And, I really mean computer illiterate here.

I have this HP Envy TouchSmart Ultrabook 4 with Intel Core i5 that is several years old (can't even recall when I bought it).

Problem #1: And it's been going on forever, but I kept ignoring it. The machine will intermittently (maybe every couple of days or three) automatically restart to update. The process moves along, then it says "We couldn't update your computer. Undoing the changes", and then back to square one, the computer is usable again. What is the problem and how to fix it?

Problem #2: That just started a couple of days ago. I can use the touch pad to move the pointing icon around, but when I click to try to open a link or anything, nothing happens. No problem using my finger on the touch screen. What's going on?

Thanks for the assist!

I'm sure someone will come along soon to help. You've contributed more than your fair share to the group.

For problem # 1 it could be a few things:
1) Not enough memory
2) Not enough disc space
3) Current O/S is corrupted and needs to be repaired

Problem number 2 could be
1) Corrupted driver
2) HW failure
3) Related to problem #1

What OS are you using?

#1 sounds like a corrupted Update
#2 sounds like possible the touchpad contact could be worn out

Remedy
#1 look at the update history and see which one failed then we can research the failure and possibly reinstall manually, not install at all and/or clean out the downloaded install cache and redownloaded and reapplied. Can be a little cumbersome but still possible to fix.

Note: check your date - updates can fail if the date is way off.

#2 if physical (hardware) nothing you can do except add an external mouse but you could reinstall the driver on the outside chance it is corrupt.

FWIW I have a Surface 7 (Gen10 CPU) W11 that seems to act that way too (touchpad). I like to use an external mouse (MS Flip Mouse that is kinda cool anyway) as it is easier for me to control.

Good Luck

Windows 8.1 and looks like I still have plenty of memory. I actually use the external mouse on this the most. It's more natural to me. And, it's working just fine, in addition to the touch screen. The only reason I found the touch pad wasn't working is I left the mouse somewhere a couple of days ago and tried to use the touch pad.

In some cases, manually updating and installing them one at a time, from oldest first will work.

The process depends on the version of the OS.

It occurs when there is conflicting update components from multiple updates trying to install in a single session without a restart.

Manually, sometimes requires a restart after and before the next one.

The auto process can proceed and will roll back like you experience.

There can be other issues, corrupt swap file, corrupted registry, etc., but try the manual process first.

(It will be time consuming)

First I would say that if you upgraded to W10 the update error could very well go away.
Windows 8 was one of the most awkward OS's of all time.
This may or may not help the touchpad issue.

^^^^ Can I just upgrade from where I'm sitting?? Just buy online and install?

The touchpad issue could be a settings problem. Some manufacturers' settings apps let you "turn off" the physical touchpad clicky buttons.

Even if there is a hardware problem with the physical touchpad clicky buttons, you can still make the touchpad usable. If you go into Windows' touchpad settings, you can set the touchpad to interpret a tap anywhere on the touchpad (not an activation of the physical buttons, just tapping on the touchpad) as a click.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
^^^^ Can I just upgrade from where I'm sitting?? Just buy online and install?

You don't need to buy anything.

Let me dig out the links to the procedure for you.

Download the media creation tool and run it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...e-download/windows10

It will give you an option to create new media for fresh install or to upgrade the PC.

PS: advise to run it connected with Ethernet Cable not WIFI and also make sure your AC Adaptor is connected not only on Battery.

Do you have a backup of all of your files? I would make sure to copy everything important somewhere else (cloud service or just a USB backup drive) before making any major OS upgrade.

I agree with smschulz that Windows 8 is pretty much garbage, and I know that you can upgrade to Win10 with a bit of hoop jumping, but I would worry a little bit about running Windows 10 with only 4GB of memory. It's possible to run, but may not be a great experience, and there may be other issues (such as hardware drivers) that pop up after the upgrade.

To be honest (and of course this is very much dependent on your budget) I would probably look at a replacement at this point. I've run newer operating systems on all sorts of hardware, including Windows 10 on machines older than yours and it can work, but it can also be somewhat finicky, and I've never done this with my primary machine.

In progress. Will report back later. Thanks, Steve, and everyone. I might just buy a new laptop, if things don't work out well.

no hoop jumping for my free upgrade to win10home from win7.

i had many issues with 10 year old dell/i5 laptop/win7, which were eliminated with the free upgrade to win10.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-u...e-download/windows10

I've had a recent experience where the trackpad died on one of my computers - took me considerable debug to finally accept. You never know with MSFT OS/driver ecosystem - hard to discern certain HW vs SW issues. I just use a wireless mouse now.

4GB is painful for a Windows system, especially if it's a single channel config (not sure if your system can be upgraded to more memory / dual channel if that's the case). Single channel basically means your memory is a single module and a single comm path to the CPU; dual channel means that you have two comm paths between the CPU and memory (2 modules). My system struggled with 8GB dual channel - I upgraded to 16GB dual channel. And I have a CPU that is 5 generations more recent than yours.

For HW that old, I basically now forego Windows and use Ubuntu (and Libra thanks to recommendations here). Unless you need Windows for some reason.

I got tired of the exact things that seem to be plaguing you now....

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

I can use the touch pad to move the pointing icon around, but when I click to try to open a link or anything, nothing happens.

The same problem started recently on my MacBook, which is almost twelve years old.

I have not opened it to look, but this is not uncommon when the old battery, which is directly under the touchpad, starts to go bad and gets swollen, putting pressure on the touchpad from below.

Well, after all that downloading and waiting and installing and waiting, the final message was "Windows 10 Install has failed!"
I guess I'll buy a new laptop eventually. Thanks, everyone.

Not that you're asking and I don't know what your requirements are. But I went through something similar - had an old device that I just didn't want to update / fix anymore.

It's a consumption device (ie - browsing, email, documents, videos. no gaming, no video editing, etc). I considered Windows devices in the $500-600 range. And compared with an iPad.

For me, iPad with the keyboard and a bluetooth mouse, loaded with Libre was the clear winner by far. Not perfect (biggest one being no external monitor) but absolutely no regrets. And very happy to be off Windows and Office. Good riddance.

The only way to reliably fix the problems into the future, is to upgrade to Win 10, as ver 8 is just too old and cranky, and will continue to do so until you quit using it.

BUT, when you update to Win 10, if your machine doesn't have enough disk and/or RAM, you could be in for a surprise, as in, it won't run at all. This happened to me on a cheaply outfitted by otherwise competent laptop machine.

As old as it is, if the upgrade doesn't work, it's probably time for a new machine. Yea I hate it too. But planned obsolescence is the standard for computer based electronics.

The processor & RAM are fine for browsing/light office/99% of computer usage. I get business swap-outs & many of my family members have 3rd-gen i5's cruising. My only concern for milking it along would be the touchpad issue, HDD age and battery - replacing hardware is very likely to be more than the computer is worth.

A 'nuke & pave' on an OS that old is advisable. Yes, you can likely fix it & upgrade in place, but you'll spend a lot more time & frustration than just installing fresh. It also might knock the smell of Win8 off it....

1. Can you get all your media & files off the computer onto another disk or cloud? If not, then you'll likely lose it to HDD failure at some point anyway, so might be time to start thinking about it.
2. You can get a 256GB SSD for about 25-30$ that will be a HUGE upgrade in terms of speed.
I keep one of these on hand & replace when I use one. 256GB SSD it's not the fastest or most reliable, but in ~8, I haven't had any fail. You'd be going from 500GB to 256, but you haven't filled it up in many year(based on CPU age) so you're not losing anything necessary. Another benefit would be an already-filled backup drive you could pull files onto the new OS install. You'd need a USB-enclosure, but those are $15 or so.