Easy Settings not being uninstalled in order to upgrade to windows 8.1 pro

I have Samsung NP 530U3B-A02IN
Since August 2014 I have been trying to upgrade Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 Pro but the installation pauses every time as it prompts me to uninstall Easy Settings before continuing with the update. I have been trying but Easy Settings is not being uninstalled as it says there is a compatibility issue.

What should I do? Please help.

And one more thing.
For the last month Windows 8 has been trying to automatically update itself but fails. The laptop restarts every other day but as the updating fails, it has to revert back the changes. This process takes about half an hour. I am not facing any problems in the working of the laptop but it is irritating to lose the laptop for half an hour in the middle of work!

 

You should never have got Easy Settings installed if you are running on Windows 8 for which Samsung created a modified program called Settings (without the "Easy"). Was your Windows 8 an upgrade from Windows 7 or a clean installation which is how Easy Settings might have got carried over? If so, it might be better to do a clean installation of Windows 8.1 to make sure it is free of legacy baggage. You can now legally download the Windows 8.1 installer.

The Windows 8 > 8.1 updater requires the right combination of Windows updates to already be installed. So (unless you opt for a clean installation) make sure you have cleared the backlog of Windows updates. Do a few at a time to reduce the risk of them tripping over and rolling back.

John

 

Earlier I had Windows 7 and it was upgraded to Windows 8 without any glitch. I have Easy Settings version 1.1. As well as Settings version 2.
Should I try to uninstall Easy Settings along with Easy Migration ver 1.0, and Easy File Share ver 1.1.1705?


What do you mean by "make sure you have cleared the backlog of Windows updates. Do a few at a time to reduce the risk of them tripping over and rolling back."
Can you please tell me exactly what to do?

 

1. Yes, try to uninstall all those 'Easy' programs. The Windows 8 installer would be unaware that they were not designed to work with Windows 8. You may find that you have to temporarily uninstall Settings before you can clear out Easy Settings. The normal Windows uninstaller may not work for programs installed before Windows was upgraded in which case you may have to try other options such as manual delete or a cleanup program such as ccleaner.

2. Run Windows Update. Does it show any updates waiting to be installed? The only time (so far) I have updated Windows 8 to 8.1 there were about 150 updates to be applied first.

John

 

Thank you John for your suggestions and advice.

1. I downloaded the cleanup program, ccleaner. I ran the registry cleaner through which 664 issues were fixed. I was also able to uninstall Easy Migration and Easy File Sharing. But Easy Settings is not being uninstalled. When I try to uninstall it, a window pop ups which displays the message "This program has compatibility issues. You can get help on the Microsoft website. If a solution exists, follow the instructions to try and fix the problem." There are no solutions available on the Samsung website.

And this window also opens when I click on "Get online help"




2. I cannot see the number of updates to be installed. There is just a message which states "Restart your PC to finish installing updates". I have been restarting my PC but the installations are not done as an error message says Failure Configuring windows update. reverting changes.
I had troubleshoot the problem. It says that its fixed but every time I run troubleshoot it gives the same message. I had thought that fixing the registry would solve this problem but alas!

 

Here's another discusson about the manual uninstallation of Easy Settings. See if the method described there will work for you.

It is possible that once Easy Settings is out of the way then the Windows Update will work.

If not, you should be able to get to the Windows Update control panel by clicking on Windows Update in Control Panel. Then select Check for Updates to see if anything is waiting.

John

 

The link that you've mentioned, manual removal of Easy Settings, is a bit difficult for me to follow.
From memory and previous posts, here is what I can point you to that needs to be removed:
1) Program Files folder, of course (though I would delete that last).

2) A bunch of scheduled tasks (though they will stop loading when the program files are gone). See this post and the latencies thread for discussion of those.

3) A kernel driver called SABI.sys and another service called SamsungDeviceConfig. Check this post. You need to be careful when you remove drivers and services or you could break your Windows installation. I would use SysInternals AutoRuns (Google it) and disable these services first, see if the system survives after a reboot, before attempting to delete them.

4) A bunch of entries throughout registry. Many are in HKCU/Software/Samsung but unfortunately those are only the easy and most harmless ones.

I know where to find the program files folder but how and where do I find and remove scheduled tasks, kernel driver and registry?

Thank you for your patience and help.

 

As for Windows Update, 24 important updates are waiting to be installed but when I try to install one update at a time, it gives an error code 80240016. Should I put Windows 8.1 update (which is paused as it cannot continue till I uninstall Easy Settings) to a stop as I do not know which other program/software is being updated?

 

You may want to try refreshing windows, or more drastically reset windows (but you would want to back up your programs and files). Otherwise you may be left with using F4 to go back to W7, uninstall easy settings and update to W8. Though, at that point, a new installation of W8.1 would probably be easier.

How to refresh, reset, or restore your PC - Windows Help

 

For scheduled tasks type 'Task' into the Start > Run box and then click on Task Scheduler.

For the Kernel driver use this program to identify and stop the kernel driver called SABI.sys and another service called SamsungDeviceConfig from loading after the next reboot.

If you can sort out those aspects then ccleaner might clean up the registry for you.

That windows Update error code means another installation in in progress. That's most likely the 8.1 update which you need to stop until the other problems are sorted out.

John

 

Thanks for your recommendation but I got my laptop with Windows 7 already installed. I don't have any CD/DVD or pen drives containing drivers and software.
Somehow I can't think how I would manage refreshing or rebooting or reset Windows.

 

Thank you John for all your help.
With the help of your instructions I was able to open Task Scheduler. And found under Library - EasyBatteryManager, EasyDisplayMgr, Easy SpeedUpManager. They're running and Settings is also running alongside. Should I end them, disable them or delete them all?

I found SABI.sys but cannot find SamsungDeviceConfig anywhere. and a message pops up "Cannot find string 'SamsungDeviceConfig'". I wasn't certain if I should start deleting the rest of the files. Please tell me if I should? And do I have to follow a specific order while deleting?

Updating to Windows 8.1 has been paused. It didn't completely download (around 50% still to go) as Easy Settings were not uninstalled. Is "pause update" as good as stop because there isn't an option to stop it?

I am extremely sorry for giving you so much trouble.

 

I would disable them. As long as they stay disabled after a reboot then they shouldn't cause problems.

Is SABI running or you found the file on the computer? One of my methods is to delete the last letter in the name of a file that I'm not certain about (eg change .sys to .sy). Then it is easy to reverse if there are unexpected side-effects.

You can try to resume the Windows 8.1 update once the various Samsung Easy programs are not running. That might be enough to get the updater moving. Otherwise see if this works for you.

John

 

I disabled EasyBatteryManager, EasyDisplayMgr, EasySpeedUpManager. I found another one running by the name SmartSetting (it had its path as C:\Programfiles\Samsung\Easy Settings\SmartSetting.exe) and disabled it as well. After a reboot, I didn't find any errors waiting for me and these tasks remained disabled.
The Fn Keys are working fine. I had checked them.

I found SABI.sys through Autoruns - Sysinternals. and I have no idea if it is running or not. Its not specified under the "Drivers" tab. Should I change its extension with .sy even if I couldn't find the service SamsungDeviceConfig? What should I do about SamsungDeviceConfig? How to locate it?

Should I delete the Easy Settings Folder manually only after all the above files are disabled/deleted?

You're a big help, thanks!

 

See if you can now uninstall Easy Settings.

If not, then you can try renaming the Easy Settings folder. This is easily reversible if there's a big problem but will stop Windows running anything that is in the folder.

Either of these might be successful in letting the Windows 8.1 updater proceed.

John

 

Easy Settings still cannot be uninstalled from Control Panel.

I tried renaming the folder but there's a message, "The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program. Close the file or folder and try again."

The folder Easy Settings has 93 items and five folders (EBM, help, images, minilng, and res). What to do now? Wouldn't be easy for me to disable all of them through Task Scheduler. Should I try disabling them?

And there's an application DevCon in this folder. Is this the same as SamsungDeviceConfig?

And as for Sabi.sys, I found it another folder, not Easy Settings, in Samsung Recovery Solution 5.

 

@Mariam03: I would try the following (if you haven't already):

1) Revert any changes you made to Easy Settings folder names, disabled Tasks and Services etc. Reboot.

2) Install the same version of Easy Settings you have OVER the current version. You may need to run the installer As Administrator. From the tasks you listed above, I can see you have version 1.x, probably 1.1.1.4. SW Update will show you the full version number (the Windows Programs and Features control panel rounds to three digits). I believe file Properties-Details on SmartSetting.exe will tell you the version as well. If you cannot find the same version in SW Update, you can probably download it from samsung.com. Reboot.

3) Now try the uninstall again, using Programs and Features, and see if it works. Of course reboot.

4) If this still fails, try installing a newer version of Easy Settings over the current one, and see if it cleans up. The latest version I have seen is 2.0.0.89, which can be found using Find Model in SW Update, under Win7 drivers for model NP930X5J-S02US. Then try uninstall again. Of course reboot after each.

5) If that too fails, try booting Win8.1 into Safe Mode and perform the uninstall from there. To boot Safe Mode, keep Shift pressed while selecting Restart OR enable Safe boot on the Boot tab in MSCONFIG.

6) If all of those fail, you may have no choice but to restore a backup or restore point -- or start over with a new install of Windows. If your Samsung Recovery Solution (F4) still works, you can restore to factory. But SRS5 often fails to load after installing Win8.1 -- though it will work again after re-installing Win7, as long as you don't damage the Recovery partition or mess with the partition table.

7) Once you (hopefully) have it cleaned up, you want to install Samsung Settings (NOT Easy Settings) as John already pointed out. In your case, I recommend you use Settings versions 2.0.x (as opposed to the newer versions 2.3.x). There is a very recent version available inside the Easy Settings 2.0.0.89 package for NP930X5J-S02US which I mentioned above (in the Win8 folder inside the Easy Settings package).

Anytime Settings has been re-installed, follow the advise in this post.

Note that Settings does not have all those individual tasks that can be disabled (like you saw in Easy Settings 1.x). You really have to just install and accept it as it is. Also note that some Fn-keys are supported directly by Windows (such as the Volume keys) whereas others (such as Fn-F1 and Fn-F11) only work if Settings is installed correctly.

 

Dannemand thank you for listing so many things that I can try.
However, as soon as I try to install an update through SWUpdate, I get the message "operation cannot be done while another installer is running. Do you want to continue? If problems occur, please try again after reboot."

I don't know what is being installed at the moment as I have already paused update of Windows 8.1.

I came to know about SWUpdate about two and a half weeks back only. And I had downloaded and installed software and recommended items like Intel(R) Widi, Settings, Online Support, BIOS, etc.
But Easy Settings, which is being shown as updatable version 1.1.1.4, doesn't install. I had tried earlier and it had downloaded but it didn't install. Nor did Support Center.

 

Okay, I tried once again. This time when I opened the SWUpdate and there was no error message like the one I mentioned earlier.

Easy Settings has downloaded and about to be updated and I get this message :-
Download a redistributable setup file that can be run manually. Install manually if the installation continues to fail."\

What is this?
I pressed yes and it asked me to open a select file/folder.
Please help me out with this.

 

Did you try some of the other things I suggested, such as installing a newer Easy Settings version over the old one, or installing in Windows Safe mode?

I would not install Easy Settings from inside SW Update, but rather just save it locally, then install it by running it directly.

That said, it sounds like your installation has become so messy that you have no choice but to start over, either rolling back to a restore point or backup, or perform a factory restore or clean install of Windows. Starting over, although time consuming, is often faster than keep trying to fix an installation that is unfixable.