[SOLVED] [Win8.1 x64] Win.Update spinning

The machine is a dell inspiron 660s. It came with windows 8, but I do not know if it was 8 or 8.1. I don't know much about windows 8.

The box does not have a product key which is befuddling,

I am really, really, really grateful for everything you have done so far in trying to help me. You folks ( guys and gals) at sysnative are FANTASTIC.

Where I was when I ran into the drive locked message was trying to do a refresh per a google query " how to refresh a windows 8.1 installation without losing your data" that got me to How To Refresh A Windows 8.1 Installation Without Losing Your Data | Digital Citizen
I was trying to follow those instructions , which required me to use the windows 8.1 disk I downloaded successfully, and I got to the drive locked message.

I appreciate your help as I have said. I have a couple of things I want to try before I reach out to you again,

I ran chksdsk /f /x/r and got no errors

I want to try to solve the disk locked problem. I have a couple of ideas, one being from Neosoft. I need to get by this before attempting a refresh.

If I can make some progress, I want to try the DISM command again. I am guessing that it's inability to run and the disk locked may be related. But then again I am just a rookie.

I will fill you in with my efforts later. Wish me luck. If you want to wait to hear from me, fine. If you have something you want to suggest for me to try, please post back.

Thanks again
 
I have not tried this yet. I did a little reading on the locked message and other messages ( could not refresh) in the DART and there is some references to UEFI settings. The machine has aptio UEFI. In order to get into this machine a week or so ago ( the person who gave it to me forgot their password) to use pogostick to reset the password, I changed some boot order and other settings to get it to boot from cd. After doing this and then booting into win 8.1, while we were doing all our work there was a message in the right hand corner that secure boot was not configured correctly. Maybe that was affecting your not being successful?

Today I put the bios to defaults. secure boot is enabled, load legacy oprom is disabled, boot mode is UEFI, the hard disk controller driver is windows boot manager, and SATA is AHCI. The hd did not boot. I changed only the SATA to ATA and it booted. There was no error message about secure boot not being configured correctly. I then ran post 110 for DISM and got our 1812 error. I did not do the logs. Before I try a refresh, do you want to see any logs to see if they tell you something different than before?

I am going to keep digging iinto the UEFI settings and how they affect win 8
 
I think you should go ahead and try doing the refresh. The BIOS settings and locked messages wouldn't have affected what we were trying to resolve.
 
I tried the refresh using a DART 64 bit dvd and got the message ( There was a problem refreshing your PC. No changes were made ) I need to look into this. I think it mat be related to the BCD.
 
I just read the Dell article. Would a system restore work maybe?

I also note that, despite windows update spinning when I run it manually, in installed updates there are some that say they were installed while we were doing all our work last week. Does that make sense?
 
I didn't know you were talking about a Restore Point. Indeed if you have a restore point that is prior to when your issues started then feel free to try it.
 
I am restoring to 3/31. What do I do to check it out? it was 4/1 when I was able to get into this machine. Go to the beginning of this post and reread. my problems started on 4/3 or before. When I put malware bytes on around then I got lots of problems so maybe that is what caused our problem. I will post my experience with the 3/31 restore point.


Thanks again for all your help
 
Once you restore to 3/31 you will probably want to do the following to see what issues are found.

SFC Scan
1. Right-click on the Start button and select Command Prompt (Admin)
2. When command prompt opens, Copy (Ctrl+C) and Paste (Right-click > Paste) the following command into it, then press Enter
 sfc /scannow

3. Once it finishes, copy and paste the following into the command-prompt window and press Enter.
copy %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log "%userprofile%\Desktop\cbs.txt"

4. Once this has completed please go to your Desktop and you will find CBS.txt => Right-click on this file and choose Send To...Compressed (zipped folder). Please upload this zipped file CBS.zip to this thread

Please Note:: if the file is too big to upload to your next post please upload via a service such as Dropbox or One Drive or SendSpace and just provide the link.
 
I am really stuck now. the 3/31 did not work. there is no factory image on the disk. I tried to reset my pc using the windows 8.1 media. there was a problem doing that. now when I boot I get a screen with a message that the pc needs to be repaired and that a file is missing: windows/system32/winload.efi I am searching the web for solutions.
 
the dell configuration for the service tag on the machine says it was windows 8. I am guessing that windows update brought it to 8.1 If I need to reload, and I am guessing about product key, should I put on 8 or 8.1?

This is probably not a windows update forum problem anymore. Do you want to beg off?
 
How do you know that there is no factory image on the disk? You are correct that it likely came with Windows 8 and then was updated to 8.1 through Windows Update.
 
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