Clients Problems With Windows 8.1

[bundyitsolutions]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to assist me, I have a client who has a HP i5 running Windows 8.1 64-Bit. They called advising that they recently had a power outage and they believed that it happened when the computer was installing an update.

They are a couple who both have their own accounts The Administrator Deb(Being a Microsoft Account) and a second user Jim being a (Local Account) with standard access. Originally after rebooting the computer after the power outage Jim could not access his account, They had been trying to resolve the issue originally themselves but after a week of trying the called me. They could only access his account if they changed the Jim's user type to Administrator.

Once arriving on the job i had confirmed this, It would not allow me to login to Jim's account, Once the computer first started up and i was greeted with the login screen if i was to select Jim's account it would simply click and not move from the login screen.

The other issue i found was once finally logged into Jim's account in the start menu he had no icons or apps whatsoever the whole screen was blank i would have to press the start button to get back to the desktop and right click on the start icon to sign out . How ever with the desktop icons they all opened correctly and i could open up internet explorer etc.

I have tried numerous work arounds such as trying to rebuild the icon database etc however im sure windows is missing files. Now the next option i tried was creating a new account, Which it worked fine it had start icons and showed apps, However all microsoft icons would not open and i could not access PC settings. So i created another account with the exact result, I'm really puzzled as Debs account being the main account is working 100% fine with no problems at all.

Any suggestions??

 

[glennd]

Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to assist me, I have a client who has a HP i5 running Windows 8.1 64-Bit. They called advising that they recently had a power outage and they believed that it happened when the computer was installing an update.

They are a couple who both have their own accounts The Administrator Deb(Being a Microsoft Account) and a second user Jim being a (Local Account) with standard access. Originally after rebooting the computer after the power outage Jim could not access his account, They had been trying to resolve the issue originally themselves but after a week of trying the called me. They could only access his account if they changed the Jim's user type to Administrator.

Once arriving on the job i had confirmed this, It would not allow me to login to Jim's account, Once the computer first started up and i was greeted with the login screen if i was to select Jim's account it would simply click and not move from the login screen.

The other issue i found was once finally logged into Jim's account in the start menu he had no icons or apps whatsoever the whole screen was blank i would have to press the start button to get back to the desktop and right click on the start icon to sign out . How ever with the desktop icons they all opened correctly and i could open up internet explorer etc.

I have tried numerous work arounds such as trying to rebuild the icon database etc however im sure windows is missing files. Now the next option i tried was creating a new account, Which it worked fine it had start icons and showed apps, However all microsoft icons would not open and i could not access PC settings. So i created another account with the exact result, I'm really puzzled as Debs account being the main account is working 100% fine with no problems at all.

Any suggestions??

It's no big puzzle, Windows got hosed when the power failed during updates. The joys of always-on-updates. Personally I wouldn't spend too much time on it. Do an image and/or data backup then Nuke & Pave.

 

[nlinecomputers]

I would move this to Windows 10 while you're at it.

 

[glricht]

After you've sorted things out (I agree with @glennd's suggestion), be sure to talk to them about getting a UPS to prevent this from happening again.

 

[mraikes]

This sounds like a fun one. Just to throw some stuff at the wall before nuke & paving or pushing Windows 10 onto them, I'd run a sys restore from Deb's account hoping that if it was an update issue, perhaps the sys restore would roll back the damage.

I'd also try that weird-problem fixing marvel, Tweaking. I've seen more than one head scratcher turn into a happy outcome thanks to Tweaking.

Failing that, and because they spent a week trying to fix it themselves - screwing up who knows what else in the process - I'd be on board with the N&P. It may just be too far gone to untangle the problem. And there's nothing wrong with reminding them that you might have been able to fix it if they had brought it to you right away so you could see the original damage, rather than messing with it themselves.

 

[nlinecomputers]

It also sounds like a flagged profile but you may have tried to much to fix that.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/947215

 

[johnrobert]

That's what I thought look in users see if there's an extra

 

[bundyitsolutions]

Thanks for everyones replies and feedback. I had already tried a number of possibles fixes such as widows tweaking which had said it repaired a number of files etc. While i understand to simply do a reimage and update to windows 10 is the quickest fix, The client had asked to see if i could repair Windows 8 first before proceeding further.

In the end a simple upgrade to Windows 10 has fixed the issue as mentioned above and with no doubt in my mind that it was going to fix it i was simply trying to provide the service which the client had asked for first.

Thanks again.