HP Windows 8 Users Beware

[dblanch256]

I just spend the past week or so in a failed attempt to get my Dad set up with his new HP desktop running Windows 8.

I eliminated much of the initial "bloatware" as well as Norton Semantic in favor of Malware Bytes (admittedly a close call) and set up some automatic tasks for maintenance which would otherwise not occur to him to run.

He subsequently upgraded to 8.1 without telling me first, and somewhere along the line things went downhill fast! Although his applications still worked, most of the normal "system stuff" was acting corrupted.  The first symptom was that the Control Panel was taking four minutes (!) to start!  Worse, most if not all of the other system tools I tried to use were either broken or compromised ("process had to stop").

The more I tried to fix the environment (including using MB, SAS and AIO) the worse it seemed to get. Soon,  I couldn't (a) Invoke the Control Panel, or (b) Connect Remotely, or (c) Update windows (d) use System Restore or even (e) use System Repair.  I finally threw my hands up and purchased some limited HP support.

Interestingly, their first observation was that their own "house brand" diagnostic tool (HPSA.exe) was "a" (if not "the") root cause of these problems!  According to the HP tech, this process "has its tentacles into everything" and has the potential to put a serious "hurt" on the OS.

I have seen this process many times on my own HP machines, but only under Windows 7.  On my Dad's Windows 8.1 machine, this HPSA process would pop up now and again only to declare that it needed to quit.  Based on my Windows 7 experience I wasn't surprised.  Since I'd never known it to actually "solve" any problem on my machines, I had come to regard it as "toothless" nuisance and told my Dad to just ignore it.  So imagine my surprise when the HP tech said it might have "gone over to the dark side"!

We're still awaiting the final verdict on this, but I'll admit I was seriously shaken by the whole experience, in part because I'm the most computer literate person in my family and it was beginning to look like I couldn't do anything right!  Oh, and I want those four days of my life back! 

[dblanch256]

I'm still somewhat confused about how to best run WR-AIO.  As I mentioned above, it appear that it *was* disabling Windows Essentials on my Dad's Windows 8.1 HP desktop, but didn't think to disable HPSA.exe--which we are now being told by HP was the likely cause of his numerous system problems.

In fact, the second time we ran WR-AIO it stalled (for ten minutes) on Step 11--which merely restores fonts.  Another sign that things were going downhill fast, since it had completed successfully the day before.  Fonts?  It couldn't repair fonts?!  What did fonts have to do with anything?

We tried to boot his machine in Safe mode (using SHIFT F8) but couldn't.  I found an article that says MicroSoft "buried" Safe mode under Windows 8 and that this F8 come works "sometimes".  Sheesh!

I don't know what to suggest for RT-AIO given that "certain vendors" load their own diagnostic "helpers".  I had thought the worst they would do is fail to help, but I've learned the hard way that they can bite really hard and essentially bring everything to its knees.

From this whole sordid adventure I learned only that "When the system, as a whole is crippled, it's pretty damn hard to do anything at all with it.  If I didn't know better, I would have accused a virus of doing this, because it had that "signature" feeling of disabling all of the tools one would need to remove it.  However, after running MBAM (and even MBAR for rootkits) followed by Super Anti-Spyware with nothing identified, my virus theory was looking weak.

Honestly, I've never felt so helpless.  Thanks HP!

[Shane]

My program doesnt have a repair fonts function. Are you sure you have my Windows Repair. Look down the page on this link and you will see a screen shot
http://www.tweaking.com/content/page/windows_repair_all_in_one.html

Shane

[dblanch256]

Sorry, I meant "icons".  Still, my dad and I felt this was an odd place for it to hang.

After four days of back and forth between my dad and me, and two "site visits" by me, the system had become so unstable that even basic things (like bringing up the control panel, using System Restore, getting to the Settings charm were impeding our ability to work).

Unlike me, he has only the one computer.  I, at least have the advantage of owning four (three running W7 and the fourth running W8.1) and have had no such problems.  However, since one of the "compromised functions" was the ability to use remote assistance, I finally "caved" and bought official support from HP.

Interestingly, the HP tech team is struggling very much like I was, did not find any trace of a virus, and according to my dad, was using Tweaking AIO as part of their arsenal!  I hope you don't begrudge them using it, because it seems like a different situation--they have assumed overall responsibility for making him whole again--unlike "the other guys" who charged me simply to your tool.

More later when I know more.  As always, thank you for trying to make the world a better place! 

[Shane]

I think it is great HP is using my tool

I am doing some double testing right now on 8.1 with my Windows repair and everything is working perfectly. I have a feeling something else is at play on that system.

Shane