P
PrincipledFuzziness
These last few days have been maddening. The short version:
I'm trying to reset my PC, but I keep getting the error message "Modern Setup Host has stopped working", at which point the installation fails. Running an SFC scan tells me that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them", and I've been unable to complete a DISM cleanup, which hangs at 98.8% completion for 15+ hours. This started out as trying to fix a stuttering problem with my AMD graphics card drivers, but as more and more of the 'fixes' didn't work, I concluded that the problem went went pretty deep into my Windows installation, and resorted to resetting my PC ... only to find that I'm being blocked from resetting, too.
>>>>>>>>>> The exhaustingly full version:
After not having access to my desktop PC for a few months, I recently came back to it, and found that there was a new and unfamiliar stutter in every game that used my GPU. I'm running an AMD R9 390X, so it was very perplexing to me that it was skipping awkwardly (freezing and then taking a moment to catch up) even on graphically non-demanding games like Stardew Valley or a SNES emulator. It was stuttering on games that it had always run smoothly before. I figured it might be a driver issue, so I ran the AMD Driver Autodetect tool to see if I could update my drivers.
It told me that there were optional newer drivers available (17.1.1 to 17.12.2), so I tried to run the update -- but the update mysteriously failed. Every time I tried, a box came up that said (unhelpfully) "AMD Software has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." Just in case this was an issue with the Autodetect tool itself, I tried downloading the relevant drivers package from AMD directly (win10-64bit-radeon-software-adrenalin-edition-17.12.2-dec19) and installing it locally, but the same error message came up. I read around on the internet, and various people suggested that the problem in these sorts of situations is often the previous driver hanging around and making problems for the new one, so I then downloaded Display Driver Uninstaller and got rid of my current GPU driver completely. I then attempt to install the new ones again, but got that same vague "AMD Software has stopped working" error message. I tried installing them in safe mode, but got the same thing. The DDU got rid of my drivers successfully, but I'm still being prevented from installing any new ones, so, uh ... now I don't have any GPU drivers installed at all.
Following the suggestions of some more internet folks, I tried running the SFC System File Checker tool, which told me that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." I then tried to run DISM cleanup (i.e. "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" in an elevated command prompt), but unfortunately this didn't work either. I've tried it a few times now, and every time, it progresses to 98.8%, and then just hangs there. I'm not being impatient with this -- I left it running all night, and it was stuck on 98.8% for more than 15 hours. Based on my googling, this seems genuinely unusual. Lots of other people have described their DISM cleanup process hanging at 20%, or 40%, but I can't find a single other person on the internet who's said that this has happened to them at 98.8%.
The advice people give to those other folks is generally to just be patient, it can take a few hours, etc ... but like I said: 15 hours. I've also tried the SFC scan in safe mode (which yielded the same result) and the DISM Cleanup in safe mode (which aborted the operation at 98.8% saying that it had failed to download something, and then when I tried it in safe mode + networking/internet, got the same hanging-at-98.8%-forever result, same as usual.
At this point I said, "Screw it, I'll just reset the computer." It seems clear that something's pretty badly wrong with my Windows, if even the standard diagnostic tools are being prevented from working. I've still got my original installation media (a Windows USB), so resetting seemed like a reasonable next step. Unfortunately, even this option is being blocked. I've tried initiating this kind of repair in a number of different ways:
(1) Going through the steps from Settings->Recovery->Reset My PC.
(2) Inserting my Windows installation USB, opening setup and trying to install Windows over my current installation.
(3) Booting directly from the Windows USB, and trying to initiate 'repair' options from there.
(4) Downloading the full Windows ISO from here (Download Windows 10), mounting it, and trying to install from there.
Nothing's worked. Nothing's even managed to complete its process. At around 34% in every attempted Windows installation I keep getting the same vague error message: "Modern Setup Host has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the problem and notify you if a solution is a file." I've tried the fixes offered here (
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRlyTXOEQtg
) and here ([FIX] "Modern Setup Host Has Stopped Working'' While Upgrading To Windows 10), but neither did anything. All of the other fixes I've seen offered on the internet circle back on things I can't do, such as DISM repairs, SFC scans, installing from a bootable USB, etc.
I really need to figure out what's going on. If I can successfully reset my PC, I'm relatively confident that will sort out the original issues (the AMD driver thing, etc), but I'm being blocked at every turn. For what it's worth, my suspicion is that a PC optimization tool called 'CCleaner' may have deleted something vital from the registry. I tested out the tool a few months ago, and while nothing seemed amiss initially, it's the only thing I can think of in recent history that could be to blame for all this. It's only a suspicion, though; I could be wrong. CCleaner is not currently installed on my PC. I have 400+ gb of free space on my C-drive, so space for the install isn't an issue. I've tried a few other fixes that have been suggested by the internet (e.g. running an off-directory SFC scan from command prompt after booting from my Windows Installation USB), but none of them have worked.
Does anyone have any ideas? I've been trying to fix this on my own for a few days now, and I've pretty much exhausted every option I can see.
Continue reading...
I'm trying to reset my PC, but I keep getting the error message "Modern Setup Host has stopped working", at which point the installation fails. Running an SFC scan tells me that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them", and I've been unable to complete a DISM cleanup, which hangs at 98.8% completion for 15+ hours. This started out as trying to fix a stuttering problem with my AMD graphics card drivers, but as more and more of the 'fixes' didn't work, I concluded that the problem went went pretty deep into my Windows installation, and resorted to resetting my PC ... only to find that I'm being blocked from resetting, too.
>>>>>>>>>> The exhaustingly full version:
After not having access to my desktop PC for a few months, I recently came back to it, and found that there was a new and unfamiliar stutter in every game that used my GPU. I'm running an AMD R9 390X, so it was very perplexing to me that it was skipping awkwardly (freezing and then taking a moment to catch up) even on graphically non-demanding games like Stardew Valley or a SNES emulator. It was stuttering on games that it had always run smoothly before. I figured it might be a driver issue, so I ran the AMD Driver Autodetect tool to see if I could update my drivers.
It told me that there were optional newer drivers available (17.1.1 to 17.12.2), so I tried to run the update -- but the update mysteriously failed. Every time I tried, a box came up that said (unhelpfully) "AMD Software has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available." Just in case this was an issue with the Autodetect tool itself, I tried downloading the relevant drivers package from AMD directly (win10-64bit-radeon-software-adrenalin-edition-17.12.2-dec19) and installing it locally, but the same error message came up. I read around on the internet, and various people suggested that the problem in these sorts of situations is often the previous driver hanging around and making problems for the new one, so I then downloaded Display Driver Uninstaller and got rid of my current GPU driver completely. I then attempt to install the new ones again, but got that same vague "AMD Software has stopped working" error message. I tried installing them in safe mode, but got the same thing. The DDU got rid of my drivers successfully, but I'm still being prevented from installing any new ones, so, uh ... now I don't have any GPU drivers installed at all.
Following the suggestions of some more internet folks, I tried running the SFC System File Checker tool, which told me that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." I then tried to run DISM cleanup (i.e. "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth" in an elevated command prompt), but unfortunately this didn't work either. I've tried it a few times now, and every time, it progresses to 98.8%, and then just hangs there. I'm not being impatient with this -- I left it running all night, and it was stuck on 98.8% for more than 15 hours. Based on my googling, this seems genuinely unusual. Lots of other people have described their DISM cleanup process hanging at 20%, or 40%, but I can't find a single other person on the internet who's said that this has happened to them at 98.8%.
The advice people give to those other folks is generally to just be patient, it can take a few hours, etc ... but like I said: 15 hours. I've also tried the SFC scan in safe mode (which yielded the same result) and the DISM Cleanup in safe mode (which aborted the operation at 98.8% saying that it had failed to download something, and then when I tried it in safe mode + networking/internet, got the same hanging-at-98.8%-forever result, same as usual.
At this point I said, "Screw it, I'll just reset the computer." It seems clear that something's pretty badly wrong with my Windows, if even the standard diagnostic tools are being prevented from working. I've still got my original installation media (a Windows USB), so resetting seemed like a reasonable next step. Unfortunately, even this option is being blocked. I've tried initiating this kind of repair in a number of different ways:
(1) Going through the steps from Settings->Recovery->Reset My PC.
(2) Inserting my Windows installation USB, opening setup and trying to install Windows over my current installation.
(3) Booting directly from the Windows USB, and trying to initiate 'repair' options from there.
(4) Downloading the full Windows ISO from here (Download Windows 10), mounting it, and trying to install from there.
Nothing's worked. Nothing's even managed to complete its process. At around 34% in every attempted Windows installation I keep getting the same vague error message: "Modern Setup Host has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the problem and notify you if a solution is a file." I've tried the fixes offered here (
) and here ([FIX] "Modern Setup Host Has Stopped Working'' While Upgrading To Windows 10), but neither did anything. All of the other fixes I've seen offered on the internet circle back on things I can't do, such as DISM repairs, SFC scans, installing from a bootable USB, etc.
I really need to figure out what's going on. If I can successfully reset my PC, I'm relatively confident that will sort out the original issues (the AMD driver thing, etc), but I'm being blocked at every turn. For what it's worth, my suspicion is that a PC optimization tool called 'CCleaner' may have deleted something vital from the registry. I tested out the tool a few months ago, and while nothing seemed amiss initially, it's the only thing I can think of in recent history that could be to blame for all this. It's only a suspicion, though; I could be wrong. CCleaner is not currently installed on my PC. I have 400+ gb of free space on my C-drive, so space for the install isn't an issue. I've tried a few other fixes that have been suggested by the internet (e.g. running an off-directory SFC scan from command prompt after booting from my Windows Installation USB), but none of them have worked.
Does anyone have any ideas? I've been trying to fix this on my own for a few days now, and I've pretty much exhausted every option I can see.
Continue reading...