Bricked stick after Windows 10 Update.

[ASmal1]

Just bought the Compute Stick on October 31st. The Windows Update bricked the device. Tried a reset, did not work. Cannot open a ISO image of Windows 10 on the SD card to reinstall....not sure where to go from here. Intel Technical Support unresponsive so far...

[Stressed99 · Accepted solution]

you are not alone, we are all having the same problems, and nothing from Intel how to fix, got mine 30th Oct, so know how your feel

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello Anton535601 and Stressed:

I am sorry to hear you are having this situation.

There is a workaround I would like you to perform for this situation.

Here you will find all the instructions and recommendation to upgrade your Intel® Compute Stick to Windows 10*

Windows 10* upgrade instructions and recommendations:

/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/25142-102-2-30009/Windows10-upgrade-instructions-v2.pdf https://communities.intel.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/25142-102-2-30009/Windows10-upgrade-instructions-v2.pdf

If any additional questions or concerns are present, do not hesitate to advise me.

Regards,

Esteban C.

[AKriz]

How is that a work around, when you cannot access a working windows environment?

[JOuds]

Most problems with the update / upgrade are dealing with an outdated BIOS. Ensure the latest version. For me it's stuck after starting thereby remedied.

[Stressed99]

Hi EstebanC_Intel,

I have returned my intel compute stick to my place of purchase as only 2 weeks old. I have ordered the latest one with windows 10 pre-installed, can you tell me if the instructions above in regards to the drivers...

Install Windows 10 drivers

After upgrading to Windows 10, download and install the Windows 10 drivers for the following items, available from Download Center.

 Intel® HD Graphics

 Realtek* Bluetooth*

 Realtek Wireless LAN

Are also applicable to the version of the ICS with pre installed windows 10, and what bios, graphics, Bluetooth, and wireless drivers do the latest intel stick with windows 10 pre installed have???

Can you also tell me if I upgrade to the next stage of windows 10 from the pre installed version (instead of the older Windows 8.1) will the same problem occur, do you have a help sheet for the latest ICS.

As I don't really want to have the same problems with the new stick when it gets delivered

Thanks Stressed

[AKriz]

Yeah, I had to uninstall the Realtek Wireless drivers to get mine to work properly. I felt the ICS performed worse after I install them, but this was on the previous version of Windows 10.

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello:

The Intel® Compute Stick with Windows 10* pre-installed has all the required drivers to work properly.

In case you are having issues with an specific component or feature on the device, the recommendation would be to check if the latest drivers are installed.

Regularly the needed drivers are installed with the windows updates.

The basic troubleshooting steps when a driver is not working would be the following:

1. Perform a BIOS recovery to make sure all BIOS updates are installed in the system.

2. From the device manager, uninstall the driver and then download/install it from https://downloadcenter.intel.com/ Intel® Download Center

Rumbaar If a USB wireless adapter is being used, it may affect the performance of the WiFi connection due to interference between the embedded WiFi adapter in the Intel® Compute Stick and the USB adapter. If you are having a different issue, please create a new post to provide you with assistance or contact Intel Customer Support : http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support

Regarding the Windows update bricking the Intel® Compute Stick, my recommendation would be to change the "Windows updates" setting to "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them" and deselect this update to be installed

This would be to wait for a newer update which may fix this issue.

Make sure you are using the latest BIOS version in your Intel® Compute Sticks.

Download link for the Intel® Compute Stick drivers:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/product/86612/Intel-Compute-Stick-STCK1A32WFC Downloads for Intel® Compute Stick STCK1A32WFC

Make sure to select the proper Operating System to avoid any issues.

Regards,

Esteban C

[ASmal1]

Hi Esteban,

Yes, I tried all of these methods. The Windows 8.1 version is no longer on the Stick, as I needed the room to upgrade to 10 without the SD card in place. Upgrading to 10 was not the problem...the new update was the problem. Windows 10 upgrade worked fine. The update over this past weekend was what bricked the Stick. Cannot repair/reset. I installed the new Bios...and that is as far as I was able to get. The reset gets as far as 48% and then crashes. Sits at 48% for over 6 hours, three times. I think that was probably patient enough. I am unable to browse to the SDcard to open the ISO file of the Windows 10 for reinstall from that device. I was in the process of using UEFI Bios interface prompts to get to the SDcard and run the program...but decided to give up. I will let you folks reimage the faulty stick and resell it as refurbished.

I have returned the faulty stick to Amazon for a refund without any argument from them and have purchased the Windows 10 preinstalled version. I need to know if I must halt the Fall Update to prevent this from happening again! Will Intel be issuing a warning or patch to prevent the update from ruining more customers' products?

Let me know.

Regards,

Anthony

[JSven2]

Mine were not able to handle the Windows Threshold 2 update either. However I were able to revive mine by doing this:

• Replace wireless keyboard with a wired one to be able to access boot menu, to be able to force boot from usb memory stick
• Remove sd-card from internal reader
• Download and update BIOS
• Download Windows Media Creation Tool on another computer and create an installation USB memory stick.
• Do a complete reinstall (NOT upgrade) including deleting all old partitions on the internal storage, make sure the stick boots from the usb memory stick

I don't know if all of this really were necessary but I never succeeded to install while using wireless keyboard nor while using sd-card in the internal reader. Naturally I did lose all content and settings on the stick (but I had backup).

For those who have not attempted this upgrade yet: According to http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/11/14/microsoft-windows-10-threshold-2-problems/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2015/11/14/microsoft-windows-10-threshold-2-problems/ one should remove any sd-card and make sure there is 20GB of free space on the stick before attempting this upgrade.

[Jde_l4]

So, now you have the compute stick with Windows 10 10586 working, or it's the 10240?

[JSven2]

The about box in settings says 10586.3

[Jde_l4]

That's good. I'll try a clean installation then. My only corncern is the activation of Windows... but i'll save the product key before doing anything.

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello all:

Regarding the workaround provided, performing a clean Windows installation would void the warranty of your Intel® Compute Stick.

If you were not able to use the Windows recovery options (F8 during post) you can contact Intel Customer Support to claim the warranty if applicable.

Here you can find the different paths to contact Intel Customer Support: http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Contact Support

Intel® Compute Stick warranty policies: http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/h77390003_1yr_lmtd_wrnty_compute_stick_internation.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/h77390003_1yr_lmtd_wrnty_compute_stick_internation.pdf

Finally, if you encounter with any additional questions or concerns, do not hesitate to advise me.

Regards,

Esteban C

[NHass5]

What is shameful is that Microsoft keeps pushing this update to me saying ICS is compatible,

and I complained to them several times that 10586 has a serious problem for ICS.

I had to revert to Windows 8.1 from a bricked ICS.

Before, 10240 worked perfectly.

10586 is very bad news and unprofessional works from Microsoft.

[MStac3]

Well, the problem is/was probably in Firmware of ICS not in software. I've got similar problem on Ubuntu(total system freeze - just once, until refreshing local repositories).

Every PC(except ICS) in my house was updating to 10586 w/o problems.

[JSven2]

I find the statement about voiding warranty to be contradictory with "It's Not Like a Computer. It Is a Computer.", https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html https://www-ssl.intel.com/content/www/us/en/compute-stick/intel-compute-stick.html

[EstebanA_C_Intel]

Hello Buzzer:

When you perform a clean Windows you are going to be deleting the license already present in your Intel® Compute Stick.

This would be a software change in the unit, which voids the warranty of your product.

Please refer to the warranty policies for the Intel® Compute Stick here:

http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/h77390003_1yr_lmtd_wrnty_compute_stick_internation.pdf http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/h77390003_1yr_lmtd_wrnty_compute_stick_internation.pdf

Bullet 6 under "WHAT THIS LIMITED WARRANTY DOES NOT COVER:"

In case you encounter with any additional questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact us back.

Regards,

Esteban C

[PBerr]

What I am not seeing is a statement from Intel on what they are going to do about this update locking up the stick after logging on?

RTM and try this and try that is not the answer I want to hear, i need a complete answer that fixes it or I have an expensive paperweight to stare at and ponder why I went to Intel and not another supplier

I logged a ticket with support 4 days ago and no one has come back to me yet, poor show all round.

[Mitchell_R_Intel]

Clean installing Windows 10 will NOT erase your license key for Windows. The activation key is stored in the BIOS so it can't be erased when you format the eMMC storage. If your ICS came with Windows 8.1 Bing, you will need to upgrade in-line to Windows 10 and activate it before you can do a clean install. If your ICS came with Windows 10 pre-installed, make sure the copy of Windows 10 has been activated before doing any updates. Once it has been activated, you can format it as many times as you like and it will still activate. Make sure you are using the 32bit HOME version of Windows as the key is for that version. 64bit version will not work either.

[MRoed]

It would be "NICE" if Intel could provide a complete windows 10 (incl. latest update and drivers) usb-stick image including all partitions of the stick.

The Microsoft Windows 10 november update even bricked the recovery partition leaving me with a picture saying it is not possible to recover ...