Win 8 laptop locked
Community Forums/General Help/Win 8 laptop locked
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| My wifes laptop says "this app is preventing shutdown" with a generic icon displayed and her computer is locked with a frozen screen. I tried ctrl-alt-del with no luck and tried holding down the power button with no luck. I thought to remove the battery but the battery must be buried within the machine and I'm not going to try to pry the case apart. Is there any way to get it to shut down and restart? She said she had gotten a requester to update and restart and she hit the postpone for 4 hours tic. Other than that , I've no idea. Thank you for your help if you can. never mind. Got it sorted. It was trying to update to 8.1 then locked up. I found out that you have to hold the power button down a Loooong time to get it to completely power down. Rebooted and restored 8.0. Well, at least the wife's happy about it. |
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| Come to think of I've seen something similar long ago, possibly with Windows XP. During the update procedure there was message like "Windows will now restart", which it did not. It just stalled. I tried waiting a long time but to no avail. The power button didn't help, but I only pressed it for few seconds, usually sufficient. Fortunately everything was fine after physically turning the power off/on. |
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| I think that the problem with updates with Windows 8 is that MS decide to implement a hybrid hibernating method to speed up boot times. There have been one or two laptops that I have come across that had a problem with updates. |
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| I had that lock problem with win 8 a couple of times with updates. It stopped happening when I went to win 8.1. The first time it happened I waited for a few hours. Then pulled out the power cord. I did not know you should hold down the power button a longer time. Windows 7 that i used before never froze like that. Sometimes skyrim freezes and it won't exit and the program window where you can close apps would not show up. The last time I went to log out and it closed and I could start skyrim again after returning to windows. This took a few minutes or so. |
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| Keep in mind: MS is (already!) discontinueing updates to Windows 8.0, so unless you do manage to update to 8.1 in the near future your PC will become vulnerable to all kind of unpatched nastiness. As far as the holding down the power button: That's not a windows feature, but a feature of a standard ATX-compliant motherboard. Holding down the powerkey for >5 seconds will cause it to cut the power to the motherboard. |
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| Keep in mind: MS is (already!) discontinueing updates to Windows 8.0, AFAIK this isn't completely true as MS supports 8.0 for two years after 8.1 was launched (=start of lifecycle): http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?sort=PN&alpha=Windows+8&Filter=FilterNO This means that MS will end supplying patches (="Mainstream Support") for 8.0 in October 2015. so unless you do manage to update to 8.1 in the near future your PC will become vulnerable to all kind of unpatched nastiness. That's certainly true (if "near future" equals one year) but not easy to do if your hardware only supports 8.0 but not 8.1 (yes, such hardware exists). This obviously translates to "Upgrade or leave the internet!" again. But if one upgrades his/her PC to 8.1 keep in mind that the Mainstream Support for 8.1 ends 12.01.2018 - which is less than 3,5 years from now. One should perhaps make sure that the new hardware will likely be Win 9 compatible... Additional notes: - In true Microsoft fashion the support note linked above was apparently written by marketing scoundrels, who are adept in concealing negative stuff and like to interchangeably mix Win 8 with the 8.1 upgrade and 8.0 without it. - The "Service Pack Support" for Win 8.1 ends on 12.01.2016 but experts don't expect any new service packs anyway. They think that the next big GUI change (tiles in the start menu) will be integrated first in Win 9. - The "Extended Support" until 10.01.2023 is only available for companies or governments etc. that pay for it (and they pay *well* for that!). |
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| AFAIK this isn't completely true as MS supports 8.0 for two years after 8.1 was launched (=start of lifecycle): Actually, you're correct, looks like I misremembered: It's Windows 8.1 that will not apply any further updates unless you also apply Windows 8.1 update 1 first (which is essentially SP1) http://www.computerworld.com/article/2489627/microsoft-windows/microsoft-requires-migration-to-windows-8-1-update-within-5-weeks.html |
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| Hang on a minute....XP had security updates for 14 years or thereabouts...how long as 8ish been out? I'm still using 7!?!? |
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| Hang on a minute....XP had security updates for 14 years or thereabouts...how long as 8ish been out? I'm still using 7!?!? 8.0 came out in 2012. Keep in mind, Even though XP with servicepack 3 was supported until 2014, support for XP, XP SP1 and SP2 all ended many years earlier. Same for 8.0: you need the free 8.1 with update 1 upgrade in order to remain supported. But the windows 8.x product line overall will continue to be supported until 2023. Here's the MS page with lifecycle dates for most of their major software products: http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeselect and just windows: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle (end-of-life for windows 7 is 2020 -- retail sales have stopped, any of the windows 7 'full' or 'upgrade' versions you can find are old stock. Only OEM is still actively sold, although I think there's a good chance that those will stop being offered too when windows 9 hits the streets) |
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