Lifedigital2010's Blog

Last night I launched the upgrade to Win 10 21H2 and went to bed. I was warned it would take some time and everything would be fine, don’t worry but when I returned to the computer it would not boot anymore, instead I had a nice Blue Screen Of Death with an interesting error message : Kmode Exception Not Handled and QR Code to “show support”.

“Not to worry, I’ll just reboot and relaunch the update”, I thought to myself. Well, not this time….

Not only would the OS not load but there was no way I could get into the recovery partition , so no safe-mode, worse, I could not even boot off USB or DVD : the blue screen came back all the time ! The only option available to me was to get into the BIOS.

I spend hours trying to understand what the problem was :

. launching “optimized BIOS” settings

. removing all external USB equipment and booting only with the keyboard attached

. checking the memory modules

. checking the video card

. checking the CPU

. clearing the CMOS

. re-flashing the BIOS

No matter what I did, Windows just would not launch.

After a while I thought there might be a physical problem on the SSD. So I removed the harddisk and installed it onto another working computer as a separate disk… Oopsy, the dreaded blue screen with the useful “Kmode Exception Not Handled” message came back. I removed the SSD and the other computer would boot normally.

I found that the only way I was able to access my SSD content was to use my external docking station

on my working machine but only plugging it after the machine had already booted ! If I left the docking station on during the boot process, the blue screen would be back. Incredible.

So clearly there was something really nasty going on with that disk but what ? Was there a hardware fault preventing it from booting ? Was it failing ? I always thought that with SSDs a failure would impact the whole disk (unlike the old days of disk platters) and it was more of “either it works or it doesn’t” but I did not want to take any chance. So when I realized I could access the content, I created a sector-by-sector backup of the disk onto another SSD using a cloning software (https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree in my case). Then I ran some diags on the disk, tried to access some files and everything seemed to be fine.

As an experiment I plugged the cloned disk onto my failing computer and …. the Blue Screen was back !

So I started reading a little bit about the Windows 10 boot process and realized that since I was using UEFI the problem was certainly that the Master Boot Record got corrupted somehow (by the windows update process ???). So as a last chance before reinstalling the OS I thought I’d give the “fix-it” option a try….and it worked. This is what I did :

1. Locate and remove the EFI partition on my non-working SSD by following this guide : https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/delete-efi-system-partition.html
2. Create a Windows installable USB by
   • downloading the distro from Microsoft : https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO (Hint: use a Mac and MS will allow you to download an ISO. If the site detects a PC it will force you to use the horrible Media Creator programme)
   • Using Rufus to create a bootable USB with the correct version of Windows : https://rufus.ie/en/
3. Boot the computer using the USB installation media.
4. On the first screen, press SHIFT+F10 to bring up the command prompt.
5. Run the following commands at the command prompt.
   • diskpart
   • list disk
   • select disk # Note: Select the disk where you want to add the EFI System partition.
   • list partition
   • select partition # Note: Select the Windows OS partition (# number)
   • create partition efi size=100
   • format quick fs=fat32
   • assign letter=s Note: you will need this letter in the last step
   • list partition
   • list volume Note: write down the volume letter where the Windows OS is installed, you will need it in the last step
   • exit
   • bcdboot X:\windows/s S: /f UEFI  Note : Replace “X” with the volume letter of the Windows OS partition that you wrote down above

And… it worked ! I reinstalled the SSD in my computer and everything was fine after that.

I relaunched the 20H1 update and this time it went through. A shame I lost a day in the process….

Another year, another Windows 10 update.

<Humor start>Microsoft : you won ! I drank your Kool-aid, I’m onboard, I want my system to be up-to-date, I need my systems to always be up-to-date. Give me my fix ! 😉 <Humor end>

But, why, oh why must it be always so difficult ?! I’ve been trying to install that Creator Update countless of times since last week and I only just got it right it today. In the process I learned much more that I wanted to in the Windows update debugging process.

Here is what I did after several attemps of launching the upgrade and having the whole process stop and get stuck at 35% several times.

To make a long story short, don’t use the regular path to update (Start / Settings / Update & Security / Windows Update) but go the Media Creation Tool way (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10). This will download the Windows update source files and put them on a USB drive so that you don’t have to redownload them everytime there’s an error or another during the update process. After the 5th update retry you’ll be glad you did : the upgrade files total 3.5 GB and on my (crappy) connexion it took 5 hours to download from their servers.

Before you do that though make sure that the original Windows language is restored to the default option. Windows 10 allows you to install language pack and use pretty much any language for its display and menus. For example if you are in France but you prefer to use an English version of Windows 10 you can do so (Setting / Time&Languages / Region&Language / Add a language / Set as Default / make sure it is set as “Windows display language” – reboot a few times and you’re set).  This is a great option and a welcome plus in comparison to Windows 7 where this was only possible in their PRO version (I have a Home Edition). I really don’t understand why Microsoft blocked this in previous Windows versions. It is simply ridiculous to force people to use a specific language and not include English. Anyway…

What I noticed however, was every time a major Windows 10 upgrade comes along they WILL fail unless the original language Windows was sold in is restored.

Once the USB key is created, restart in minimal config mode (MSConfig – Diagnostic startup), unplug any USB device , launch the Setup from the USB key, choose NOT to download the updates, and if you use a Logitech dongle for their wireless mice and keyboards (Unify system) : REMOVE IT ! and wait…. Process should take 1 hour – 1 hour 15 in total. Process should not stop and not get stuck at any point for 15 mns or longer (for example 35%….).

Here is the detailed step by step procedure. I found that every step was important for my system to be able to get upgraded :

1. Have an 8GB USB key handy
2. Remove any optional language pack (Setting / Time&Languages / Region&Language)
3. Reboot a few times until the original language is used for menus and such
4. Install the Media Creation Tool (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10).
5. Launch the program
6. Wait a couple of hours for the files to download
7. Once the USB key is ready you will prepare the system to reboot in “minimal config”
8. Launch MSCONFIG and check “Diagnostic startup”
9. Choose Apply
10. Unplug every USB device but keep the Logitech Unify dongle for now as you need the mouse to navigate the menus
11. Reboot
12. Launch the Setup file from the USB key
13. Choose NOT to download updated files
14. Let the tool run
15. The machine will reboot several time on its own.
16. After 1h00 – 1h15 process should be done.
17. Replug the USB devices (including the Logitech Unify if using it)
18. Launch Windows Update to make sure the system is clean
19. Reboot if needed
20. Reinstall the optional language pack if using

Good luck.

In order to access all the settings and configurations in Windows 10 in one place, create a folder and rename it GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Then, simply double-click it and feel like a Windows God