods in the linked tutorial. It's a great learning experience that will make you the master of your PC because you will learn everything that works best and how to apply it with your own hands.

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and let us know how it goes. I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

________________________________________________________

Standard Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-04-22T15:44:11+00:00

    Yeah, I just bought a 1tb external USB3 Seagate external hard drive rated Amazon Best Choice for $44. These are best for storing images and backups so they don't run all the time internally.

    You can run the Seatools bootable diagnostics if you want on that SSD, or from Windows:

    https://www.seagate.com/manuals/software/seatoo...

    http://www.megaleecher.net/Seagate_SeaTools_For...

    https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seato...

    New BIOS can solve issues like yours.

    How is the Clean Install performing?

    Let me know if there's anything else.

    Also when ready please mark the post which helped most as the Answer, to help others. A rating is also appreciated.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-22T16:08:34+00:00

    The clean install is performing perfectly. Same as before. Doing a scan with the Seatools found no issues with the drive, s.m.a.r.t passed. I have not tried the RAM scan, but I have trouble seeing how an issue with RAM could cause this issue. 

    Next I'm going to update BIOS, and buy a UPS to prevent this from occurring again. Thanks for talking things out with me, I'll close this thing.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-22T15:11:40+00:00

    Thank for your response! Right, I had also tried your step 1 and 2. Its a samsung 850 evo, so following your advice on #3, I tried Samsung Magician. I get "the selected drive does not support this feature", but all the other readings seem fine. Health and temperature are "normal", and latest firmware update is installed.

    I only ran the 3rd party registry cleaner (Free Window Registry Repair) as a last resort, after hours of diagnosing and debugging, I had never done that before that point, it certainly did not cause this. It wasn't more (or less) broken after I ran that thing. It scanned, found hundreds of "missing registry" entries, I clicked "fix", and it just immediately (like 1 frame) said "success". I suspect it didn't actually do anything.

    I saw my bios firmware is a few years out of date, I'll update that now. Do you think it could help with this issue in the future? There are no boot issues really though.

    I ended up just reformatting and doing a clean reinstall. To be clear, the first time this issue happened, I actually happened to followed your link there, I also wanted a perfectly clean Windows 10 to rule it out.

    I was also thinking of buying a HDD for full disk re-imaging backup (not just restore points, which did nothign), so if this happens again, I don't have to reinstall a million things. Do you think thats a good idea too?

    Thanks again for all your help.

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