Windows 8 - Help!

[SheriffHD]

Ok guys, well this is just damn typical. Ive always pirated OS just because I never could afford the price of an OS, it seemed like a waste. Past few years Ive been on windows 7....And I love windows 7.

 

But yesterday, I decided, seeing as I have had many years of enjoyment because of windows OS, i thought it was about time I supported the software and purchased a proper copy. Now as my local store only stocked windows 8, I went ahead and purchased that.

 

I installed the OS onto my Samsung Evo 840 250gb SSD. as soon as I installed chrome the system crashed and would not respond at all. not even task manager I had to hold down the power button like I was placing a pillow on an elder while they slept.

 

When I tried to boot again it stated that files were missing and that it needed to do a recover. I put the disk back in, hit "repair system" and it returned that nothing was wrong.

 

about 10 minutes of percussive maintenance the computer worked again and it seemed fine. I installed classic Start and went looking for the 8.1 upgrade after I heard it was free for windows 8 users. (couldnt find it on the microsoft market place) So I gave up looking for the upgrade.

 

Now I left the computer on over night as a general stress test while also downloading all my main games on steam, I come back this morning and it seems it had crashed and reset its self.

 

Now when I try to do anything the entire thing is slow. Webpages, software, start menu, Task manager. for a machine of my specs I half expect the same if not better performance than with the dodgy copy of windows 7 that I had, now it seems I am enduring an experience far worse than I ever had in Vista, and at this moment I actually yearn for vista over 8.

Sorry for the story, bad habbit I guess.

Any and all help would be fantastic as the hour or so of gaming before I go to bed after work is the only thing that keeps me sane after working 80 hour weeks at work.

[Dudenstein]

Did you do a clean install or did you just install over the previous OS?

[SheriffHD]

Did you do a clean install or did you just install over the previous OS?

 

Clean install on a brand new SSD

[GoodBytes]

But yesterday, I decided, seeing as I have had many years of enjoyment because of windows OS, i thought it was about time I supported the software and purchased a proper copy. Now as my local store only stocked windows 8, I went ahead and purchased that.

Congratulations for being legit! As I always say, if you are going to pirate anything, don't be the OS.

Windows is indeed on the expensive side, but in comparison to software that are DRASTICALLY simpler, Windows is rather cheap (See Adobe software).

Microsoft has student offers (even free if your college or university is registered to DreamSpark Premium or MSDNAA), at the Microsoft online store. And always have nice special at release time of the OS for all. For example, Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade was 65% off, and 50% off the Professional version upgrade. Windows 8 Pro Upgrade was 40$ only, and with Media Center pack upgrade for free. So when comes Windows 9, in late 2015 (estimated), be sure to watch out for these offers, which you can actually enjoy, as you have a genuine version of Windows.

 

I installed the OS onto my Samsung Evo 840 250gb SSD. as soon as I installed chrome the system crashed and would not respond at all. not even task manager I had to hold down the power button like I was placing a pillow on an elder while they slept.

 

When I tried to boot again it stated that files were missing and that it needed to do a recover. I put the disk back in, hit "repair system" and it returned that nothing was wrong.

Ok. Sounds to be that you have a faulty SATA cable, or SSD. I would make sure that the SATA plug and connector are clean on both direction. Maybe some dust went in and block signal. Change the SATA cable, and even try a different plug on the motherboard. If all doesn't help, then the SSD may be faulty. Of course, I assume that you installed your SATA drivers at Windows 8 setup stage (where you select which drive you want to install Windows), and that your SATA controller is set to AHCI mode, and that, if you have such feature in the BIOS/UEFI, that HPET is enabled and set to 64-bit (assuming you are installing Win 8 64-bit).

 

about 10 minutes of percussive maintenance the computer worked again and it seemed fine. I installed classic Start and went looking for the 8.1 upgrade after I heard it was free for windows 8 users. (couldnt find it on the microsoft market place) So I gave up looking for the upgrade.

- You need to have all your driver installed

- You also need that ALL Windows Updates installed.

- Restart once all updates are done.

- You need to remove that Start Menu replacement, because you need to access the Start Screen, to access the Windows 8 App Store.

- If it still doesn't show up: Do Win+Q, then type: wsreset.exe, and it showed show up now.

 

Now I left the computer on over night as a general stress test while also downloading all my main games on steam, I come back this morning and it seems it had crashed and reset its self.

Could the SSD related issue as mentioned above, or hardware fault or system overheating

 

Now when I try to do anything the entire thing is slow. Webpages, software, start menu, Task manager. for a machine of my specs I half expect the same if not better performance than with the dodgy copy of windows 7 that I had, now it seems I am enduring an experience far worse than I ever had in Vista, and at this moment I actually yearn for vista over 8.

Sadly, Microsoft can't sprinkle pixy dust to make faulty hardware work

But in all seriousness, it sounds like all of your problem started with that SSD, and not Windows 8.

One would suggest to check for BIOS/UEFI update, but your system is new, so I doubt it will be a problem. Thought doesn't hurt to check.

[SheriffHD]

Congratulations for being legit!

 

Cheers fro the input and ideas. As it stands I tried it first on my 500gb SSD first, then my HDD then went out and got a new 250gb ssd to try it on. all my settings in the UEFI/bios have been set up. even had to  reset my bios at one point just to get it to boot into windows 8 after the first crash as it no longer would detect my keyboard at all but the bios reset fixed that issue.

 

As I said, Ive tried it on 3 HDD/SSDs to try and get it to work perfectly but I still get the laggy as shit that ive always had with this OS.

 

I removed the classic start in hopes that was what was killing it, but no avail.

 

Only hope now is that its a case of installing all the updates. to see if that works. at this rate though I'll be pullign out the pendrive I have with windows 7 on it and installing it again. because I cant do nothing at the moment, even watching a video is nion impossible its as if I am running with no gpu at all.

 

I insalled/uniinstalled then reinstalled all my drivers. my gigabyte killer ethos network driver seems to act up too which is odd. and my creative 3Di recon driver is a bit buggy as well as it doesnt seem to like windows 8 all that much.

 

and by how bad video is acting it hates both the on board gpu as well as my Nvidia 770 drivers, I tried using both stable and beta and with and with out nvidia experiance running. but still the issue persists.

[GoodBytes]

This is definitely not normal. They are no other report of what you are experiencing in Windows 8.

Check what the event viewer says. Maybe it can help us determine what is going on.

If you are willing to try a re-install of Windows 8. Let's go step by step.

0- Unplug all USB devices and hubs (except keyboard and mouse) and PCI/PCI-E cards beside sound card and graphic card.

1- Download the extracted (*.inf) SATA controller and put it on your USB key.

2- Make sure you have the latest UEFI installed (just in case).

3- Make sure your SSD has the latest firmware (might as well, as you sometimes needs to wipe and re-install everything.. so a perfect time to check)

3- Make sure that your system is not overclocked, and properly configured in the UEFI

4- Boot from Windows 8 disk (not USB, in the case something got corrupted if you went that route)

5- Click on "Custom install" option when asked

6- When you get to the drive selection screen, click on "Load Drivers" and select the USB drive where you put the SATA controller drivers (*.inf).

7- Now, click on "Drive options", then select each partition of your SSD (you should have 2 or more), and click on Format, then on Delete. The SSD should be by itself. Be sure to not accidentally select your HDD if that is attached. If you prefer, turn off the system, unplug your other drives, and restart the setup.

8- Now select the SSD drive, define the partition. And resume. Windows will ask you that it wants to create another partition, do so.

9- Once Windows 8 is fully installed, then install your graphic card drivers, sound card, network and the rest. Be sure to not forget a component. Skip the mouse and keyboard drivers for now, and any special software. Just keep things simple for now. No Start Menu replacement.

10- Once all installed, do all your Windows Updates. When asked to restart, do so.

11- Once done, do Right-click on qat the bottom right corner, or do Win+X, select Program and Feature. Then on the left side column, click on Turn Windows Features On or Off. Then check ".NET Framework 3.5", but uncheck the sub-items. You just want .NET 3.5. Then scroll down under Print and Document Services, and uncheck Windows Fax and Scan. Click OK.

12- Once done, check for Windows updates. and restart when asked. Check again for updates.

13- Open Device Manager (Win+X -> Select Device Manager), and make sure that all drivers are installed. If something is missing, install them.

14- Now, you should have a working Windows experience working properly. You should see Windows 8.1 upgrade. Once you install Windows 8.1, and everything smooth sailing. THEN you can install your programs (web browser, keyboard, mouse, Start menu replacement (if you really don't want to learn the Start Screen, which I highly recommend you do), and so on).

[SheriffHD]

Cheers for the post, will update tomorrow when I finish work. not the best start ive had with Windows 8 thats for sure.

Im usually good with computers and sorting things out, but this time around has left me confused as hell.

[GoodBytes]

Yea it's definitely a strange problem you are experiencing.

If times allows, I would also do some RAM testing. I recall when Windows 7 was released, some people where having big problems, but never did with Windows XP. it ended up being they had faulty RAM, which just happened to not 'cause an issue in WinXP.

It is very unlucky of you. You finally go genuine, where normally people have a smooth experience, yet you get an sucky one. Hopefully the above fixes everything and things are working properly.

Al I can think beside the above, if that doesn't work, is a problem with UEFI, and may want to switch to BIOS mode (compatibility) mode, and see if you have any problem then (you must re=install Windows again sadly, as it need to change the format from GPT to the old MBR partition table)

[SheriffHD]

 

 

Ok, well done as you said. Think It was due to using the windows 7 drivers and not properly updating them. using all the latest firmwares and drivers now plus the hot fixes too.

every thing seems to be fine right now (will stress test while Im sleeping)

Although the internet speeds seem to be lacking. I should be able to figure that one out though.

 

But cheers for all the help regardless dude. 

 

Many thanks.