I'm out of the Technical Preview business. I've had enough

[Jazmac]

The Technical Preview is not like anything I have ever encountered by Microsoft and I have had them all. But I am sooo finished with this Technical Preview program. With as much experience I have, it is simply not enough for whatever this TP trajectory is supposed to be. So far I've lost a laptop that I now have to return have repaired and the latest is my Windows tablet that has lost touch. I can't swipe to get to the password page now, And when it did work once, WiFi was gone. Now it just gets hot and I have to force it to shut down to prevent it from burning out.
I won't even get into about my Lumia woes because I expected it to get busted from this preview and its not my daily driver. But it is part of my technical preview misery index. What's worse, NOBODY has a clue as to how to resolve these issues. So, I'm finished and I'm out. No more updates. The last one I did today on 10130 somehow made Cortana think I'm too young to use it. So no more. No more of these incremental lets see what happens if we give them this type downloads. I'll stick with 8.1, which I'm used to anyway until this program is finally over.

 

[Musicman247]

That's why they put all those warnings, disclaimers and caveats before you join the program. You're taking a big risk to try out the latest builds of Windows and provide feedback. It's not an official update by any stretch of the imagination, and it definitely shouldn't be put on a device that you depend on for work. Again, warnings, disclaimers and caveats.

 

[idokamaroq]

Sounds like you shouldn't have installed them in the first place. The tech preview thing is an amazing program because it allows people who are willing to put in work to check out how the new OS is coming along before its release, plus give MS feedback on improvements they should make and help squash bugs quicker. But it's not just some fun toy. You have to be willing to put in work and know that things will break. Not might break, will break. Like, almost a 100% guarantee.
And like Musicman247 said, you agreed to all those warnings, disclaimers, etc. (Pro-tip: actually read those things every once in a while)

 

[Guytronic]

Good subject I think.
The warnings are there of course.
I chose not to try the technical previews myself.

Not sure I want to jump to W10 even when it comes to all officially.

 

[tgp]

The last one I did today on 10130 somehow made Cortana think I'm too young to use it.

Hey, take that as a compliment! :excited:

Wow, you've had quite the experiences! I use the Technical Previews on both a desktop I had sitting around and my Lumia 920. Neither are my daily drivers, but I do play with them. I've had very few problems.

 

[PratikMade]

But this technical preview kills the excitement of Windows 10.

 

[fatclue_98]

I had the TP on my 1520 for a few days. The phantom touch disappearance was enough to give it a long, hard look. Were it not for that, my time on it would have been hours. I sincerely hope Microsoft let's us keep the option to use the 8.1 keyboard because that's a deal breaker on a display as big as the 1520. If I wanted a 3/8 scale kb, I'd have a 635.

As for Windows 10, I liked what I saw but there were driver issues with wifi so I couldn't stay with it for long. I, for one, like the 7-ish looking UI and I have touchscreens. I'm in desktop mode most of the time anyway so Metro isn't really a big deal for me.

 

[jefbeard911]

But this technical preview kills the excitement of Windows 10.

Huh?

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Jazmac]

That's why they put all those warnings, disclaimers and caveats before you join the program. You're taking a big risk to try out the latest builds of Windows and provide feedback. It's not an official update by any stretch of the imagination, and it definitely shouldn't be put on a device that you depend on for work. Again, warnings, disclaimers and caveats.

None of which are my issues and why I make this decision today.

 

[djeire84]

If you don't have access to 8.1 update 2 (if you don't like 8.1 update 1) you can try flashing it to your phone. Its far more stable, its not part of insider or preview of devs. **Note use discretion on this your phone could be bricked please exercise caution**

 

[Jazmac]

Sounds like you shouldn't have installed them in the first place. The tech preview thing is an amazing program because it allows people who are willing to put in work to check out how the new OS is coming along before its release, plus give MS feedback on improvements they should make and help squash bugs quicker. But it's not just some fun toy. You have to be willing to put in work and know that things will break. Not might break, will break. Like, almost a 100% guarantee.
And like Musicman247 said, you agreed to all those warnings, disclaimers, etc. (Pro-tip: actually read those things every once in a while)

Check it, this ain't my first rodeo. I got in this to help squash bugs and leave feedback for issues I discover with this OS and I have. But I never expected I would have to replace hardware to help Microsoft. Something is incredibly wrong that it can break a normal functioning laptop and tablet. But If I had your bank account, I wouldn't worry about having to replace two expensive devices that can no longer boot.

 

[manilabeans]

First rodeo or not, the risks still exist. That's why you still have to accept the agreement, even if you've been on every preview since 3.0. I don't mean to downplay the fact that your hardware was supposedly broken why the Windows 10 TP, but finding those sorts of isolated bugs(?) is really what this technical preview is about. And the very reason why I don't ever recommend installing the TP to any of my friends. The risks are real. Tech pro or not, experienced veteran or not, every single person who signs up for the TP exposes themselves to these risks.

In my case, I guess I am just lucky that the TP deployed successfully without any problems on all my devices except for my development machine, which I decided to keep on Windows 8.1. And even if the TP did perform so well on all my other devices and PCs, even on my lowly Switch 10, I won't ever dream of installing it on my dev machine until the general release.

 

[Jazmac]

First rodeo or not, the risks still exist. That's why you still have to accept the agreement, even if you've been on every preview since 3.0. I don't mean to downplay the fact that your hardware was supposedly broken why the Windows 10 TP, but finding those sorts of isolated bugs(?) is really what this technical preview is about. And the very reason why I don't ever recommend installing the TP to any of my friends. The risks are real. Tech pro or not, experienced veteran or not, every single person who signs up for the TP exposes themselves to these risks.

In my case, I guess I am just lucky that the TP deployed successfully without any problems on all my devices except for my development machine, which I decided to keep on Windows 8.1. And even if the TP did perform so well on all my other devices and PCs, even on my lowly Switch 10, I won't ever dream of installing it on my dev machine until the general release.

Again, don't get it twisted and don't get buried in agreements.
You ARE lucky and you've said as much. If you make it out on the other side, count yourself blessed. This TP is not only not working for too many, its causing otherwise good hardware to no longer work. NO OTHER RELEASE of Windows has ever done this.before. From 3.0 to 8.0 beta, they have all either worked or not work. This version is like none before it and at the end of the day, I'm out otherwise good hardware. They won't replace my hardware and nd I'm not asking them to. But I won't commit another dime or another minute to this preview. So I'm out.

 

[Harrie-S]

Again, don't get it twisted and don't get buried in agreements.
You ARE lucky and you've said as much. If you make it out on the other side, count yourself blessed. This TP is not only not working for too many, its causing otherwise good hardware to no longer work. NO OTHER RELEASE of Windows has ever done this.before. From 3.0 to 8.0 beta, they have all either worked or not work. This version is like none before it and at the end of the day, I'm out otherwise good hardware. They won't replace my hardware and nd I'm not asking them to. But I won't commit another dime or another minute to this preview. So I'm out.

I see your post as a warning for people who still want to join. So thanks for this warning and I am sorry you lost some hardware.
I did not use the TP on my laptop's because of post like yours and I bought a second hand phone to test the phone version.

You went in with the right intensions but became victim of "collateral damage" and that is hard.
But I fear that still a lot of people just start and do not think at all about possible consequences. (and Jazmac you are not one of them)
Now for the PC version I do not know but if I see the questions we get for the TP on the phone I sometimes really wonder.
Like " I installed W10 on my phone but how to roll back." or "I want to roll back but I can not install WPRT".
Then I think "How smart* can you be" (* actual mean the opposite word)

But then again we have this site to help people so we try to help but I also totally understand the "you have been warned replies"

 

[AndyCalling]

I don't really understand how W10 has managed to break your PCs like this. Have you tried completely formatting your devices from your W8.1 recovery stick and restoring your 8.1 recovery image (from an MBR formatted drive, assuming your boot drives are UEFI and so GPT)? Have you tried installing W8.1 from scratch? Have you tried removing all the partitions from the devices?

The phones I can understand, but PCs can be taken back to bare bones so that nothing of the OS exists on the device at all. Unless W10 has somehow corrupted your system firmware (very highly unlikely). Reflashing the firmware (if your mobos have a way to emergency flash from a usb stick) would be the only approach unless you have a socketed firmware chip. If you do, you can order a new firmware chip pre-flashed from some places.

 

[Jazmac]

I see your post as a warning for people who still want to join. So thanks for this warning and I am sorry you lost some hardware.
I did not use the TP on my laptop's because of these kinds of risks and I bought a second hand phone to test the phone version.
But I fear that still a lot of people just start and do not think at all about possible consequences. (and Jazmac you are not one of them)
Now for the PC version I do not know but if I see the questions we get for the TP on the phone I sometimes really wonder.
Like " I installed W10 on my phone but how to roll back." or "I want to roll back but I can not install WPRT".
Then I think "How smart* can you be" (* actual mean the opposite word)

But then again we have this site to help people so we try to help but I also totally understand the "you have been warned replies"

Yep. I get it too and not unexpected. I was blinded by my 14 years of running Microsoft Windows. My choice to jump in thinking this would be like all the others. This one truly broke me out of my "trust" slumber for sure.

 

[Jazmac]

I don't really understand how W10 has managed to break your PCs like this. Have you tried completely formatting your devices from your W8.1 recovery stick and restoring your 8.1 recovery image (from an MBR formatted drive, assuming your boot drives are UEFI and so GPT)? Have you tried installing W8.1 from scratch? Have you tried removing all the partitions from the devices?

The phones I can understand, but PCs can be taken back to bare bones so that nothing of the OS exists on the device at all. Unless W10 has somehow corrupted your system firmware (very highly unlikely). Reflashing the firmware (if your mobos have a way to emergency flash from a usb stick) would be the only approach unless you have a socketed firmware chip. If you do, you can order a new firmware chip pre-flashed from some places.

No one is more confused than I am Andy. Video simply won't load up. And if I have to go so far as to flash firmware, it problem is worse than I thought.

 

[TechFreak1]

For some the technical preview has gone with very minor hiccups whereas for others like the OP, myself included and countless others have had an array of problems with the technical preview.

The latest for me is my new replacement fan went absolute bonkers, installed the new 10130 iso and all was well for a few minutes. So went to get a glass of water only to come back to find my desk shaking, as the fan was spinning at max rpm and vibrations could be felt along the keyboard slide out (desk slide out). I had to put in an old fan from a spare laptop I had lying around so now I have to contend with a noisy fan until I can source a fresh replacement....

If my laptop had been made out plastic I bet it would have cracked in several places due to liquefaction (okay, that there is a fair exaggeration but you get the picture) :grincry: .

Furthermore I had to I yank the plug (since my battery holds no charge whatsoever) as the power key was not responding.

The reason I have no video is because the only thing I was concerned about was my work and potential physical damage to the hard drive.

Now it might be a coincidence and the fan was faulty to begin with but somehow I doubt it as it is only 3 months and 8 days old (2 days for delivery, installed it 3 days later as needed electrical/insulating tape). Plus it's been cleaned every 4 weeks (with the appropriate precautions taken - gentle holding the blades with two tweezer and gently sprayed with compressed air from a decent height)



Has this put me off the preview?

Nope but I'm not longer going to be dual booting just going to run it in a VM where I can monitor system resource access. As all the faults until yesterday where all fixable by reformatting the Technical Preview partition and starting again.

So I can totally understand why Jazmac has thrown in the towel, it's not about "warnings", and some saying people like him shouldn't be installing it... then I guess if veterans like him shouldn't be installing it than where does that leave us in regards to credible feedback?

 

[realwarder]

Counter to your experience I run TP in a VM (where it is entirely safe) and on a 10 year old test laptop. Both have worked fine with no issues other than those expected from running test software.

My phone TP I run on a $39.99 L635 and it's as flaky as we all know but it's a test device that I don't care about. Sits there are randomly reboots etc. But it's test software.

I've found the TP program useful as a means to provide feedback but we accept the risks of this stuff nuking things.

I am however surprised you say a PC cannot be recovered. I think you need to provide VERY detailed specs of those PCs to Microsoft so your experience does not go to RTM. After all that is the purpose of these tests.

Your post does have some items pushing into the impossible though... "prevent laptop burning out". This is not going to happen. Even if your CPU fan stops due to some ACPI BIOS interaction issue with Windows, processors have thermal protection and shut themselves down independent of everything.. of firmware, OS, even a fan. CPUs throttle down and will stop running to self-protect.

I really don't see Windows 10 patching a PCs firmware at any level, so your PC is effectively solid state and recovery of any issue should always be possible through reinstall. There are edge cases where I could see software damaging hardware but those would be incredibly rare. What is more likely is you've had unrelated hardware failures that you're now blaming on Windows. The Internet would be alive with people in the same situation if this was the OS - just as it was with the phone bricking that has occurred with TP.

If you really feel Windows 10 is the cause, I hope you are report it in a detailed manner so others do not have to have your experience.

 

[realwarder]

For some the technical preview has gone with very minor hiccups whereas for others like the OP, myself included and countless others have had an array of problems with the technical preview.

The latest for me is my new replacement fan went absolute bonkers, installed the new 10130 iso and all was well for a few minutes. So went to get a glass of water only to come back to find my desk shaking, as the fan was spinning at max rpm and vibrations could be felt along the keyboard slide out (desk slide out). I had to put in an old fan from a spare laptop I had lying around so now I have to contend with a noisy fan until I can source a fresh replacement....

If my laptop had been made out plastic I bet it would have cracked in several places due to liquefaction (okay, that there is a fair exaggeration but you get the picture) :grincry: .

Furthermore I had to I yank the plug (since my battery holds no charge whatsoever) as the power key was not responding.

The reason I have no video is because the only thing I was concerned about was my work and potential physical damage to the hard drive.

Now it might be a coincidence and the fan was faulty to begin with but somehow I doubt it as it is only 3 months and 8 days old (2 days for delivery, installed it 3 days later as needed electrical/insulating tape). Plus it's been cleaned every 4 weeks (with the appropriate precautions taken - gentle holding the blades with two tweezer and gently sprayed with compressed air from a decent height)

The BIOS always controls the speed of a fan, with Windows sometimes working with it to request levels of thermal cooling. As the fan was a non-geniune HP replacement it could have all sorts of different characteristics that would cause it to sound loud when the BIOS kicked it into fast mode. Or it's just as likely the BIOS has a bug and Windows requested a cooling level you'd never seen before.

Replacing your fan with an HP part would be a good starting point to seeing if there is a problem which would happen again. Still, I hope you reported this in the feedback tool anyway.