Samsung 900x Windows 8 to 8.1 upgrade failed stuck in loop

nputtick

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Hi - new forum member, hope I'm doing this the right way.

I have a Samsung NP900x3D (i5 with 128Gb SSD and 4Gb RAM) running running Win 8.0 x64

After several months putting it off I decided to let Windows update itself to 8.1.

At some point during the upgrade it stopped and began cycling itself on & off, showing the blue screen message
"Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then we'll restart for you". Then it's stuck in a loop; restart, samsung logo, blue screen, restart etc.

I cannot access the BIOS with f2.

I have made a recovery USB drive on another Win 8.0 x64 Samsung laptop (different model). The 900X will not boot from this in either the USB2 or USB3 port, and as I cannot access the BIOS I cannot check whether boot from USB is enabled. The boot time has always been very fast due to the SSD.

With more conventional laptops and desktops in the past I have usually been able to solve this sort of problem on my own, but I can't even get started with this! Does anyone have a suggestion how I might recover the computer, or do I have to take it in for repair?

I'm also wondering whether this is most likely to be a windows issue or could it be a hardware failure?

Many thanks
Nigel

PS If wrong forum, please advise
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
I too this week encountered this issue, after speaking with Samsung support, they insisted this was my fault for installing the update and i would have to pay them for the privilege of re-imaging the msata hard drive. I thought otherwise and have tackled the re imaging myself, some items of software are required and one part required to complete the task.

The Steps i took were as follows -

1 - Purchased a msata to USB converter for about £15.

2 - After removing the msata hard drive, insert in to the converter and back up all your files to another PC.

3 - Using another PC I next used a software tool - Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool - using this selected the correct HDD and removed all partitions, allowing the hard drive to be reinitialised.

4 - From windows Disk Management - reinitialised the HDD, the created 2 partitions, one is 200mb in size and formatted to FAT32 (this will become the EFI partition, and format the rest as NFTS.

5 - Download a copy of Windows 8 Enterprise from the Microsoft website, or if you have a disk that can also be used.

6 - Download a tool - Win to USB - and install.

7 - Run Win to USB - select the Windows 8 ISO, and choose the correct version required, then choose the destination drive to install, this will then show the two partitions with two check boxes, choose FAT32 partition for EFI, and NFTS for windows installation files. then let it install the files to the Hard drive.

8 - When at 100% and complete, remove hard drive from converter, reconnect to the Laptop.

9 - Some adjustments are required to the bios, with my x900, it kept booting straight to bios, i disabled secure boot and deleted all configurations listed. then form boot list, find Start menu (might be worded differently) press shift key + 1, an exclamation will appear next to the item, preventing it from booting straight to BIOS, you can also adjust the order, i moved the internal HDD to top of the list. Save Bios and Exit.

10 - Laptop should now cycle to internal HDD and boot with fresh install of Windows 8.

This worked for me, hope it can help others out too,
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 64 bit
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