General issues with new update to 11

Hello all,

New member here. I know that the rules suggest to post computer info here but I am no my phone just now and not able to.

I was just wondering if there was a general problem with Windows 11 at the moment. I have been having a few problems and I did the usual googling to try to find answers but nothing very defined turned up for me.

I reset my laptop, yesterday, after having issues with it, on and off, for about a year. When there was notification of updates, and I installed them, I had to uninstall them afterwards as they made nothing on thr laptop work at all. Software took forever - and I am talking at least a good hour - to open or it never opened at all, I couldn't install anything onto it either. Then a new update to Windows 11 appeared, 23H2, and I thought I would download that, to see if it fixed things. Well that iniatially made things worse. It glitched, got stuck, so I reset it - with much frustration - but I got there in the end.

Now software loads, albeit not as fast as it used to do 18months/2 years ago but it won't open so the laptop is, basically, unusable.

What I did find out from my googling is that it isn't the physical laptop that is the problem. Other people have had issues like this with brand new models, so I know the problem lies with Windows.

Has anyone here been having the same issues and if so, how did you resolve them, if you managed to at all? Evetything on the laptop is as up to date as it can possibly be, new BIOS update from Dell website installed, too, but I don't know what to do to try to get it sorted.

Can anyone give me any advice, please? I am at my wits end with it all now. I have 'poked about' with computers over the years, so I know my way around their settings a but, but I am no tech expert. If anyone has any advice that might help, I can follow instructions well to try things out.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to the forum.
To answer your question, no, there is no general problem with Windows 11 or Windows updates at the moment that I am aware of. Since you were experiencing issues before the updates it's doubtful they are the cause.
Since we do not know your system's specifications here is a general answer.

I would normally suggest the following flow of troubleshooting if it is indeed a windows problem but if your system is hobbled to the extent of your description, troubleshooting steps may not work. That be the case perform a clean install per step 5. Backup any personal data that you have if possible.

1. Make sure you have no corrupt system files that is causing this problem. Open a command prompt as administrator and type sfc /scannow
Pay attention to the scan results to see if SFC found anything it could not repair. If it found corruption it could not fix followup with this command (note the spaces)
dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart computer

2. See if the issue exists in safe mode. How to Boot into Safe Mode in Windows 11 or Windows 10 | Dell US

3. Perform a clean boot to eliminate software conflict causing the issue. If it doesn't happen in a clean boot, you have some software conflicting with Windows. Brink's procedure will help you weed out which one. Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 11 to Troubleshoot Software Conflicts Tutorial

4. Repair Install Windows 11 Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade Tutorial

5. Clean Install Windows 11. Read each step carefully. Clean Install Windows 11 Tutorial

Note that this could also be a hardware problem as well. Dell offers some pre-boot diagnostic testing from within bios. How to Run a Preboot Diagnostic Test on a Dell Computer | Dell US

If you have an older laptop that had been running Windows 10, there is a good chance Microsoft is not supporting your laptop in Win 11, you might have to remove Win 11 and reinstall Win 10.
I would contact the support for your laptop and see what they can tell you.

If it has a hard disk drive, replace it with an SSD.

The most recent version of Windows 23H2 does have a general issue in that it's not ready to be used on all devices.

Microsoft puts a "lock guard" on incompatible hardware and doesn't let users upgrade to new version for as long as they don't solve incompatibility problems.

Users can bypass that restriction by clean installing 23H2 or by doing an in-place upgrade, but run the risk having issues with their new OS.

Hello again,

To everyone who has replied, a massive thank you to you all. The information here is not anything I have seen anywhere else and it is most welcome and most informative.

I will look into the steps/links mentioned and find out what hardware bits can be replaced and how expensive it will be to replace them.

Thank you all again, very much, and should I need any more info/advice, I know exactly where to come!

SarahL.

@SarahL

For more info see:

If we detect that your device may have an issue, such as an application incompatibility, we may put a safeguard hold in place and not offer the update until that issue is resolved.

Click to expand...

See also:

With the new Windows 11 many running older computers that were running Win 10, are going to find many of their computers are not supporting Win 11 and even if your computer is or has now been upgraded to Win 11 many of your installed programs will nolonger work.
Check with your programs Tech support to see if their programs have or will be upgraded for Win 11.