Yesterday, I was trying to eliminate powering down issues with the computer. It had been shutting down of its own volition, no blue screen, no error messages, no mini-dumps, nothing.

I ran the Windows 8 Memory Diagnostic, clean boot, everything suggested in the MS support pages for Event ID 41. Finally, I went into BIOS and set for Optimal defaults, but made one HUGE error. My motherboard defaults to IDE, not AHCI, and I need AHCI to be able to use the X-Port on the top of the case.

So the machine rebooted, but couldn’t find a bootable device. Realising what I hadn’t done, I rebooted into BIOS, corrected my mistake, and restarted the computer. Needless to say, Windows 8 Automatic repair FAILED, three times..

I had two options..

1. Use an early system image I had made
2. Use the custom refresh image made recently

You probably know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t be writing about this had it worked..

I say it didn’t work because I had to do a lot of work yesterday to get it all back, and I am still finding quirks now.

The list of programs which Windows 8 highlighted as being affected bore little resemblance to the list of stuff that was ACTUALLY affected. It was not unlike having to start over, except that I didn’t have to install everything from scratch.

Outlook accounts had to be completely set up, but the PST file I thought that it was using was not the correct one. It was good enough but stuff that I had deleted all came back. Live writer also lost all of my blog accounts, and Speedfan no longer installs or works no matter what I do.

The Windows 8 apps have turned into a comedy routine with three error codes appearing. Virtually nothing works as it should, and I am thankful that I do not rely on it. I did all of the stuff suggested to get them back, but they continue to be a JOKE. If I click on any of the Windows 8 tiles, I am told that they will not open with UAC turned off.

Well, they were working fine early yesterday morning with UAC turned off. I don’t have the patience to deal with it at the moment.

I will publish this post now, and then set up the rest of my blog accounts. Jeepers, I seem be almost back to where I was yesterday.

Oh yes, about the powering down problem. I scoured Event Viewer last night, and eventually found an issue with the generic drivers for my card reader, except that I think that it is most likely a fault with the card reader itself. I have disconnected it and, fingers crossed, there has not been an involuntary power down since.