How to Fix the Automatic Repair Loop in Windows 8.1

Let's face it: this is a G-ddam* witch hunt guys.

I scoured the net/Google for hours/days to find a fix for my son's HP Pavillion (5 months old). I hit "F" + everything for hours. I turned on/off unit for 30 min at a time, over 3 days. I removed battery, powered up, hit on/off, plugged it in without battery.

I had moderate success enough to keep it running for 45 min while I quickly downloaded a back-up onto my external drive. I ended up wiping the whole "C" drive and starting from scratch. I re-installed WIN 8, which killed me, because that was the cause of it all in the beginning.  I did NOT install WIN 8.1. Never will. Hell will freeze over before Bill Gates bites me twice in one lifetime.  After my re-creation of the unit and the re-deployment of my boys apps/files, it's back to normal... for now.  

I called HP, waited 45 min, asked them about what to do in order to either prevent or prepare for another attack like this. In true HP fashion they said that there is no known preventative measure.  She said, "you probably just have to play it day by day and back-up your drives more frequently".  So much for help-desk. I know it's not only HP units. When I called MS, earlier in the process, they gave me some rapid-fire tech speak and lead me to a dead webpage where I was to find the golden ticket.

The only people that benefited from this --- Best Buy Geek Squad and other PC shops. A huge cash cow for them. Easy fix on their end. Pop out the drives, hardwire them into external drive/cloud, save, wipe unit, re install everything. 1 hr or less. $120+.  Maybe MS owns Best Buy and MS was having bad quarter. They deploy this bug via 8.1, then cash in on repair revenue at Best Buy for a year.

trheyer

Tim Heyer;

Although I, like a (very) large number of people, do not like Microsoft (MS), there is no conspiracy going on between MS and repair shops.  If there were, in today's VERY technical world, MS and/or repair shops would have been exposed by now (even at your dated message of March 24, 2015) and MS would lose billion$$$$$$$'s of dollars in cash, stocks, and so on and repair shops would be closed.   This would be BIG news on TV, newsy papers, and elsewhere and I have not seen it.

As for the fix, downgrade back to Windows 7 and wait for MS to fix their crappy software (if they ever do).  I am a network admin for an entity and as soon as a batch of updates ran back in January/February and about 60 PC's tanked.  While I may not believe in MS for fixing this problem anytime soon, (yes, we are still fighting with MS about this) our return to Windows 7 (Pro) was and still is the best fix for this.

Windows 8/8.1 is almost a ghost of Windows Millennium and those that remember THAT fiasco will agree that this is just like that.  Windows 10 is their Windows XP SP4 and that replaced Millennium.  Have a little faith [sic] that the reason MS is pushing Windows 10 so hard is that it will soon have people not remembering Windows 8/8.1 and all of its problems.

Yeah, Riiiiiiiiiight!

Cheers

This is a PS to my own post.  Below is a batch file I created using the bits and pieces of ideas I found on the internet.  While this is for Windows Update problems, for some reason it fixed the Loop problem on my test machine.

Those of you that use this batch file remember the old and sometimes worn out phrase "Use this fix at your own risk."  While it worked for me, it may not work for you and may cause problems with the Windows OS.  that being said:

Again, use this at your own risk.  It may help if you copy and paste each section one at a time.  If you do not understand any of the above or have no idea what I am talking about, DO NOT TRY!  You are not educated enough to recover your desktop should a mistake happen."

The Batch File starts here:

ECHO off

REM Some cleanup if this has been run before

IF EXIST %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.old del %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.old

IF EXIST %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log ren %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.old

Set errorlevel=0

CLS

REM If you copied this off the Internet or given to you by a friend,

REM you will use this with no warranty and at your own risk.  However, this works well for me and many others

REM This program will clear the Windows Update files and folders from the %windrive%\SoftwareDistribution

REM directory.  Then it will clean the registry of the Windows Update settings and re-apply them.

REM Once this is done, it will call for the WSUS server to rebuild the Windows Update folder structure.

ECHO USE AT YOUR OWN RISK, or you can copy and paste each command

ECHO one at a time if you are doubtful.

REM Coder: Tim Quinn Sr. 7-28-2014 - Updated 11-3-2015

ECHO This program will clear the Windows Update Files and Folders.

ECHO It will reset the Registry entries and re-start the Windows

ECHO Update Service by calling the WSUS server for Updates. Once you start

ECHO this routine, DO NOT CANCEL or damage to the Windows OS

ECHO installation may occur. There are a couple spots you can use

Echo for 'Emergency" exits.

Echo Be sure that the BITS service is running and set to Automatically Start (Delayed).

ECHO If you need to check BITS or do not want this program to run, or have no idea what I

ECHO  been talking about, press Ctrl-C NOW to exit.

ECHO Otherwise,

Pause "Continue on Watson..."

REM This part checks to make sure the SoftwareDistribution folder exists.

REM Sort of a security check to make sure this batch does what it is

REM supposed to do.  If it does not exist, the program simply exits.

IF EXIST %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log GOTO Continue

Echo The Folder SoftwareDistribution does not exist or is empty.  Run wuauclt.exe at a CMD

Echo Window to see if that rebuilds the folder structure.  If it does not, this batch file

Echo

will not help.  You have a more serious problem.   Exiting...

ping -n 45 127.0.0.1 >NUL

exit

:Continue

REM This part deletes the contents of the "%windrive%\SoftwareDistribution"

REM folder and removes it

net stop wuauserv

net stop bits

ECHO This is a 15 second pause for older systems to catch up with processing

ping -n 15 127.0.0.1 >NUL

rd %systemroot%\softwaredistribution /S /Q

REM Done with this part

REM READ NEXT PART CAREFULLY

REM THIS NEXT DOS CODE GROUP WILL NOT WORK FOR WINDOWS 7 AND LATER. 

REM This will reset the Cryptic Services and rename the Spupdsvc executable in

REM case there is a problem with that file.

REM If you are working with an XP or older Machine

REM then remove all of the below "REM" statements.

REM net stop CryptSvc

REM If Exists %windir%\system32\catroot2.old del %windir%\system32\catroot2.old

REM ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.old

REM net start CryptSvc

REM Echo Still working .......

REM timeout /t 10 /nobreak

REM This part renames the Spupdsvc.exe to Spupdsvc.old to make sure there isn't a problem with the file itself.

REM Again, if this is for an XP machine, remove REM statements in this section

REM IF EXIST %systemroot%\Spupdsvc.old del %systemroot%\Spupdsvc.old

REM IF ERROR LEVEL>0 GOTO :CONT

REM cmd /c ren %SystemRoot%\System32\Spupdsvc.exe %SystemRoot%\System32\Spupdsvc.old

REM Echo End of Resetting Cryptic Services

Set ErrorLevel=0

REM Windows XP only

REM reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v PingID /f > %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log 2>&1

REM Windows XP only

REM reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v AccountDomainSid /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log 2>&1

REM reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientId /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log 2>&1

REM Windows XP only

REM reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientIDValidation /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log 2>&1

REM Windows 7 key/s

net stop CryptSvc

If Exists %windir%\system32\catroot2.old del %windir%\system32\catroot2.old

ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start CryptSvc

Echo Still working .......

timeout /t 10 /nobreak

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v LastTaskOperationHandle /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log>&1

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v ResetClient /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log>&1

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientID /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log>&1

reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientIdValidation /f >> %systemdrive%\SUSClientReset.log>&1

REM This part renames the Windows Update log file

IF EXIST %systemroot%\windowsupdatelog.old del %systemroot%\windowsupdatelog.old

ren %systemroot%\WindowsUpdate.log %systemroot%\WindowsUpdatelog.old

REM This part restarts windows update services

net start wuauserv

net start bits

wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow

wuauclt.exe /reportnow /detectnow

wuauclt.exe /detectnow

goto comp

:comp

REM this part runs the Windows Update and rebuilds all folders

wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow

wuauclt.exe /reportnow /detectnow

REM this part says GOODBYE!

Echo All Done! 10 second pause for bows and applause

ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 >NUL

Exit

If this DOES work for you, please post your "ALLLL Riiiiight!" so others can see that it works

i know that i have to use the bios menu, but is this related to the uefi firmware settings? if it is, i can't access it and brings be right back to the auto-repair screen. I use a Lenovo Ideapad U310 Touch, and i used the button left of the power button on the side that shows the options Normal Setup(sends me back to the autorepair thing), BIOS Setup (welp, this doesn't work either, and the same old annoying autorepair thing), Boot Menu (ditto) and System Recovery (i dont want to use this because there are no working recovery points and i dont want to lose stuff). It looks like I am very much screwed at this point, where none of the options work. Is there another way? Thank you.

I fixed my automatic repair loop by disconnecting my secondary hard drive which was going bad.

This worked for me like a charm. I used this on one of our class room laptops and #1 did it. Thank you. This is an awesome place.