I manage about 75 computers for multiple clients and have had this happen on about 13 machines so far. Started happening before the January updates but after the December updates - January updates did not seem to help the issue. What I did notice was that
Windows was downloading Intel drivers that seems to be for hardware that was not in the machine. See here from two different machines:
So... I paused Windows updates on the computers I could - most are Pro but a few were Home (I know!) Anyway, that seemed to prevent the issue. So, as I began January updates here was my process:
1 Enable System restore and create a restore point
2 Hide all Intel Drivers using the tool Microsoft provides to Show or Hide updates
3 Do Office updates
4 Un-Pause updates and allow January updates to complete
5 Reboot
6 Create a restore point
So, I left auto update on - I did not pause updates again feeling like I had avoided the issue. Seemed like a good plan.
But, I still have had 3 machines get the issue again. So what updated since I did all the updates? A look at event viewer said that Office tried to do some sort of update - so I have been turning off Office updates. Then I realized that one of the machines
that had the issue originally (not one of the 3) did not even have Office installed. I did start to think about antivirus corrupting something... All these machines have Symantec Endpoint Protection. But I can't figure out how to tell if that is the issue.
Nothing in the Symantec logs seems to point to anything.
Like others have said - System Restore always works provided you have a restore point that is before the issue is on the computer. System reset also works but obviously it's alot more work that way.
The interesting thing is - I can tell when the system is going to have a problem upon reboot. I have been on machines where when I try to create a restore point it will never complete. The system is running slow and sluggish. You can just tell it's not right
but it's difficult to figure out what is wrong. So, naturally, you reboot it. And bam! - inaccessible boot volume and you pray there is a good restore point since you couldn't create one.
Computers are mostly Dell desktops and laptops but a Toshiba and an HP have had the issue also and I believe all are Intel based with Symantec Endpoint Protection. Some are brand new Dell machines, some are 2-3 years old, some 3-5 years old - the Toshiba
is probably the oldest probably 7 or 8 years old.
Any insight anyone has would be greatly appreciated!
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