Reinstall Windows on Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro
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So we have to reinstall the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro because the OS that comes is bloated and isn't stable. It doesn't work with JavaScript callbacks - there appears to be a shim in the network stack hijacking things. Not good at all. It's not usable and what it appears to be doing is a little scary.
So we are going to put a clean, unadulterated Windows copy on it to make it stable and safe. Sadly, looks like we are forced to blow away the recovery partition. These are the directions that I found...
http://pingec.si/blog/articles/yoga-2-pro-windows-8.1-reinstall-instructions/
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You shouldn't have to blow away the recovery partition. When you do your install, do Custom and it should show the primary and recovery partitions separate. Delete the primary, make it unallocated space, create a new partition and install to that. To be honest though, I'd claim the space that the recovery partition is using and blow it away too.
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We had to blow EVERY partition away, and after the installation finished, the very first thing I did was test Mango Lassi, and guess what? It works now. Off to install windows updates.
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Very glad that this worked so easily.
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Cool glad that worked. So it was the bloatwear causing the issues then, sigh.
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Well at least it works! I take it you put 8.1 Pro x64 on it?
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@Minion-Queen said:
Cool glad that worked. So it was the bloatwear causing the issues then, sigh.
No, not necessarily. Our fear is that it was a network shim siphoning data. Could be bloatware, but we could find none that did it. It looks like it was a modification to the OS itself.
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@ajstringham said:
Well at least it works! I take it you put 8.1 Pro x64 on it?
Yes
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Nice instructions and loved the "Note: The “wipe all partitions” steps are not optional, the installer will refuse to install on the original ones stating some GPT error."
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Cool glad that worked. So it was the bloatwear causing the issues then, sigh.
No, not necessarily. Our fear is that it was a network shim siphoning data. Could be bloatware, but we could find none that did it. It looks like it was a modification to the OS itself.
WAIT, WHAT? you think Lenovo installed some scrape-ware that is what? stealing your data?
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@Dashrender said:
WAIT, WHAT? you think Lenovo installed some scrape-ware that is what? stealing your data?
There is a network shim doing something with no application installed that would have any reason to be in there (AV removed, all security and network tools removed.) Something that shouldn't be has injected itself into the network stack. As it isn't an installed application, that implies it is something malicious.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@Minion-Queen said:
Cool glad that worked. So it was the bloatwear causing the issues then, sigh.
No, not necessarily. Our fear is that it was a network shim siphoning data. Could be bloatware, but we could find none that did it. It looks like it was a modification to the OS itself.
WAIT, WHAT? you think Lenovo installed some scrape-ware that is what? stealing your data?
There was something that Lenovo put on there that was preventing some browsing from working correctly. What it was we won't ever be sure...
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@ajstringham said:
There was something that Lenovo put on there that was preventing some browsing from working correctly. What it was we won't ever be sure...
But we confirmed that it was Lenovo installed and not part of the hardware or OS. And we know that it was network related as it impacted any browser the same, breaking the network connection.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@ajstringham said:
There was something that Lenovo put on there that was preventing some browsing from working correctly. What it was we won't ever be sure...
But we confirmed that it was Lenovo installed and not part of the hardware or OS. And we know that it was network related as it impacted any browser the same, breaking the network connection.
Something it may have been...a driver utility. I'm guessing it installed a Windows driver for your WiFi and LAN drivers when you put vanilla 8.1 on there. There may have been a driver utility that was part of a driver bundle. Those don't usually show under Programs and Features but they're there.
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@ajstringham said:
Something it may have been...a driver utility. I'm guessing it installed a Windows driver for your WiFi and LAN drivers when you put vanilla 8.1 on there. There may have been a driver utility that was part of a driver bundle. Those don't usually show under Programs and Features but they're there.
Exactly - The Yoga Pro 2's were (apparently still are) plagued with network issues - almost entirely surrounded by the drivers that ship with them. And if not the drivers, OMG class action lawsuit anyone?
My Pro 2 had network connectivity issues in general, I didn't narrow it down to only browser based versus SMB or any other protocols, After replacing the NIC with an AC NIC (the ones a year ago shipped with N cards) those problems went away.
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Which Yoga 2 Pro did she get? the i5 (black)? the i7 (Silver)? 13" or 11"?
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@Dashrender said:
Which Yoga 2 Pro did she get? the i5 (black)? the i7 (Silver)? 13" or 11"?
i5 Black, 13"
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@Dashrender said:
Exactly - The Yoga Pro 2's were (apparently still are) plagued with network issues - almost entirely surrounded by the drivers that ship with them. And if not the drivers, OMG class action lawsuit anyone?
If you were putting in a shim, you'd likely put it in the driver.
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@Dashrender said:
My Pro 2 had network connectivity issues in general, I didn't narrow it down to only browser based versus SMB or any other protocols, After replacing the NIC with an AC NIC (the ones a year ago shipped with N cards) those problems went away.
It's not just browsers, it's that that is where we saw it the instant that she tried to use the laptop and post that she had gotten in. The very first action on the laptop exposed that shim.
Yes, it sounds like you had the issue and that there was a shim in the driver. Going to a third party NIC would bypass the driver.
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Get the drivers from Microsoft instead of Lenovo and it appears to be fine.
