cccleaner has stopped my computer from working

[Restore]

I updated cccleaner and ran it today.  When I restarted my computer it wouldn’t boot.  Have spent the last 6 hours trying to fix it and nothing has worked.

Tried to start in safe mode using F8 - nothing.

Tried Dell back up and recovery to restore the system - it said it had done it but then an error message came up saying that the instruction at a referenced memory could not be read.

Absolutely desperate now - lost a days work already - any advice gratefully received.

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Restore

[hazelnut]

Did you use the registry cleaner part of CCleaner?

What operating system are you using?

[nukecad]

Which version of Windows? Win 10 doesn't use the f keys to get in to safe mode - it boots from the BIOS too quickly to be intutrupted with a key press.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode

Did you use CCleaners registry cleaner?  If so did you make a backup when it asked?

[Restore]

I hope I didn’t use the registry cleaner! 
 

I had updated it to the latest version then run the scan and told it to fix the issues.

as far as I understand the registry scan involves clicking on the registry tab on the left? God I hope so!

I’m on Windows 8.1

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by Restore

[nukecad]

You used Health Check from what you say, that's fairly basic/non technical and should not have affected your boot.

If you didn't click on Reg Cleaner then you didn't run it.

It is just slightly possible that the 'Speed' section of Health Check may have removed something that a Dell uses at boot of 8.1, but if so then yours is the first report we have seen of it.

The message about an instruction not being accessed makes me think this might be a memory chip/disc problem at that physical location. They can happen, and when they do it"s usually while you are updating some software.

Is your machine bootable or can you not get to the desktop at all?

[Restore]

I can't get to the desktop as my computer won't boot to that point.

I am running Dell Back up and Recovery which is taking forever in the hope that it can restore the system and save my files.  

I can't afford a new computer - this is a desperate situation.  I will never us cccleaner again - a computer repair guy installed it some time ago and I trusted him so trusted the product - so when it asked me to update it and run it I stupidly did.

I only have a certain level of tech know how and won't be able to go much further than what I have tried.  Kicking myself for running cccleaner.

[nukecad]

Have patience with the the Dell recovery, recovery and/or repair can take time - but if that fails to work and you still can't get to the login screen then you can get Windows 8.1 into Windows own Automatic recovery/troubleshooting mode by doing what is known as a 'Hard Boot'

This simply means turning you computer on and then off again to interrupt the boot 3 times in a row, at which point Windows recognises there is something wrong and when you turn it on the fourth time it should start it's 'Automatic Repair' procedure.
Again it will take time to diagnose and try to repair whatever the fault may be.

See number 2 here for how a Hard Boot and Automatic Repair works: https://www.digitalcitizen.life/5-ways-boot-safe-mode-windows-8-windows-81

[Restore]

I woke up to find the DELL recovery and repair still stuck where it was so had to shut the computer down again.  I tried turning the computer off and on again and it then gave the message Recovery your PC couldn't start properly.  A required device isnt connected or cant be accessed.  Error code 0xc000000f  you'll need to use the recovery tools on your installation media.  If you don't have any installation media like a disc or USB device contact your system or PC manufacturer.

 

[APMichael]

Unfortunately, this looks more like a HDD or SSD failure.

[trium]

@restore

 

im 100% convincet ot that ccleaner have not made the problem. especially of restore your system with dell recovery. if your hardware is in good condition the restore works very good. my w8.1 works fine for years, since w8 came out with my pc. (2013)

12 hours ago, nukecad said:

This simply means turning you computer on and then off again to interrupt the boot 3 times in a row, at which point Windows recognises there is something wrong and when you turn it on the fourth time it should start it's 'Automatic Repair' procedure.
Again it will take time to diagnose and try to repair whatever the fault may be.

perhaps this can help? -also this works only if your hardware is without problems...

 

[trium]

2 minutes ago, trium said:

12 hours ago, nukecad said:

This simply means turning you computer on and then off again to interrupt the boot 3 times in a row, at which point Windows recognises there is something wrong and when you turn it on the fourth time it should start it's 'Automatic Repair' procedure.
Again it will take time to diagnose and try to repair whatever the fault may be.

perhaps this can help? -also this works only if your hardware is without problems...

als nukecad i mean windows repair - not dell recovery.

 

ps: sorry, but the edit-function was gone?!

[nukecad]

I'm afraid that I have to agree with APMichael,

If the Dell recovery gets 'stuck', and Windows recovery cannot even start, then this does look like a hardware failure problem - and most probably a failed disc drive.

As I said above these failures do happen and do tend to happen during software updates, or when doing a defragment, or anything else disc intensive.
(It's a bit like a car engine that's fine when only going to the shop and back, but breaks down if/when you go on a longer journey).
From the fact that it first happened to you at a boot I'd suspect that maybe Windows was trying to install an Automatic Update?

I'm afraid that it looks like it's repair shop time if you are not confident about fitting a new disc drive yourself.
At least new drives a fairly cheap these days, and with luck the shop may be able to recover your files off the failed disc if you haven't backed them up elsewhere.

[trium]

22 hours ago, Restore said:

Tried to start in safe mode using F8 - nothing.

this will not work!

-> "shift" + "f8"

[trium]

2 minutes ago, nukecad said:

I'm afraid that it looks like it's repair shop time if you are not confident about fitting a new disc drive yourself.
At least new drives a fairly cheap these days, and with luck the shop may be able to recover your files off the failed disc if you haven't backed them up elsewhere.

... i mean a 1 GB Harddisk costs about 50-60 Euro (new)

[Restore]

My computer spent 3 days with a technician who luckily is a work colleague of my partner - he manged to not only save the files which he initially thought was impossible given the state of the computer - but has now fixed the computer - it seems that although Dell Recovery and Back up wasn't able to complete the process it had done enough to back up my files but then the computer had gone back to factory settings.

He had to do a lot to recover the computer as it wasn't able to boot or load windows.  

He said that something caused sections of the hard drive to become corrupted but he couldn't find out what.

I remain convinced that it was the cccleaner - my computer was ok - it then did an update of cccleaner and ran the scan - my computer then stopped working.  It's been a real lesson for me - so many times we just click on 'agree' to terms and conditions with software without reading it and no doubt within that software there are disclaimers absolving the company of anything that might go wrong as a result of their product.  It's crazy that we have a world where we don't read contracts, where the contracts are so dense and impenetrable that we couldn't understand them anyway and yet they can cause such damage to our lives.

I've lost 3 days of work, a lot of sleep and gone through so much stress and financial worry and yet I have no come back on cccleaner, there is no accountability - and probably no way of getting any because they are probably untouchable.

I will never ever go near it again.    

[nukecad]

Good to hear that your computer is working again, and that it is was as we suspected a "simple" failed drive.
Also good to hear that your technician friend managed to recover your files from the failed drive.

As said above the drive was failing anyway, it's just happend to finally give up the ghost when you booted/restarted that time.
Booting is not an unusual time for a disc to give up the ghost, booting accesses the drive a lot.
(To continue my car engine analogy- Often the time a component fails and the car stops working is when you try to start it).

Without getting too technical:
Hard Drives do fail after time, just like any other piece of equipment. The moving parts wear out for one thing
Three to five years is the average lifetime for a Hard Drive, although some can last a lot longer (and some last less). It depends on the drive itself and how much you use it.
Which is why it is important to regularly backup your files to a different, (external), drive; for important work files backup daily at least and probably more often than that.
https://blog.archiware.com/blog/how-long-does-a-hard-drive-last/

Many (more technicaly minded) make a regular full 'Mirror' or 'Clone' of their hard drives, so that when (not if) it fails they have a full backup of everything including the operating system and all their installed apps as well as just their files.
https://uk.pcmag.com/how-to/117218/how-to-clone-a-hard-drive

It's your choice of course if you personally believe that CCleaner caused your issue.
But believe us when we say that the drive would have failed anyway; even if you didn't have CCleaner on the machine at all.
And your new drive will not last forever. (Ask your technician friend).
CCleaner does not corrupt drives, if it did then there would not be millions of people using it daily worldwide.

 

[Restore]

Thanks for the reply and for the info on hard drives - it is always useful to increase my knowledge and your input is much appreciated.

However the hard drive had not failed as I now have the computer back and it working just fine.  Something had corrupted part of the hard drive which stopped it being able to do anything.  It therefore seems reasonable to examine what happened just before the issues arose and what happened was me updating ccleaner and running it - it was the only thing that happened prior to the computer catastrophically failing.