Ok I'll try that, thanks. The thing is, apparently I can't do this on my broken PC right now, because the Setup doesn't progress. It just stay at 0%... So I have to prepare the USB stick somewhere else.
I have another question for you r72019, please. Let's say, this USB boot step doesn't work, what then? Is it even a possibility? Or would this mean there is something fundamentaly broken with the PC?
As long as you can access BIOS, F12 on boot, you would be able to see the one time boot (and list of available devices) option on your screen.
You just need to go to the link using any PC running windows 10 and it will properly format a bootable USB flash media for you.
Passing the ePSA hardware check is a good sign. I probably would suspect the ongoing issue may be an issue with the hard drive, either physical or perhaps malware, since you're not able to download or save anything, and get occasional failed boots.. Another thing to check to address the PC running really slow is that you aren't running out of RAM. Or that you don't have a background process eating up system resources (whether malware, malfunctioning program like AWCC, etc.) but that would be cleared by a clean install.
Most people would try software repair next, before jumping ship and wiping the drive. System file checker, DISM, and if that fails, boot to flash and Windows OS repair.
I did the system file checker, DISM, but nothing came out of it, apparently everything was fine.
So I did the OS repair, but it didn't seem to help eighter. I went ahead and rebooted from that same menu (windows advanced start up options). Then the Alienware recovery assistant took over and I wiped the whole PC. BUT, the problem at the start still exist
Even worst I'm stuck now on the Windows update ... Loads for ever, and in the end i get: "Error encountered. There were some problems installing updates, but we'll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information this may help (0x800705b4)"
Edit: I closed the Alienware assistant and tried updating normally from windows. And after a while the PC has now finally found the updates and is downloading & installing them.
I did it. I rebooted the whole thing. Besides being stuck on a "windows 10 cumulative update" that is not progressing, nothing has changed. I'm still having the same problems. It's even a little worst then before, the PC doesn't even load the usual starting apps on the start menu. Just a bunch of boxes with download signs.
Besides being stuck on a "windows 10 cumulative update" that is not progressing, nothing has changed. I'm still having the same problems.
A bit of backstory: my PC stopped working right on the next day, when these problems showed up suddenly. This was one month ago. The computer was dead. Didn't reacted to pressing the power button, nothing. So I assumed it was the PSU. I bought a new one, replaced it and it was running again. But the old problems still remain.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 25th, 2021 09:00
As long as you can access BIOS, F12 on boot, you would be able to see the one time boot (and list of available devices) option on your screen.
You just need to go to the link using any PC running windows 10 and it will properly format a bootable USB flash media for you.
Passing the ePSA hardware check is a good sign. I probably would suspect the ongoing issue may be an issue with the hard drive, either physical or perhaps malware, since you're not able to download or save anything, and get occasional failed boots.. Another thing to check to address the PC running really slow is that you aren't running out of RAM. Or that you don't have a background process eating up system resources (whether malware, malfunctioning program like AWCC, etc.) but that would be cleared by a clean install.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 23rd, 2021 06:00
It may be a failing hard drive. Can you run the built-in Dell epsa diagnostics, f12 on boot?
momo.mann
16 Posts
0
August 23rd, 2021 15:00
Hi r72019,
I did a complete diagnostics, but the results came out fine.
redxps630
9 Legend
•
15.4K Posts
1
August 23rd, 2021 19:00
try a fresh clean install of Windows 10. in this step you delete all old partitions on hdd and you would lose all data.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
0
August 23rd, 2021 20:00
Most people would try software repair next, before jumping ship and wiping the drive. System file checker, DISM, and if that fails, boot to flash and Windows OS repair.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 23rd, 2021 20:00
Also, consider running something like MaIwarebytes on your system
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 23rd, 2021 20:00
Also, try installing Crystal Disk Mark and Crystal Disk Info, check drive health and performance. Does it show the drive is in good health?
momo.mann
16 Posts
0
August 24th, 2021 07:00
I did the system file checker, DISM, but nothing came out of it, apparently everything was fine.
So I did the OS repair, but it didn't seem to help eighter. I went ahead and rebooted from that same menu (windows advanced start up options). Then the Alienware recovery assistant took over and I wiped the whole PC. BUT, the problem at the start still exist
Even worst I'm stuck now on the Windows update ... Loads for ever, and in the end i get: "Error encountered. There were some problems installing updates, but we'll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information this may help (0x800705b4)"
Edit: I closed the Alienware assistant and tried updating normally from windows. And after a while the PC has now finally found the updates and is downloading & installing them.
momo.mann
16 Posts
0
August 24th, 2021 09:00
I did it. I rebooted the whole thing. Besides being stuck on a "windows 10 cumulative update" that is not progressing, nothing has changed. I'm still having the same problems. It's even a little worst then before, the PC doesn't even load the usual starting apps on the start menu. Just a bunch of boxes with download signs.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 24th, 2021 10:00
Since you wiped the drive already, try creating a win 10 bootable USB drive using this link from microsoft: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10%20 (free). This one won't get stuck on a bunch of updates.
Delete the partitions and clean install Windows 10.
If you're still getting issues where you can't save any downloads, etc., I'd suggest replacing the hard drive.
momo.mann
16 Posts
0
August 24th, 2021 10:00
Besides being stuck on a "windows 10 cumulative update" that is not progressing, nothing has changed. I'm still having the same problems.
A bit of backstory: my PC stopped working right on the next day, when these problems showed up suddenly. This was one month ago. The computer was dead. Didn't reacted to pressing the power button, nothing. So I assumed it was the PSU. I bought a new one, replaced it and it was running again. But the old problems still remain.
momo.mann
16 Posts
0
August 24th, 2021 13:00
Ok thanks @r72018,
I'll do that. One question, I have an SSD. Can't I replace my HDD with that for a while? Using it for the OS, I mean.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 24th, 2021 14:00
Be sure to unplug all drives except for the usb stick and the new boot drive during install.
r72019
6 Professor
•
5.3K Posts
1
August 24th, 2021 14:00
Yes, either a SSD or HDD will work for the OS boot drive.
Vanadiel
6 Professor
•
7.1K Posts
1
August 24th, 2021 20:00
This could be a failing drive. If you can boot into windows, open up a command prompt in administrator mode.
In the command prompt, paste the following text: wmic /namespace:\\root\wmi path MSStorageDriver_FailurePredictStatus
It should come back with a Predict failure status based on the smart status of the drive. It should come back as false.