Gateway PC and Windows 8

[Bonzi]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

 

[aaronleland]

Horse porn.

 

[Bonzi]

ewww I hope not - I better start checking his computer!

 

[waltky]

Ya mighta picked up a virus somewhere...

... or some hacker is playin' games with ya...

... or ya might have a hardware issue.

 

[Mac1958]

Horse porn.

uh oh

 

[Bleipriester]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

 

[Bonzi]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

It's just trying to do the normal periodic "windows updates" - but every time it is done with that, it will say "diagnosing PC", then go back to the Gateway symbol and just sits there - for 15-20 minutes doing nothing.....

 

[Bonzi]

Ya mighta picked up a virus somewhere...

... or some hacker is playin' games with ya...

... or ya might have a hardware issue.

Yeah he is not good about running his virus scan. Drives me nuts cause guess who pays for it!

 

[jon_berzerk]

sounds like some sort of add on

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Yep...that is Windows 8 legendary auto repair loop. Lots' of people have experienced this with Windows 8.
Likley the problem is in the MBR (master boot record). This is not something you can likely fix yourself. It is possible, but if you have no knowledge or experience of getting to the command prompt, and making adjustments to your BIOS - you should just take it to the Geek Squad and pay the $30.
fdisk /MBR command will probably fix it. But you have to be able to boot the PC into the command prompt BEFORE Windows loads.
To do that....
Reboot the computer and repeatedly hit the F8 key...you should get to a black screen that gives you some boot options.
One of them is "Command Prompt Only"...choose that.
You will have just a black screen with a > symbol and a blinking prompt.
type FDISK /MBR (note: there is a space after FDISK)
It will only pause for a brief second and the prompt will return. Hold the power button until the computer restarts, and that should fix it. If not, there are BIOS adjustments you can make...but I would not recommend going there. Take it somewhere to get it fixed.

 

[Bonzi]

Yep...that is Windows 8 legendary auto repair loop. Lots' of people have experienced this with Windows 8.
Likley the problem is in the MBR (master boot record). This is not something you can likely fix yourself. It is possible, but if you have no knowledge or experience of getting to the command prompt, and making adjustments to your BIOS - you should just take it to the Geek Squad and pay the $30.
fdisk /MBR command will probably fix it. But you have to be able to boot the PC into the command prompt BEFORE Windows loads.
To do that....
Reboot the computer and repeatedly hit the F8 key...you should get to a black screen that gives you some boot options.
One of them is "Command Prompt Only"...choose that.
You will have just a black screen with a > symbol and a blinking prompt.
type FDISK /MBR
It will only pause for a brief second and the prompt will return. Hold the power button until the computer restarts, and that should fix it. If not, there are BIOS adjustments you can make...but I would not recommend going there. Take it somewhere to get it fixed.

Really? Is that all the Geek Squad charges? $30? Is that at Best Buy or Staples?

 

[Bleipriester]

Yep...that is Windows 8 legendary auto repair loop. Lots' of people have experienced this with Windows 8.
Likley the problem is in the MBR (master boot record). This is not something you can likely fix yourself. It is possible, but if you have no knowledge or experience of getting to the command prompt, and making adjustments to your BIOS - you should just take it to the Geek Squad and pay the $30.
fdisk /MBR command will probably fix it. But you have to be able to boot the PC into the command prompt BEFORE Windows loads.
To do that....
Reboot the computer and repeatedly hit the F8 key...you should get to a black screen that gives you some boot options.
One of them is "Command Prompt Only"...choose that.
You will have just a black screen with a > symbol and a blinking prompt.
type FDISK /MBR (note: there is a space after FDISK)
It will only pause for a brief second and the prompt will return. Hold the power button until the computer restarts, and that should fix it. If not, there are BIOS adjustments you can make...but I would not recommend going there. Take it somewhere to get it fixed.

Yeah, type win+r and this in the following window:

shutdown.exe /o /r /f /t 00

Go to Advanced Options, Troubleshoot and pick what you want.

 

[Bonzi]

we were told by Gateway to hold the alt (or is it the control key) and repeatedly tap F9

it worked and does work when we "refresh" but only for a while, once it tries to do the windows update, it seems to get worse everytime.... meaning, the fix doesn't work and we have to fiddle with it and the options....

 

[Iceweasel]

Do you really need to update? Can you just turn it off? That's what I did with XP.

 

[Bleipriester]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

It's just trying to do the normal periodic "windows updates" - but every time it is done with that, it will say "diagnosing PC", then go back to the Gateway symbol and just sits there - for 15-20 minutes doing nothing.....

Here could be a solution.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...air-loop/e537aab3-325f-41db-9676-f3d32cb7deae

However, I would erase the Disk completely and reinstall Windows. Deletion of partition table and file system.

Download Parted Magic - MajorGeeks

 

[Iceweasel]

However, I would erase the Disk completely and reinstall Windows. Deletion of partition table and file system.

Download Parted Magic - MajorGeeks

I believe this is a new used laptop and she doesn't have the disk.

 

[Moonglow]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

It's just trying to do the normal periodic "windows updates" - but every time it is done with that, it will say "diagnosing PC", then go back to the Gateway symbol and just sits there - for 15-20 minutes doing nothing.....

Is it a 1998 model Gateway?

 

[Bonzi]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

It's just trying to do the normal periodic "windows updates" - but every time it is done with that, it will say "diagnosing PC", then go back to the Gateway symbol and just sits there - for 15-20 minutes doing nothing.....

Is it a 1998 model Gateway?

oh stop! no but it was super cheap....

 

[Bleipriester]

However, I would erase the Disk completely and reinstall Windows. Deletion of partition table and file system.

Download Parted Magic - MajorGeeks

I believe this is a new used laptop and she doesn't have the disk.

In the OP she says she reinstalled the system several time so far.

 

[Moonglow]

What would cause a PC to stall when updating to the point where you have to refresh or reinstall every week or so?

Any clues/ideas?

For help, you need to provide more details. What are you updating?

It's just trying to do the normal periodic "windows updates" - but every time it is done with that, it will say "diagnosing PC", then go back to the Gateway symbol and just sits there - for 15-20 minutes doing nothing.....

Is it a 1998 model Gateway?

oh stop! no but it was super cheap....

I had a Gateway 1998 model till 2002, then electricity struck the phone box and burned the mudder board..