So I ****ed up my PC!

[doublelife]

Yes, really, my laptop was down and I wanted to record some shows on internet radio and I set about installing various softwares and Firefox on my (previously working fine) XXHE PC - big mistake! I had to change user account control to get all the software on and now I can't fire up XXHE at all. For some reason I can't access the user account change any more (nothing happens when I press the button) and when I try to use XXHE it keeps asking me to reboot, which I do, and of course nothing happens. I can't access any history points either to undo the stupid things I've done.

I am/was running W10 10074; XXHE 2.03

Does anybody know if there is an easy fix to this, or am I better just biting the bullet and reinstalling W10 with XXHE 2.04? I have a paid version of 10240 (which I know is not good) but could then update to 10586. I would want a fresh install of W10-10240 first right, not just overwrite 10074. What's the best way to do this? I need to wipe everything off my SSD first but not sure the best way to do this????

Any help appreciated to get my music listening back on track!

[AlainGr]

Hi,

I don't know if it is the same as with Windows 8, but there is a an initialisation procedure that wipes everything except the OS if I am not mistaken ?

Of course, when you will have done this, you will need to reinstall XXHE and the other softwares that you previously had.

See this link: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/reset-windows-10-pc

It will reset everything without having to reinstall Windows 10...

Hope this helps

Alain

[doublelife]

Alain,

Thanks for the link! Looks too good to be true but i will give it a shot.

Paul

[AlainGr]

Hi Paul,

I have an old habit that goes back to the times when I was tired of reinstalling Windows each time something bad was happening. At the times installations were long...

Cloning a drive on another can be a good thing when someone is experimenting different installations. When something turns really bad, at least you have another drive to reduce the installation time.

And if you take that path, remember to clone the good drive to another drive... For the next time

Regards,

Alain

[PeterSt]

Hi Paul,

Well, sorry for your troubles !
But such things happen to everyone at least one time, and then we'll know for the future, right ?

Re your question about the SSD and wiping it ... I don't think that will be necessary; if you fresh install the OS, the SSD will be completely emptied automatically. That is, the partition that you put the new OS in (normally you'll have one partion on it). But otherwise - just format that Volume (= partiton).

Why you have to re-install that OS is a bit beyond me, hence I can't tell what really happened that you now can't start XXHighEnd (after the requested reboot). What you could briefly attempt though, before going into the troubles of reinstalling the OS, is resetting XXHighEnd by means of rightlick on the Save As button, near the top if Settings.
Before that, I would slide up the UAC slider one position and reboot and try that. Thus in sequence :

1. Slide up Slider and reboot;
2. Try to start XXHighEnd'
3. Reboot because XXHighEnd asks you to.
It did not help ?
4. Reset XXHighEnd's settings.
5. (Stop and) Start XXHighEnd and see what happens now.

Takes 5 minutes up to #5 but if it helps you may gain 2 hours.

And Paul, when you want to proceed with reinstalling the OS, I will send you an unsollicited link to 10586.0 (which is known to us all, instead of the 10586.xxx you will auto-upgrade to otherwise). With that, you will be able to skip the 10240 intermediate hassle.

Best regards,
Peter

[doublelife]

Thanks Peter, I will do as you say and keep fingers crossed!
Paul

[doublelife]

So I did a clean install of 1511 and 2.03. Everything seemed to go ok, installed the 1.04 driver. Activated. Used my old settings.
Then tried to play music - I could hear the music quite well but there were digital glitches and I checked the driver and there were lots of USB and FIFO errors. Then I couldn't play 192 upsampled to 768, error message telling me to check fx etc. I uninstalled the driver and reinstalled, several reboots, unplugging of USB cable etc. At the last point, in the settings section device was somehow reset to SPDIF and I couldn't change it back to NOS1a no matter how I tried, it seemed to be locked.
And now I am back where I was before, XXHE won't start at all, keeps asking me to reboot, but makes no difference, because I can't change the user account control settings at all, W10 won't let me.
W10 is changed too, when I press the bottom left hand Windows icon no menu comes up (e.g. settings, apps etc). I have to right click and get a much reduced option menu, mainly related to the control panel.
It seems that although I did a clean install of 1511 whatever problems were there are still there now. Do I need to somehow wipe the drive completely before reinstalling 1511 again?

[PeterSt]

Hi Paul,

A first thing is : If you can't change the Output Device in Settings, it means that actually it is still playing (under the hood and not that you'd hear anything of it). So it is "busy". This means that you need to kill the sound engine, which goes by clicking the blue led in the right hand border of the screen.

W10 is changed too, when I press the bottom left hand Windows icon no menu comes up (e.g. settings, apps etc). I have to right click and get a much reduced option menu, mainly related to the control panel.

Don't panic because of such things because this is Windows 10 in the first place; it is wacky as hell. But also :
This just happens once you are in Minimized OS. Thus, completely normal in that case because the remainder has quite explicitly been shut off. Moral : don't even start to depend on the larger menu (normal click at Start Button) because later on it won't be available to you.

XXHE won't start at all, keeps asking me to reboot

This is the mere nasty part, because what to do now. I mean, this is not normal and I don't recognize it either (yea, fom Home edititions).

Paul, we used Teamviewer a couple of time before; was this with Windows 10 ? then it should be easy for you to set it up again. But if it was with W7 or W8 then this step may not be easy for you, maybe. Anyway, of course I like to try from my side.

Let me know,
Peter

[PeterSt]

Another general remark :

I read back into your first post and saw about 10074. So yes, I think we used Teamviewer with that one. Ok, so you should be able to set it up with 10586.0 as well. But I now wonder :
Why did you go to 10586.0 in the first place ? Not that it is not allowed, but each of those stupid W10 versions require a whole new world of experience for you.
So I'd say : *if* you are going to install again because of the current issue, you should use 10074. You know that by now ... (and has even less of a large start menu, haha).

Peter

[doublelife]

Peter,

I installed 10586.0 because I understood it was now the 'preferred' OS. After our Teamviewer session (on my laptop) I installed 10074 on my PC and that worked absoutely fine, no problems. Installing 10586.0 was no different and I thought it had gone ok.

I understand about the MinOS now, that's why it seems to affect the PC options, so not a problem there.

I wonder if the driver was correctly installed. I disabled driver signing etc and all seemed to go ok, got message it was successful. But after the question to "remove and re-connect the USB cable now or later", I clicked 'now' and the system froze. I had to kill the driver and reboot. I wonder if that caused the problems, do you think?

I'm going to try 10586.0 again, it seems no easier/harder to install than 10074. I set it all up fine on my own before, so will do it again nice and slow. I will take the 'later' option on the driver question. If I still get problems then I might take you up on the Teamviewer option.

Paul

[PeterSt]

Paul,

I clicked 'now' and the system froze.

Not sure and wildly guessing :

There is no "now" as far as I recall. The principle is different :
The question asks whether to do that now or later (and I'd say that Now is an "OK" and later is a "Later" but never mind). Point is : when you imply "now" you really must have done it. Thus, pull and replug the cable and then imply Now (press Now or OK or whatver it is). And I don't hear you say that (but maybe you did). When you say "Later" (which is what I always do), well, you just do it later, like :
Press (imply) Later;
Walk to the DAC and pull + replug the cable.
That was Later, right ?

*Because* I always do it like this, it can be so that W10 doesn't dig the "now" without really having done it (pull, replug) and withour me knowing about it. And now a possible havoc :
What I for 100% sure have seen is that W10 (and surely 10586.0) does not require to pull and replug the cable. So I indeed still say "Later" (as I do it for all these years) but I don't do anything any more because it's already up and running.

Now you ...
You say Now but don't do a thing. Just like in my case you don't do anything with the cable. But I also don't let the drive install do anything further (which is by accident) while you imply some activity (drivers says : hey, Paul tells me to activate now because the cable was newly put in, so let's go). But it was already up and running and now something goes odd (and W10 is to blame).

As I said, wildly guessing !
Peter

[doublelife]

Yes correct, it's an "ok" question. I did take the cable out and back in before pressing ok.
 I've just reinstalled 1511 and 1.04 driver, seems ok, didn't unplug then, just pressed ok and no issues.
XXHE next on to-do list.
One question, if I'm activating offline do I need to enable Internet Explorer?

[PeterSt]

Paul,

No. Unless you need Teamviewer (haha).

Funny :

I did take the cable out and back in before pressing ok.
 I've just reinstalled 1511 and 1.04 driver, seems ok, didn't unplug then, just pressed ok and no issues.

It may be difficult to see, buth both are the exact other way around of what I was trying to tell. But I already thought that what you just now described, could imply the same problem.
To make it more clear : I always say "Later" but don't need to do anything with the cable. So it is my conclusion that this is wrong somewhere (at least in Windows 7 this sure was all as intended = Windows 8 I forgot ...)

Thanks you for clarifying !
Peter

[PeterSt]

And Paul,

When you have all up and running, try to invest some extra time in cloning the harddisk (with Acronis backup software or something). If then later something happens, you are back up and running within 30 minutes and especially : without hassle and frustration.

Best regards,
Peter

[doublelife]

Peter,

Good advice re the back up

And for Internet Explorer - do I need to enable it if activating offline?

Paul