I'm posting this from work, so I don't have access to my logs.
Before I dive into the multitude of issues, here's the system specs:
Dell XPS 8700SE
i7-4790 @ 3.60ghz (not over clocked)
16GB DDR3
2TB Seagate HDD (2 of them actually). Only 1 hooked up at a time: Acronis full image on the 2nd drive. Which failed when I needed it to. I booted to a black screen I could not get past. I suspect the nVidia drivers corrupted. Now it has a clean install of Win10, activated and Windows Updates all done. It works fine, but suffers from the USB 3.0 issue (see #2) .
nVidia 745GTX 3GB video
The system shipped with 8.1 which I upgraded immediately to Win 10 Home x64.
Now for the problems...and there's plenty of them. I'm not sure if they're related or not
1) Windows Update no longer works. All updates just error out. I've not had a working update since early March 2016.
I was into a circle of trying to update drivers for my Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Series PCI Express Root Port- 8C18. Windows Update fails on the install of the drivers. I now have 4 or 5 updates that will not install. I've tried to uninstall ALL of them, and there's 6 or 7 that will not uninstall. They try, but fail. One of the April updates (8th or 9th) appears to fix a USB 3.0 issue (see #2 below) but it won't install.
I've contacted both Dell and Microsoft about this and each points the finger at the other.
Each of their tech support had remote access and changed a bunch of things. I'm not sure if they were ever changed back fully.
The Windows Cryptographic Service is off and will not turn on at all. I figure it's one of the causes for Update to fail.
2) USB 3.0 is horribly intermittent. It's fine with my WD portable HDD, but nearly everything else will rapidly connect/disconnect and keep going until you unplug it. I have 6 USB 3.0 ports and all do this. The 4 USB 2.0 ports are fine. From what I've been reading the Intel 8 Series/C220 chipset does not play nice with the i7 Processor. That's why I was hoping to get the latest drivers to install, to hopefully make it somewhat stable.
3) Corrupted System Files. I've tried to run the System File Checker and it fails. (sfc /scannow). I've managed to get it to run in Recovery (CMD Prompt only). But it will not - or cannot - repair the corrupted files. But I get a 100% verified result. Does that sound normal? I'll upload a log when I get home from work.
4) DISM also fails to run. I get an error that it cannot locate DISMCore.dll the file is there -but has a size of 0KB.
Problem is: I copied the whole system32/drivers folder (from that 2nd Hard drive) and wanted to overwrite the 0KB file with a correct one. See #5 below. I have other folders with files inside that are 0KB in size as well. So I think I've got a big corruption issue.
5)My system tells me I do not Admin access. I am the admin. There's only 1 user: me. I have full control according to my profile. I tried to over write the DISMCore.dll above and it failed outright. I also planned to have that pesky Intel 8 series driver install from this copy of the Drivers Folder, but it errors out that the driver cannot be found. It works just fine on the other clean Win 10 install (on that 2nd hard drive), so it's the correct driver.
Side note:I've downloaded the authentic Intel 8/C220 chipset driver and tried a manual install, it fails: Syntax of the .inf is invalid.
6) Install In Place fails. I've tried to do an install in place numerous times. Each time it fails on the install at the 26% mark. I get the "Something Happened" error. I've unplugged every device except keyboard & mouse. I've shut down just about every running thing I can locate (including Anti-virus). I cannot get it to work at all. I've even tried DVD and USB drive. I've tried it with updates and without updates - same result at the same 26% section.
This system has my 15 year old's games on it. About 600GB worth. The games are not backed up but easily installed. I could format and begin again, but where's the challenge in that? I'm more likely to just start installing on the 2nd drive and copy game folders/settings over manually to keep his saved games & maps.
I'll gladly take any suggestions you can offer!
Honestly, my suggestion would be to back up your data and perform a clean install. If it takes you more than two hours to troubleshoot this, you could have your clean install finished in less time. Between the corrupt system files, driver issues, and the fact you let two remote technicians connect in, I would be going right to a clean install.
Assuming your system is activated, you should be fine to do this. No one goes to Microsoft for support, and Dell usually is only useful for hardware issues. Your computer has tons of power, so give it a clean install so it runs as well as it should. Most of us, or many of us I should say, clean install after the upgrade is completed anyway.
Seconded, right after hitting Item #3 ...
Thanks folks.
I forgot to mention that I use Webroot for AV/Malware. It's running all the time, but I cannot rule out something my 15 year old did either.
I bought that 2nd Seagate with the purpose of having a full monthly image available. The black screen surprised me.
I'll probably wipe it Sunday morning when I can devote a whole day to it.
Even if it isn't malware, there is some serious OS corruption going on. One other thing I should have added, it wouldn't hurt to run Memtest overnight, either. Bad memory can often load to file corruption and instability.
If the memory is bad, at least you'd know now rather than after a fresh install also became corrupt.
Thanks DeaconFrost. I'll be looking into Memtest. I've not used it in years...
I did a clean install of Win10 Home X64 last night and am finishing it as I type this. All drivers are installed and working again normally.
My USB 3.0 was still borked right from the first boot. It was still borked even after I updated all drivers for my system.
I got around it by taking the USB 3.0 20 pin cable off the motherboard and onto a PCIe card.
Mediasonic I took the USB 3.0 cable off of the motherboard and connected it to the card. Now, I have 4 stable ports on the rear of the computer as well as the 2 on the card.
I'm now downloading all of the games my kid has on Steam...
Thanks for the help/guidance folks. I appreciate it.
