"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1 - 0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

I have same problem with both my Office & Home PCs when 8.1 update failed to install.  After a very long download & installation process I just received a message saying 8.1 had failed to install and the PC had reverted to Windows 8 - no reason given.  Tried the Microsoft support line but after going through all the options & long periods of on-hold music etc got through to an overseas call centre with a bad line and someone who could not understand/hear me.  The whole Microsoft operation seems very amateurish.  We have spent a lot of money on Microsoft products but now considering Apple Macs as I have enjoyed using iphone, ipod & ipad, Apple's product support is excellent.

Hello RooneyMassara,

Know exactly how you feel after having 'invested' a lot of charity money and my own cash into Microsoft equipment I now very much regret making the decision many years ago not to use Apple Mac systems. Previous to MS, we/I used Commodore Amiga with Workbench as the operating system, never any problems.

What we MS users need now is some sort of representation-if enough individuals were to unite under a common cause, surely we could persuade MS to recognise us as people with a genuine complaint to justify a reply. Having said that, should I be lucky enough to win a few pounds on the lottery, I would ditch MS and go for Apples products, unfortunately not possible on my state pension.

Yes, done all that and ALL the other 'fixes' but it still doesn't work.

There are many thousands of us with hundreds of different computers so how can it be the computer-come on Microsoft, admit it it's just one almighty blankety mess-a gigantic piece of incompetence. The very least MS should do is apologise internationally and get it fixed. No excuses, just facts.

I'm yet another Windows 8.0 user totally frustrated having wasted nearly two weeks of my time trying to upgrade to Windows 8.1.  I'm old enough to have used every version of Windows since the very first version released by Microsoft in 1983 and this "upgrade" is in my experience by the far worst Microsoft has ever released.  The fact Microsoft doesn't even have the decency to acknowledge there is a problem is totally reprehensible and shows how arrogant this organization has now become.

The irony hasn’t been lost on me that Apple has also chosen the same time to release a new version of its OS, called Mavericks.  I installed this completely uneventfully on my MacBook Air in an hour one evening, whilst at the same time going through yet another round of updating drivers and disabling services to try and get 8.1 to install.  The experience with Apple couldn’t be more different and it really does make me think that my next desktop needs to be an Apple and not Microsoft based.  I have a business to run and just don’t have the time to play these stupid games that Microsoft seem happy for us all to endure.

I've progressed from having the 0x20017 error initially, but by updating my BIOS and all drivers to the latest versions available from the manufacturer’s websites, I now get the 0x40017 error appearing following the re-boot which occurs after the “Applying PC Settings” phase of the update.

No amount of disabling services and other software, including performing a “clean boot” as has been suggested by some, has made any difference at all.

Assuming the problems are being caused by incompatible drivers, what still remains to be explained by anyone – least of all Microsoft, is why a point release upgrade needs so many new drivers?  What has been changed in 8.1 so significantly that means 8.0 drivers will no longer work?  Everything I’ve read about the changes in 8.1 sound quite cosmetic, but there must be some much more fundamental “under the hood” changes that have been included.  It would help to know what these are, as is might identify the most likely drivers to be causing the problem.

For what it's worth, the configuration of my PC is below.  However if you look at the configurations other users with the 0x40017 error have, there seems to be very little in common between these machines.  Some are using Asus motherboards (like me), some are using Gigabyte, some are using nVidia video cards some are using AMD, some are using SSD’s, some are not, and so on.  There seems to be a completely random selection of hardware 8.1 won’t work with.

We as users shouldn’t be having to try and work this out.  Our computers are tools that should just work.  That certainly is Apple’s attitude, but Microsoft seems to have other ideas.  Only Microsoft have the ability to debug their own code, so they need to be doing this now as a matter of urgency.  If they already are, then why don’t they tell us that so we can be reassured that they do care about us poor users?  With the continuing silence are we correct to assume that Microsoft is doing absolutely nothing and we are all going to be left on a dead-end and flawed operating system: Windows 8.

In case anyone from Microsoft is monitoring this thread (sorry, but that seems unlikely) and it might help, here is the configuration of my PC:

Windows 8 Pro with Media Center

Processor         Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-3930K CPU @ 3.20GHz, 3201 Mhz, 6 Core(s), 12 Logical Processor(s)           

Motherboard:  ASUS P9X79 Pro

BIOS Version/Date    American Megatrends Inc. 4404, 24/09/2013

Display adapter:  NVIDIA GeForce GTX670

SSD:  Corsair Neutron GTX

Installed Physical Memory (RAM)     32.0 GB

Network adapter:  Intel 82579V Gigabit

Audio:  Realtek High Definition Audio

Windows Directory    C:\Windows   

System Directory        C:\Windows\system32           

Boot Device    \Device\HarddiskVolume1    

Locale United Kingdom        

Hardware Abstraction Layer  Version = "6.2.9200.16442"  

Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions     Yes     

Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions     Yes     

Hyper-V - Virtualisation Enabled in Firmware          Yes     

Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection            Yes

In case anyone from Microsoft is monitoring this thread (sorry, but that seems unlikely) and it might help, here is the configuration of my PC:

 

Probably more likely if our comments were written in Hindi or Tamil or Urdu...

   I have 8.1 now running on my machine, unsatisfactorily.  I have an SSD from which I wish the Operating System and my Programs to reside and open, bootup etc...  the SSD has ceased to function following the remote computer management of Micros...s and the 8.1 OS boots reluctantly from a backup HDD...  I will start a new SSD problem thread/page for the 8.1 update, obviously there are a GREAT number of different issues resulting from this fiasco somewhat hardware/software dependent ...

Here's to our computers running something smoothly without problems...