Gates Spends Entire First Day Back in Office Trying to Install Windows 8.1

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Buzz Bumble

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#139375 6-Feb-2014 18:11

Gates Spends Entire First Day Back in Office Trying to Install Windows 8.1
Posted by Andy Borowitz

Bill Gates’s first day at work in the newly created role of technology adviser got off to a rocky start yesterday as the Microsoft founder struggled for hours to install the Windows 8.1 upgrade.

The installation hit a snag early on, sources said, when Mr. Gates repeatedly received an error message informing him that his PC ran into a problem that it could not handle and needed to restart.

After failing to install the upgrade by lunchtime, Mr. Gates summoned the new Microsoft C.E.O. Satya Nadella, who attempted to help him with the installation, but with no success.

While the two men worked behind closed doors, one source described the situation as “tense.”

“Bill is usually a pretty calm guy, so it was weird to hear some of that language coming out of his mouth,” the source said.

A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.

REDMOND, WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)

;-)

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#981419 6-Feb-2014 18:16

they should have send nathan to help him

naggyman

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#981429 6-Feb-2014 18:32

Haha that is good.

Morgan French-Stagg

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Gilco2

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#981438 6-Feb-2014 18:41

would be funny especially if it was true.
No - I dont believe everything I read in the paper or forum postings etc etc

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toyonut

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#982603 9-Feb-2014 11:42

Borowitz is a comedian, it is a joke. He does these dry stories like this on all kinds of topics.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

toyonut

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#982608 9-Feb-2014 11:43

I had a good laugh.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

nathan

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#982613 9-Feb-2014 11:50

in Microsoft we plug any machine into a wired network, hit F12 to do PXE boot, enter our creds and come back 20 mins later to a fully built machine with 8.1, Office 2013, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business all automatically configured and synching. Very painless.

toyonut

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#982764 9-Feb-2014 15:41

nathan: in Microsoft...Very painless.

I'm sure there is an in soviet russia gag in there.
How about, in Sochi, you want upgrade, we plug you into wall. 20 minutes later, you realise what we gave you is best thing for you and you be happy. Very painless.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

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#982767 9-Feb-2014 15:45

nathan: in Microsoft we plug any machine into a wired network, hit F12 to do PXE boot, enter our creds and come back 20 mins later to a fully built machine with 8.1, Office 2013, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business all automatically configured and synching. Very painless.

absolutely!

the pain comes in the days, months and years after when it won't work :D

nathan

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#982822 9-Feb-2014 17:12

joker97:
nathan: in Microsoft we plug any machine into a wired network, hit F12 to do PXE boot, enter our creds and come back 20 mins later to a fully built machine with 8.1, Office 2013, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business all automatically configured and synching. Very painless.

absolutely!

the pain comes in the days, months and years after when it won't work :D

this has not been my experience at all across any of the machines I use with 8.1 or 8.1 RT, I have all of these PCs that I use regularly an no issues with Sleep or Desktops crashing. Sorry that you're having issues.

Lenovo X1 Carbon
Lenovo W530
Surface RT
Surface 2
Surface Pro
Surface Pro 2
Asus VivoTab RT
Asus MEC400
Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
Lenovo Helix
HP ElitePad 900
Asus H100/T100
Dell Venue Pro 8
Dell Venue Pro 11
Dell Precision M6700

Lizard1977

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#983153 10-Feb-2014 08:47

After nearly two months of trying (not every day, but usually once a week), I've finally managed to upgrade from Window 8 to 8.1. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has to be the most torturous, painful, and drawn-out upgrade I have ever done. Despite their attempts to make it "easier", they instead made it maddeningly more difficult.

To start with, I couldn't see the 8.1 upgrade in the MS Store. It took a google search to reveal that I needed to install all the available Windows Updates before it would even show me the upgrade. Then, when I downloaded the update, it started to install but crashed while "setting more things up." I tried all kinds of different things to get around the crash, and it advanced a little further, but there was no clear association between what I was doing, and the fault being presented. Each time the install failed, it returned an error code which was singularly unhelpful.

I tried restoring Windows 8 to defaults using the built in Restore function, but that failed (giving me no confidence in using that function in future). "Repairing" Windows using the ISO disc that I installed Windows from didn't work either. I then thought that maybe a clean install of Windows was needed. Firstly the disc was "invalid", then my key was "invalid". I redownloaded the ISO and burnt it to a new disc, but that was also "invalid." I then burnt the same ISO to a USB key and that finally worked. With a fresh install of Windows 8, I tried to upgrade to Windows 8, but the same problem occurred. Several more attempts, and each time it failed. I tried unplugging everything except the basics, but it still failed. Each time it failed, it produced a variation on the same error code, which googling didn't help. In the end, after trawling for answers using more general queries (windows 8.1 upgrade failure), and spending hours scouring those results for vague connections to my problems, I managed to solve it. I disconnected everything from the PC except the mouse and keyboard, physically removed the wifi card and plugged in ethernet. Then it worked.

I know my experience isn't universal, but it's not unique either. Installing something little more than a Service Pack should not be this complicated. Microsoft seem to have totally botched what should have been a very simple process. This kind of experience doesn't help with their already troubled image around Windows 8. The "article" at the top of the thread sums up my feelings exactly...

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#983163 10-Feb-2014 09:12

Lizard1977: After nearly two months of trying (not every day, but usually once a week), I've finally managed to upgrade from Window 8 to 8.1. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has to be the most torturous, painful, and drawn-out upgrade I have ever done. Despite their attempts to make it "easier", they instead made it maddeningly more difficult.

To start with, I couldn't see the 8.1 upgrade in the MS Store. It took a google search to reveal that I needed to install all the available Windows Updates before it would even show me the upgrade. Then, when I downloaded the update, it started to install but crashed while "setting more things up." I tried all kinds of different things to get around the crash, and it advanced a little further, but there was no clear association between what I was doing, and the fault being presented. Each time the install failed, it returned an error code which was singularly unhelpful.

I tried restoring Windows 8 to defaults using the built in Restore function, but that failed (giving me no confidence in using that function in future). "Repairing" Windows using the ISO disc that I installed Windows from didn't work either. I then thought that maybe a clean install of Windows was needed. Firstly the disc was "invalid", then my key was "invalid". I redownloaded the ISO and burnt it to a new disc, but that was also "invalid." I then burnt the same ISO to a USB key and that finally worked. With a fresh install of Windows 8, I tried to upgrade to Windows 8, but the same problem occurred. Several more attempts, and each time it failed. I tried unplugging everything except the basics, but it still failed. Each time it failed, it produced a variation on the same error code, which googling didn't help. In the end, after trawling for answers using more general queries (windows 8.1 upgrade failure), and spending hours scouring those results for vague connections to my problems, I managed to solve it. I disconnected everything from the PC except the mouse and keyboard, physically removed the wifi card and plugged in ethernet. Then it worked.

I know my experience isn't universal, but it's not unique either. Installing something little more than a Service Pack should not be this complicated. Microsoft seem to have totally botched what should have been a very simple process. This kind of experience doesn't help with their already troubled image around Windows 8. The "article" at the top of the thread sums up my feelings exactly...

Ouch. Can you list the make/model of you hardware so I can pass the feedback on

the only Windows updates you need are, KB 2871389 and KB 2917499, before Windows 8.1 becomes available to you in the Store.

If you’re using Windows Update to get automatic updates, KB 2871389 and KB 2917499 will be downloaded and installed automatically.

TwoSeven

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#983185 10-Feb-2014 10:06

Hopefully it was the 0x80240031 failed at 50% error - if so, then I might get a fix for it sometime soon.

There appears to be no diagnostics behind windows store updates (that the consumer can gain access to) - It would be useful if the update was delivered through windows update as an alternative.

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Lizard1977

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#983886 11-Feb-2014 09:27

Nope - it was 0xC1900101 or something like that.

Nathan - it's a homebuilt PC with the following components:

Asus P7P55D Deluxe motherboard
Intel Core i7 860 (Lynnfield core - not overclocked)
Corsair 2x2GB DDR3 RAM
Intel 330 120GB SSD
WD Caviar Black 1GB HDD
ATI 5850HD 1GB graphics card
TP-Link WN851ND PCI WIFI adapter

The wifi adpater seems to have been the cause of the issue, and it's been a problem for Win8 from the start. When I was testing the beta and CP versions of Windows 8, and when I installed the commercial version as well, I had loads of crashes whenever I went online. In the end, I traced it to the Windows driver for the wifi adapter. When I installed the older (2010) TP Link driver, it was perfectly fine. However, it had to be installed with compatibility settings for Windows 7, as it wouldn't work in Windows 8. It's the first thing I install after reinstalling Windows 8.

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#983894 11-Feb-2014 10:11

Lizard1977: After nearly two months of trying (not every day, but usually once a week), I've finally managed to upgrade from Window 8 to 8.1. Without a shadow of a doubt, this has to be the most torturous, painful, and drawn-out upgrade I have ever done. Despite their attempts to make it "easier", they instead made it maddeningly more difficult.

To start with, I couldn't see the 8.1 upgrade in the MS Store. It took a google search to reveal that I needed to install all the available Windows Updates before it would even show me the upgrade. Then, when I downloaded the update, it started to install but crashed while "setting more things up." I tried all kinds of different things to get around the crash, and it advanced a little further, but there was no clear association between what I was doing, and the fault being presented. Each time the install failed, it returned an error code which was singularly unhelpful.

I tried restoring Windows 8 to defaults using the built in Restore function, but that failed (giving me no confidence in using that function in future). "Repairing" Windows using the ISO disc that I installed Windows from didn't work either. I then thought that maybe a clean install of Windows was needed. Firstly the disc was "invalid", then my key was "invalid". I redownloaded the ISO and burnt it to a new disc, but that was also "invalid." I then burnt the same ISO to a USB key and that finally worked. With a fresh install of Windows 8, I tried to upgrade to Windows 8, but the same problem occurred. Several more attempts, and each time it failed. I tried unplugging everything except the basics, but it still failed. Each time it failed, it produced a variation on the same error code, which googling didn't help. In the end, after trawling for answers using more general queries (windows 8.1 upgrade failure), and spending hours scouring those results for vague connections to my problems, I managed to solve it. I disconnected everything from the PC except the mouse and keyboard, physically removed the wifi card and plugged in ethernet. Then it worked.

I know my experience isn't universal, but it's not unique either. Installing something little more than a Service Pack should not be this complicated. Microsoft seem to have totally botched what should have been a very simple process. This kind of experience doesn't help with their already troubled image around Windows 8. The "article" at the top of the thread sums up my feelings exactly...

The article took one day

You took two months.

Big difference! I'd probably have sold it and bought a Mac if that happened to me

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#983930 11-Feb-2014 10:53

It was a close call! :). As pretty as the Macs look, I like my PC, even with the hair pulling frustrations that Windows brings... Call it a love-hate relationship.

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