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This is my third attempt to post this – the first two disappeared (spam-filter??).
I have disabled the clickable links to try and get this to post.
You will have to copy and paste the URL’s to your browser

Here are a few of the sources for the above post:
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Louis Rossmann on Youtube (Oct 2014) with more than 702K views
Reballing Flip Chip GPUs Is Bulls**t
youtube.com/watch?v=1AcEt073Uds
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Blog post by MadPsy (Feb 2016)
The Nonsense That Is ‘Reballing’ Dead GPUs
madpsy.uk/the-nonsense-that-is-reballing-dead-gpus/
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One of a series of articles republished by SemiAccurate.com
Originally published on a now dead site called the Inquirer in 2008
The series details the defective BGA Flipchips produced by Nvidia (2007-2009)
Why Nvidia’s duff chips are due to shoddy engineering – Bumpgate Part Two
semiaccurate.com/2010/07/11/why-nvidias-duff-chips-are-due-shoddy-engineering/

I have had much the same experience and wasted countless hours (days even) attempting to repair several Win10 systems that just refused to boot or run system restore. In one case I even forked out for a NeoSmart EasyRE repair disk – which did in fact get the system working! But I never did work out what exactly it had done to fix the problem – and I don’t like fixes where I have no idea what has been messed with. A clean wipe and reinstall gives me a better sense of confidence that it is all working.

[DougCuk]

The third partition (10.17GB) appears to have a disk Label “HDDRECOVERY” – but this is not displayed in the Disk Management Console view – most likely because it is marked as an OEM hidden recovery partition. This partition can be removed.

It is slightly confusing as to why your SYSTEM boot partition (the 1.46GB Active, Recovery Partition) is so large. Windows 10 usually creates a 0.5GB (500MB) partition on an MBR formatted disk – yours is 3 times that size.

I usually use the free version of EaseUS Partition Master to reconfigure disks – with this utility you will be able to delete the 10GB partition. Once you have deleted the partition this utility would then allow you to expand the C: drive to incorporate the 10GB of “unallocated” space.

You should always have your data backed up (or an disk image) before attempting this type of reconfiguration. However I have never had a failure using this utility – but to keep things simple I would recommend separate steps – delete the partition first and then expand the C: drive afterwards .

• This reply was modified 4 years, 9 months ago by DougCuk.

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Tom

I find it very difficult to understand why an ISP would block access for Windows 7 computers (and earlier Windows versions). Unless you are using some kind of direct connection device (like a cellular dongle plugged into your PC) or some kind of special login software – then your internet connection is made by your router – not the individual computers in your house.

It would I suppose be possible for your ISP to inspect the raw packet traffic and block anything that contains a signature indicating a “banned” version of Windows. But that then raises the question of what other operating systems they consider suspect – such as the many older versions of Linux found in any number of internet enabled smart devices. Sounds very odd to me.

Companies and your ISP do sometimes block or restrict access to their own websites or services such as webmail for security reasons – but to block onward access to the entire internet seems extreme.

Are you sure Vista stopped being able to connect because of the actions of your ISP – or is it more likely that something else happened that screwed up the setup on Vista. I have 30 years of experience as a computer engineer (albeit with just UK domestic work) and I have never heard of an ISP attempting anything like this. Are you in some authoritarian country that restricts your internet access?

Not sure if a VPN would allow you to circumvent that type of packet blocking – we would need input from a network tech to explain what elements of the TCP-IP packets remain unencrypted by the VPN software. In any case this type of packet blocking would still allow other devices connected to the router (such as iPhones, Tablets and other computers) to access the internet via your router. This should allow you to test what devices the block does or does not include – if in fact it exists at all.

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Elly

I think it has become clear that the “bootres.dll is corrupt” error is not triggered by a specific single cause. Rather it is a catch all response to a range of boot failures that Windows fails to analyse correctly. The only common theme appears to be a failure to load a critical driver file – that then halts the boot sequence and triggers a restart – in many cases with no record of the actual failure in any boot logs. Occasionally an “unsigned driver” error has been reported as the cause – but in most cases this is not found.

In a very small number of cases rebuilding the BCD files has worked – but in all my research on this error I would estimate that this applies to less than 5% of solved cases. My understanding is that if you can boot to “Safe Mode” or “Safe Mode with Networking” it is very unlikely that the BCD is at fault.

Video drivers have been implicated in a significant percentage of the solved cases – but do not appear to be the only cause. One diagnostic trick that can be used is to swap the video hardware being used – which may allow the system to boot normally – and thus identify the potential cause. In several cases swapping from an addon card to onboard video or vice versa has worked (or to a different addon card using different driver files) – in some cases just changing the output port (DVI, HDMI, VGA) has also worked.

It would seem that instead of creating a generic error message for an undiagnosed boot failure Microsoft have allowed a specific (but incorrect) error message to be logged – which just wastes everyone’s time trying to solve a non-existent fault – that will never fix the boot failure.

It is entirely possible that several different causes all result in the same cryptic “Boot critical file …… boot\resources\custom\bootres.dll is corrupt” message. I started this thread because I had read almost every support forum response on this issue and was no nearer understanding the cause of the problem.

All I can say is that in the 4 cases I worked on the location of the problem was not on the EFI partition. However a couple of reports had success by rebuilding the EFI partition which is where the BCD is located.

The most frustrating thing is that the error message makes no logical sense
“Boot critical file c:\efi\microsoft\boot\resources\custom\bootres.dll is corrupt.”
The drive letter and the path quoted do not match – that path doesn’t exist on the C: drive
The “custom” folder doesn’t exist – and creating it doesn’t fix anything
I could find no reason why the boot code is even looking for a “custom” folder
I have seen no cases where anyone found and fixed a corrupt bootres.dll file
So all round the error message seems to be useless in identifying the cause of the boot failure.

I have no further insights as to what is causing this issue.

One question – when the “boot repair loop” occurred on the restored 1709 image did you establish that the error message was the same as the original error? (with SrtTrail.txt showing “Boot critical file …… boot\resources\custom\bootres.dll is corrupt”) I have only ever seen one case reported of this error from 1709 – all others are from 1803.

If you have a working 1803 system I would suggest running as many checks and cleanup options as you can before installing any updates. The obvious ones are “sfc/scannow” & “Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth” – to try and ensure there are no corruptions that could trigger a re-occurrence of the boot failure.

Apart from having a valid Image Backup the only proven recovery option (short of Reset/Reinstall) is a successful System Restore. While I would never recommend relying on System Restore – if it happens to work it is usually the quickest and cleanest recovery option. If you have the disk space available (10-20GB) – I would activate System Restore as a “just in case” restore option. This would be in addition to an automated daily Registry Backup (Tweaking.com is my current fav) and an occasional Image Backup for unfixable issues (I prefer Acronis True Image via a boot DVD).

Using System Restore under Win10 does have one major issue – Microsoft have implemented an auto-delete of Restore Points that are more than 17 days old – as opposed to the 90 days that was the default for Win7. This usually results in just one or two Restore Points being available when a problem occurs. This 17 day auto-delete appears to be hard coded into the automatic Scheduled Task (using Srtasks.exe) and cannot be controlled by any registry settings. However tests show that if you disable the “System Restore” Scheduled Task the Restore Points do not get deleted at 17 days (50 days and counting so far!). New Restore points are still created during any Automatic Updates or the install of applications (if the installer requests a Restore Point) and you can also manually create Restore Points.

To disable the task open the Task Scheduler and go to Task Scheduler Library–>Microsoft–>Windows–>SystemRestore and disable the SR task. All you loose are any weekly Restore Points that might have been created – if nothing else triggers one for 7 days. In my experience Win10 still creates enough Restore Points even without the scheduled task.

@NightOwl I agree – until you have accurate information it is impossible to fix or understand a problem. Windows Explorer will never show the full picture of file use – so you are forced to use 3rd party utilities to get a complete picture.

Just an update on the Restore Points issue. While earlier versions of Windows 10 appeared to have a 17 day limit on the lifespan of System Restore Points – this seems to have been increased to 28 days (most likely with the release of 1803). Both User and System created Restore Points are subject to this lifespan limit.

I am presently running tests to double check the current (1803) behaviour – and confirm that the ability to over-ride this setting via the registry has been disabled. I will post again once I have firm conclusions.

Just an update on this issue. While earlier versions of Windows 10 appeared to have a 17 day limit on the lifespan of System Restore Points – this seems to have been increased to 28 days (most likely with the release of either 1709 or 1803). Microsoft have hard-coded this – and (it appears) removed the ability to over-ride this by setting a registry value – as was available in Win7.

@ArtistAnn Not sure if you read my earlier post re the TreeSize utility see here:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/new-solid-state-drive-filling-up-with-unseen-files/#post-216756
Here are the basics (read the original for full details)

@artistann – Getting back to the original question – What is using all the “missing” extra disk space? I have been using a program called “TreeSize Free” for many years now [ https://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/ ] that allows you to identify exactly what is using disk space, and often locates hidden folders containing unexpected content.
||
P.S. The current version of Treesize Free (4.2) uses the “ribbon menu” interface – which I do not personally like – but they do still offer an older version (v3.4.5) with classic menus – which is the one I use. Scroll to the bottom of the page linked above to download the older version – the Windows XP version (v3.4.5) runs fine on everything including Win10.

This utility is an essential part of my standard setup and solves a multitude of queries.

The only user folders that it is safe to move are those that have a “Location” tab in their Properties panel. These include Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos and several others. This has been my standard setup for several years now – and not just for SSD based systems. It also has the advantage of making Image Backups of the Windows drive easier as all the large “libraries” of Documents, Music and Videos are no longer expanding the size of the C-drive. I prefer to keep the “Desktop” and “Downloads” folders in the default location to increase performance – and latest advice is to keep the pagefile on the SSD also (but slim the size down). With enough RAM the use of the pagefile is minimal and the current wear levelling technology of SSD’s protects the drive from excessive read/write cycles.

The trick to moving the above named folders is to create a folder (on say the D-drive) to house these re-located folders – this functions as an extra {current user} folder on the D-drive. So the content of your {current user} folder becomes split between the two locations – with only the specifically selected items moving to a non-standard location. Windows handles this configuration without a problem – as does almost all application software. Take care to name the “extra” {current user} folder with a name that makes it clear it is important – as it will contain the bulk of your user data – and you do not want to accidentally delete this folder.

@ Bill C ** UPDATED ** I can find no original Microsoft source for the 90 days “time to live” limit for Win7 restore points – but many forum posts quote text from a Microsoft Help page https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2506576 However that page has been edited and the quoted text no longer exists.

Several non-Microsoft sources quote the following information:
In Win7 the “time to live” value is predefined (at 90 days) but can be over-ridden by a registry setting at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT \CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
Value: RPLifeInterval – DWORD value Entered as Seconds to Live (Decimal number ??)
If the registry Value doesn’t exist it defaults to 7776000 seconds (90 days)
I have no idea if it obeys values greater than 90 days.

I think the old Restore Points only get deleted when a new point is created – which also triggers the cleanup routine which deletes points older than the set age. There is some speculation online as to whether the age limit only applies to System created points as distinct from User created points – which might account for some contradictory observations.

However it appears that Win10 no longer obeys this registry entry and only uses the default predefined value set by Microsoft. Again I cannot find ANY official MS documentation regarding the “time to live” value for Win10 – but several unofficial sources all agree that tests indicate 17 days is the hard coded value.

There is a GUI utility (System Restore Manager) that claims it can edit the Win7 settings.
However on testing the settings editing features do not work – the other features do appear to function
http://m.majorgeeks.com/files/details/system_restore_manager.html
https://www.ghacks.net/2011/02/21/system-restore-manager-manage-windows-system-restore-points-settings/

@Anonymous Yes I had seen the post by “Surveillance-NC” but that solution didn’t work for me – it was the first repair idea that I tried. Many of the “solutions” focus on repairing the EFI boot partition files – but in the cases I have worked on this never seemed to be the source of the boot failure.

In one case I could boot in Safe Mode with Networking or Command Prompt – so the EFI boot code appeared to be working and in another restoring a saved Restore Point worked – which doesn’t change the EFI Boot partition files – it must have fixed something on the Windows partition. In fact the only success I have had is either restoring a working System Restore Point or reinstalling Windows from scratch (Refresh didn’t work).

The “digital signature” issue is interesting – but using the Startup Settings option to ignore digital signature verification did not change anything on the fourth computer I have worked on.

I have seen 4 computers with the SrtTrail log showing the “bootres.dll is corrupt” message – the first was a Toshiba laptop, the second and third were HP laptops, only the last was a Dell desktop. But I do wonder if some issue with an early starting driver is behind the problem. Unfortunately the Startup Setting for boot logging shows nothing I can identify as a cause of the problem.

@ArtistAnn @Kirsty Regarding the issue of Restore Points disappearing in Win10.

There are two reasons that Win10 silently deletes your Restore Points:
1. After a Feature Update ALL Restore Points are deleted.
This is by design to avoid attempting to restore files and registry hives that would be incompatible with the installed version. System Restore is not able to reverse all changes of a Feature Update (eg 1803 back to 1709) – you would need to use the “Go back to previous version” from the RE console.

2. The less well known “new feature” is that Microsoft have reduced the lifespan of a Restore Point (it was 90 days under Win7). Whenever the SR service (System Restore) runs it deletes any Restore Point older than a set number of days – I believe that is currently set at 17 days – with no ability to over-ride.

If you run the System Restore task – either via Task Scheduler or manually – it automatically cleans out any restore points over 17 days old – regardless of the amount of disk space allocated for the System Restore shadow copies.

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