Windows How I Dislike Thee, Let Me Count The Ways

[Huntn]

I've been using Windows 10 now for about a year (on a real late 2013 PC. I have Windows 7 on my MBP via bootcamp). It's among the best Windows I've used (I've used them all since the 90s), but on occasion it has this annoying habit of not starting up (the computer is running), a black screen appears followed by a no signal message (indicating the monitor is not getting anything from the computer (said for the novices ). I hold the start button until it shuts down, restart it again, nothing, do it again, and this time I get a message about troubleshooting. If I used advanced troubleshooting to repair my PC typically it can't find anything to repair and when I tell it to exit and continue to Windows, then magically it starts up to the log in screen.

Really good. It's not happening every week, but it happens often enough it annoys me, say once a month. Then it goes away for a while, then returns. Anyone have an idea what might cause this? Just say that's Windows for ya.

 

[Cape Dave]

I've been using Windows 10 now for about a year (on a real late 2013 PC. I have Windows 7 on my MBP via bootcamp). It's among the best Windows I've used (I've used them all since the 90s), but on occasion it has this annoying habit of not starting up (the computer is running), a black screen appears followed by a no signal message (indicating the monitor is not getting anything from the computer (said for the novices ). I hold the start button until it shuts down, restart it again, nothing, do it again, and this time I get a message about troubleshooting. If I used advanced troubleshooting to repair my PC typically it can't find anything to repair and when I tell it to exit and continue to Windows, then magically it starts up to the log in screen.

Really good. It's not happening every week, but it happens often enough it annoys me, say once a month. Then it goes away for a while, then returns. Anyone have an idea what might cause this? Just say that's Windows for ya.

I have that sometimes but rarely. I always thought it was a matter of the screen not knowing that it had power, so some sort of displayport or HDMI / sleep issue. Now I always make sure I turn on monitor before turning on computer. Have not had the issue since.

So, you may want to check and/or mess with your power/sleep/hibernate settings and see if you could shake it loose.

Basically, I am enjoying Windows 10 very much. I am pretty much done with the lack of new fresh desktop hardware in the Mac World. Was fun while it lasted Just too restrictive for me.

 

[Huntn]

I have that sometimes but rarely. I always thought it was a matter of the screen not knowing that it had power, so some sort of displayport or HDMI / sleep issue. Now I always make sure I turn on monitor before turning on computer. Have not had the issue since.

So, you may want to check and/or mess with your power/sleep/hibernate settings and see if you could shake it loose.

Basically, I am enjoying Windows 10 very much. I am pretty much done with the lack of new fresh desktop hardware in the Mac World. Was fun while it lasted Just too restrictive for me.

Thanks! Most of the time I turn on my monitor after hitting the PC start button. I'll reverse that and see if there is a difference in frequency.

Both myself and wife are well situated in the Apple ecosystem. Windows, the only reason I'm in that at all is for gaming. You probably do much more than I do so I won't argue relative restrictions because I know even for gaming, access to games, cross compatibility, addons, DLC compatibility, timeliness of updates from 3rd party Mac porters, gaming on the MacOS is hindered, but for my purposes, it fits my comfort zone perfectly... except for gaming. For my Windows box I still feel compelled to keep an array of protective software running to keep it from turning into a mess. I've been running W10 for less than a year, waiting for my first clean install.

 

[Cape Dave]

Thanks! Most of the time I turn on my monitor after hitting the PC start button. I'll reverse that and see if there is a difference in frequency.

Both myself and wife are well situated in the Apple ecosystem. Windows, the only reason I'm in that at all is for gaming. You probably do much more than I do so I won't argue relative restrictions because I know even for gaming, access to games, cross compatibility, addons, DLC compatibility, timeliness of updates from 3rd party Mac porters, gaming on the MacOS is hindered, but for my purposes, it fits my comfort zone perfectly... except for gaming. For my Windows box I still feel compelled to keep an array of protective software running to keep it from turning into a mess. I've been running W10 for less than a year, waiting for my first clean install.

LOL! First clean install, that is funny! I know people think it is a thing, but I know plenty of folks who have 3-7 year old windows machines with no fresh install in sight and they are running pretty well. Sure, a fresh install would help, but that is also true of Mac, depending on how much software gets installed/uninstalled and how much exposure to malware, etc. Sure, I know that is less on the Mac, but I have seen some pretty bad "adware" type stuff on Mac and some (possibly fake) ransomeware.

They are different beasts, I have likes and dislikes of each. But just recently, it came to me that I was spending WAY too much time waiting for hardware upgrades for the Mac. And in the meantime, all sorts of cool new stuff was coming out for Windows.

Although I hate things about the Windows UI, at least they made an attempt to keep it modern and fresh. OSX is just the same old interface, with more "features" added bloated that I will never use.

Nice to have a choice

 

[Huntn]

LOL! First clean install, that is funny! I know people think it is a thing, but I know plenty of folks who have 3-7 year old windows machines with no fresh install in sight and they are running pretty well. Sure, a fresh install would help, but that is also true of Mac, depending on how much software gets installed/uninstalled and how much exposure to malware, etc. Sure, I know that is less on the Mac, but I have seen some pretty bad "adware" type stuff on Mac and some (possibly fake) ransomeware.

They are different beasts, I have likes and dislikes of each. But just recently, it came to me that I was spending WAY too much time waiting for hardware upgrades for the Mac. And in the meantime, all sorts of cool new stuff was coming out for Windows.

Although I hate things about the Windows UI, at least they made an attempt to keep it modern and fresh. OSX is just the same old interface, with more "features" added bloated that I will never use.

Nice to have a choice

You mean they keep making it more Mac like? I've never liked the registry in Windows.

 

[Huntn]

Thread Revival
Last night after a some gaming I put Windows 10 to bed without issues. Today when I log in, and have a constant little blue circle by my mouse cursor which indicates a never ending background process. OK, so I know that there are background processes going on as usual, that I can look at them in the Windows Task Manager, but this is completely new. I've not seen it running continuously, actually it is flashing rapidly. I've looked at the Task Manager trying to eye a culprit but there is a list of them. Of note, when I log into my Admin Account this is not happening and I created a new non-Admin user account to test and see if I could isolate it to the old user account, but it's flashing there too.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.

Update: Task Manager shows Service Host: DCOM Server Process Launcher running at close to 50% CPU. Need to look at that closer. What I'm trying to figure out is why I can have an Admin account which I only use for admin purposes which does not exhibit this characteristic, and this constant blue ring (background process), is on my original user account and the new non-admin account I created today? Also strange the high DCOM cpu reading only exists on the original user account. I'm really hoping this is not turning into one of those Windows wipes.

Update2: Ok, I may have fixed the issue, but don't know what it was. I created a new admin account and verified that the behavior (blue spinning background process circle) was not there. Set some things up on that new account. Then changed it over to a local account. So far so good. I'm not seeing it.

 

[Huntn]

Thread Revival
Last night after a some gaming I put Windows 10 to bed without issues. Today when I log in, and have a constant little blue circle by my mouse cursor which indicates a never ending background process. OK, so I know that there are background processes going on as usual, that I can look at them in the Windows Task Manager, but this is completely new. I've not seen it running continuously, actually it is flashing rapidly. I've looked at the Task Manager trying to eye a culprit but there is a list of them. Of note, when I log into my Admin Account this is not happening and I created a new non-Admin user account to test and see if I could isolate it to the old user account, but it's flashing there too.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks in advance.

Update: Task Manager shows Service Host: DCOM Server Process Launcher running at close to 50% CPU. Need to look at that closer. What I'm trying to figure out is why I can have an Admin account which I only use for admin purposes which does not exhibit this characteristic, and this constant blue ring (background process), is on my original user account and the new non-admin account I created today? Also strange the high DCOM cpu reading only exists on the original user account. I'm really hoping this is not turning into one of those Windows wipes.

Update2: Ok, I may have fixed the issue, but don't know what it was. I created a new admin account and verified that the behavior (blue spinning background process circle) was not there. Set some things up on that new account. Then changed it over to a local account. So far so good. I'm not seeing it.

Bad news, today my user account is back to the flashing, spinning blue donut, however my admin account does not do this. I realize I could just use my Admin account, but I've been using the user account for safey reasons when I'm gaming on it. I would be nice to figure out what the dfference is between these two accounts.

Update: I bit the bullet and restored the disk using True Image from a backup I made a week ago. It took 1 hour. So far no constantly spinning blue donut! I've also noticed my cpu is not up at 95% with nothing happening. Right now it's at 5%. I also noticed in the previous state, the computer would not let me enter anything in the search box or pull up the menu for switching users, so it was something more than an annoyance.

OK, so what was it? Who knows, if it was not for TI, I'd be mostl likely in the middle of a clean install.

 

[Cape Dave]

Bad news, today my user account back to the flashing blue donut, however my admin account does not do this. I realize I could just use my Admin account, but I've been using the user account for safey reasons when I'm gaming on it. I would be nice to figure out what the dfference is between these two accounts.

Update: I bit the bullet and restored the disk using True Image from a backup I made a week ago. It took 1 hour. So far no constantly spinning blue donut! I've also noticed my cpu is not up at 95% with nothing happening. Right now it's at 5%. I also noticed in the previous state, the computer would not let me enter anything in the search box or pull up the menu for switching users, so it was something more than an annoyance.

OK, so what was it? Who knows, if it was not for TI, I'd be mostl likely in the middle of a clean install.

Bad news, today my user account back to the flashing blue donut, however my admin account does not do this. I realize I could just use my Admin account, but I've been using the user account for safey reasons when I'm gaming on it. I would be nice to figure out what the dfference is between these two accounts.

Update: I bit the bullet and restored the disk using True Image from a backup I made a week ago. It took 1 hour. So far no constantly spinning blue donut! I've also noticed my cpu is not up at 95% with nothing happening. Right now it's at 5%. I also noticed in the previous state, the computer would not let me enter anything in the search box or pull up the menu for switching users, so it was something more than an annoyance.

OK, so what was it? Who knows, if it was not for TI, I'd be mostl likely in the middle of a clean install.

TI rules all.

 

[Huntn]

@Cape Dave, your comment is buried in your quote. TI has saved me before, but I'm always worrying if it's a good backup before I execute it the first time.

Btw this $&@*%! never happens on the MacOS, strange huh? And this event happened after something happened in the background, an update or corruption is some process, nothing crazy I was doing. It happened after a night of gaming on my machine, established game, then a normal shutdown. Next day the Windows fun appeared. :/

 

[Cape Dave]

@Cape Dave, your comment is buried in your quote. TI has saved me before, but I'm always worrying if it's a good backup before I execute it the first time.

Btw this $&@*%! never happens on the MacOS, strange huh? And this event happened after something happened in the background, an update or corruption is some process, nothing crazy I was doing. It happened after a night of gaming on my machine, established game, then a normal shutdown. Next day the Windows fun appeared. :/

Oh I see, yeah I messed up that reply. Still stands, I have been using TI for years and it has never failed me. And I have tried all the image backup stuff. I have read these forums enough to know that stuff happens on the Mac. Maybe not as much (becaaue smaller installed base?) but it does happen for sure. I basically went Windows/Mac/Windows. I am loving Win 10. And if I fall out of love, it will be Linux for me next. I am a rebel

 

[Huntn]

Oh I see, yeah I messed up that reply. Still stands, I have been using TI for years and it has never failed me. And I have tried all the image backup stuff. I have read these forums enough to know that stuff happens on the Mac. Maybe not as much (becaaue smaller installed base?) but it does happen for sure. I basically went Windows/Mac/Windows. I am loving Win 10. And if I fall out of love, it will be Linux for me next. I am a rebel

I describe myself as an average user, I browse, edit images now and then, am active in some forums, and play games. As a rule, I stay away from risky sites. The spinning blue donut is so typical of the kind of misadventure Windows likes to foist on me and it's happened multiple times over the last 20 years, not usually resulting in a clean install or if I'm lucky a True Image disk restore. My history seems to indicate a year is the longest before a Windows clean install- threatening event occurs. However, I've been using W10 for 2 years and this was the first serious issue.

Over that same 20 years, the MacOS has never done this to me over multiple computers. It just works.

Whatever the culprit was, the change was drastic, in restoring my disk, my CPU usage went from 95% with multiple spurious background processes reading abnormally high readings, to rolling back to a stable 5% CPU usage, night and day. I researched the symptoms, tried a couple of fixes and came up empty. I do have a stable of Windows rescue utilities to pull the fat out of the fire. TI is a must.

 

[Huntn]

My Aug 2017 Adventure.
Just a heads up that might help someone. After ignoring Windows for about 6 months on my Mac (bootcamp), I cranked it up and discovered that Windows (on my Mac) could not connect to my home network via wifi. Then I discovered that the Windows Apples Software Update app, could not find it's server! I looked there because I thought maybe I needed a Apple software driver update for my wifi.

So I did these things after hooking up an ethernet cable from my MBP to my router:
1. I ran Windows update.
2. I went to the Device Manager and told it to update the driver for my network, broadband. Windows thought I was just peachy keen.
3. To get the Apple Software Update app to work, I ended up installing iTunes on my PC, which did something to update the app, and now it could find it's server. Low and behold, there was a broadband update.
4. And although it seemed to be somewhat intermittent, my ability to connect to my home wifi network via Windows 10 on my Mac (bootamp) seems to be restored, after it still went through a period telling me it could not connect.

Ok, I know some of our "windows purists" will tell me that there is Apple hardware in this mix causing an issue. Yeah that might be, but I'm prejudice and think it's something with Windows 10.

I never have to deal with this using the MacOS. It just works.

 

[kevinof]

Was going to help you out until I saw this comment. Now I'm not inclined.

My Aug 2017 Adventure.
...

I never have to deal with this using the MacOS. It just works.

 

[Huntn]

Was going to help you out until I saw this comment. Now I'm not inclined.

Should I smile at this or worry I'm missing out on a great wimdows cure?

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

Should I smile at this or worry I'm missing out on a great wimdows cure?

Probably because of the comment mac os just works. I run both and like both buth nothing apple “just works”. I have an iphone, ipad, atv, mac. Anything magic is invented in the head of the user.

Have fun.

 

[Huntn]

Probably because of the comment mac os just works. I run both and like both buth nothing apple “just works”. I have an iphone, ipad, atv, mac. Anything magic is invented in the head of the user.

Have fun.

That is a statement that reflects my experience with the MacOX and because of that you are withholding Windows info?? No response requested.

 

[BeforeTheMeds]

That is a statement that reflects my experience with the MacOX and because of that you are withholding Windows info?? No response requested.

Thats a lie. Where did I say I am withholding anything? Just saying the probable reason behind his statement.

No response requested since responses are dishonest. On ignore.

 

[Huntn]

Thats a lie. Where did I say I am withholding anything? Just saying the probable reason behind his statement.

No response requested since responses are dishonest. On ignore.

Here, but it looks like I confused you with another forum member, sorry. My intent is not to fight for heaven sakes but offer and get info:

Was going to help you out until I saw this comment. Now I'm not inclined.

 

[Huntn]

Disclaimer: This post is about Windows on a PC.
While every Mac and ios device in my house is connecting merrily to my Netgear N900 router's wifi network, I've spent the last 2 days trying to figure out why my PC has decided it can no longer connect to it. I've had this issue before, and finally ordered a 100' Cat 7 ethernet cable (which arrives tomorrow) to run through my attic from my router in the family room to my office.

If you are curious- My TP-Link Archer T9E has the latest driver, my Netgear N900 router has the latest firmware and I've restarted the router. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the wifi adapter's drivers. I found a trouble shooting guide labeled "windows 10 won't connect to my wifi network" with a long list of things to check, tried several of those and finally gave up. Note: This kind of thing never happens to me with my Macs (knock on wood) and it's a continuous reminder why I still have Macs and rely on my Mac for everything computer related except gaming.

Once I have the ethernet hooked up to my computer, and I have ordered a new wifi adapter for $40, if I can reconnect via wifi, I might just keep the N900 router. Would there be any big advantage to upgrading to a AC-1900 router? I realize that ethernet is much faster than wifi. Our 2 Macs, 2 ipads, and 2 iphone are thrilled with the N900.
Thanks!

 

[Huntn]

Disclaimer: This post is about Windows on a PC.
While every Mac and ios device in my house is connecting merrily to my Netgear N900 router's wifi network, I've spent the last 2 days trying to figure out why my PC has decided it can no longer connect to it. I've had this issue before, and finally ordered a 100' Cat 7 ethernet cable (which arrives tomorrow) to run through my attic from my router in the family room to my office.

If you are curious- My TP-Link Archer T9E has the latest driver, my Netgear N900 router has the latest firmware and I've restarted the router. I've uninstalled and reinstalled the wifi adapter's drivers. I found a trouble shooting guide labeled "windows 10 won't connect to my wifi network" with a long list of things to check, tried several of those and finally gave up. Note: This kind of thing never happens to me with my Macs (knock on wood) and it's a continuous reminder why I still have Macs and rely on my Mac for everything computer related except gaming.

Once I have the ethernet hooked up to my computer, and I have ordered a new wifi adapter for $40, if I can reconnect via wifi, I might just keep the N900 router. Would there be any big advantage to upgrading to a AC-1900 router? I realize that ethernet is much faster than wifi. Our 2 Macs, 2 ipads, and 2 iphone are thrilled with the N900.
Thanks!

Update: Replaced the TP-Link which was about 18 months old with a Roswill Wifi adapter. Got my wifi back. And I ran a ethenet cable to my computer so all is really well.