Problems with Windows 8.1

[StevenD]

Hi,
Well, I bought a refurb W530 to replace my T60p. I needed USB 2, faster memory, etc -- my T60p was 7 years old. Got my hands initially on a W540p, but the mouse buttons in the track pad were not usable. Terrible. The W530's keyboard seems to be okay, though not quite as good as my T60p (and every TP I've had before that, back to the 560).

The refurb unit wouldn't go through the Win 8 Pro initial installation routine. I sent it back for repair. They sent it back to me. Still wouldn't. I sent it back for repair. They replaced the motherboard and the HDD. Got through initial installation. Windows Update wanted to install 120 updates, and choked a few times getting that done (Windows update seems a little buggy to me). I updated all Lenovo drivers and software.

Then I upgraded to Win 8.1. That seemed to go fine, too. I tested a few things, browsed the Internet.
Next day, the computer would not boot. Said it needed to go through an automatic diagnostic and repair. Said it couldn't fix things, and it wouldn't boot into Windows, and did I want to reset to my image for Windows 8 and start all over.

Called Lenovo. They said do the Lenovo HDD diagnostic. It passed. They said they'd send me Win 8 pro installation disks, but yes, I have to re-install all updates, drivers, etc.

Why, I said, did this happen? "Win 8.1 got corrupted." But why, and will it just happen again? They didn't know.

Is this a recurring theme? Is Win 8.1 too buggy to use yet? Is this a TP thing? Am I going to have terrible problems everywhere now that I'm about to leave XP?

Thanks for any help.
--Steve D.

[Medessec]

I’m not sure what the setup on the W530 is, I know for a fact the W540 uses UEFI. There’s a new firmware standard for computer BIOSes called UEFI, which basically integrates OS loading with the BIOS loading, so drivers and hardware are all started up and loaded into the OS very quickly. The idea is that you get incredibly fast boot times.

However it makes it so that it may not work properly if you just sit the laptop down like the olden days, and install your OS from disk, it may not work properly. It might install, but the next time you boot it up, something might be missing, so it’ll go into repair mode. I personally don’t know every little detail about UEFI yet, someone who’s played with that more will hopefully come on here and set everything straight for you.

What you want to do is check the BIOS for a Legacy Boot mode, and set that on the W530. Then install Windows 8, after that it should behave. It’ll boot slower, and show more information though.

[StevenD]

Thanks, Medessec,

I checked the BIOS. Indeed, it's a late bios, 2014. But it is set to preferentially boot in Legacy mode.
/SD

[Medessec]

If it boots in Legacy mode already, any issues Windows 8 encounters on booting is within Windows 8 and not with the laptop BIOS/motherboard. It could be the hard drive, but since Lenovo reports back it's a-ok, then it's hard to tell what else it could be.

When installing large strings of updates one after the other- it's possible the OS could operate normally on the first restart, then completely fail on the next one. I guess you could say it's a little flaky, but once you get it all done, it should work perfectly. And yeah- it's normal for Windows Update to say that it'll install 38 updates, but then post an error after the 17th and not finish. It happens even in Windows 7. Just keep pushing through it, and be careful... make sure everything still works after a really big update rally.

Your Thinkpad definitely isn't the problem, so don't worry about that. Windows 8 isn't so much buggy... it's just that it can be naturally difficult to get working perfectly at first. Once you get settled in, and get used to Windows 8's interface, you should be alright. If you're coming straight from XP, then this will be a dramatically different personal computing experience for you- and I wish you the best of luck.

And good idea keeping up with Lenovo on this. You deserve a good, flawless computing experience from them, hope they didn't give you too much hassle on the phone.

[ajkula66]

Why, I said, did this happen? "Win 8.1 got corrupted." But why, and will it just happen again? They didn't know.

Any OS install can get corrupted. Will it happen again is anyone's guess...

Is this a recurring theme? Is Win 8.1 too buggy to use yet? Is this a TP thing? Am I going to have terrible problems everywhere now that I'm about to leave XP?

Well, XP was quite buggy for a while yet we all got used to it at some point in the game...

I don't think that there's anything inherently wrong with W8.1 - although I personally don't use it, and likely never will - but driver bugs have been reported. I don't see ThinkPads having any more of an issue with the OS in question than other machines either.

You always have the option of "downgrading" to W7 Pro which is well-supported by *30 platform and an extremely stable OS in my experience.

Good luck.

[pianowizard]

Regarding UEFI, you may indeed need to do something differently. I have installed Windows (specifically, 7) through the UEFI mode only once -- it was required because I wanted to boot from a 3TB hard drive -- and it took me a while to figure out how to do it. You should do some Google search to see if there are instructions available, preferably specific for Thinkpads.

I don't think that there's anything inherently wrong with W8.1

I updated to 8.1 on three computers and didn't have any problem. It has been 9 months since that update and these computers (one of which is on 24/7) haven't crashed even once.

but driver bugs have been reported.

These are drivers intended for older versions of Windows though. Have you heard of people having problems with drivers written specifically for 8?

I don't see ThinkPads having any more of an issue with the OS in question than other machines either.

Our friend RealBlackStuff has said more than once that Lenovo doesn't like 8 (at least for Thinkpads), and that it hasn't done much to ensure compatibility with 8. Assuming he's correct, it's indeed possible that Thinkpads have more issues with 8 than for other brands.

W7 Pro which is well-supported by *30 platform and an extremely stable OS in my experience.

Probably true for Thinkpads, though I haven't used 7 on Thinkpads. For other brands, I have found 8 to be superior to 7 when it comes to stability, as you and I have discussed numerous times.

[ajkula66]

These are drivers intended for older versions of Windows though. Have you heard of people having problems with drivers written specifically for 8?

Yes, and not only on ThinkPads. NBR's Samsung section was a chock-full-of-complaints when 8.1 first came out, and that's just off the top of my head.

Our friend RealBlackStuff has said more than once that Lenovo doesn't like 8 (at least for Thinkpads), and that it hasn't done much to ensure compatibility with 8. Assuming he's correct, it's indeed possible that Thinkpads have more issues with 8 than for other brands.

Well, if one were to do things Lenovo's way, the first "officially" supported generation would be the *40 series. With that said, those who like W8.x have been running it on just about any platform imaginable with no major issues reported, even going back to T43 (!).

Honestly, OP's W530 is a recent-enough piece of hardware to be well-supported on all levels. There will always be a bug that hits someone along the way regardless of OS in question, which is what I believe the case is here...

[pianowizard]

There will always be a bug that hits someone along the way regardless of OS in question, which is what I believe the case is here...

Good point. What seems to happen a lot is, when something goes wrong during an XP or 7 upgrade, we tend to think it's a fluke because these are supposed to be excellent operating systems. But when a Vista or 8 upgrade has a glitch, it's tempting to blame them because they both have very bad reputation.

Thinking back on all the Service Pack updates I have done, I can recall having problems with XP and 7, but none at all with Vista or 8, with the caveat that I have used 8 on only three machines vs. dozens for each of the other three OS's. That's the opposite of what one would expect from reputation!