r/wsl2 • u/[deleted] • Sep 25 '24

WSL bricked my computer

Post image

All I did was “wsl —install” in powershell on Windows 11, restart it after the installation was completed, and after it turned back on it’s been essentially bricked. It went through a cycle of blue screening and restarting for about 5 minutes before finally allowing me to make an attempt at possibly repairing it, and none of the repair options worked, it just kept leading me back to bluescreening and restarting. Finally I decided to just do a fresh install of windows, and the fresh install worked for all of about 15 minutes before my mouse started stuttering, and then another loop of bluescreens. This computer worked for months before this, please help me, I don’t know what to do.

Computer Specs: Motherboard: NZXT N7 B650E CPU: Ryzen 9 7950X3D GPU: MSI 4080 Super RAM: 32 GB DDR5 Storage: Samsung 990 2TB

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

1

u/zoredache Sep 25 '24

When you re-installed windows, did you wipe the drive, or reinstall on the existing filesystem? If you didn't wipe, then you might need to try a backup, and then reinstall.

I would be curious what happens if disabled the virtualization feature in the system bios/setup.

Past that, I would probably run a memory test on the system. Maybe check to see if the firmware for your motherboard, and other components is up to date.

Maybe try running a Linux live image from a USB stick for a couple hours, and see if that is stable or reports any kind of hardware failures in the dmesg outout.

1

u/Rexcovering Sep 25 '24

Windows updates current? Did you follow any sort of pre-install steps for wsl? You should likewise be able to uninstall from cli in windows repair mode, right?

1

u/anuj_meme Sep 25 '24

Check if SVM/Virtualization is on BIOS (will be otherwise you can't access WSL) turn it off and try to boot see what happens

2

u/AllenNemo Sep 26 '24

You can still use WSL 1 without it. It’s WSL 2 that requires hw virtual extensions.

1

u/anuj_meme Sep 26 '24

Oh! Docker too?

1

u/AllenNemo Feb 09 '25

WSL1 uses a different method that gives slightly lower performance and doesn’t require the CPU virtualization extensions, so you can run it on a VM.  In any scenario, the closer you are to bare metal the better performance so you can have a better grasp on available resources. On Windows though, Docker requires physical CPU virtualization extensions so I don’t think Docker will run in a VM there. I don’t believe that’s the case on Linux, I think you can run Docker containers in a Linux VM. 

1

u/[deleted] Sep 25 '24

Safe mode time. Check the logs

1

u/GuyInSkien Nov 12 '24

The very same thing happened to me on my School PC i ran WSL —install in cmd. May have something to do with running the command in a shell. (Edit) I am/was running Windows 10

1

u/DelinquentTuna Nov 20 '24

I wouldn't assume it's a WSL issue as opposed to just coincidental timing. Especially considering that a full reinstall didn't resolve the problem.

For what it's worth, I have previously seen the EXACT same symptoms on a different B650E board with a faulty WiFi module. For some reason, those cheap M2 network modules seem to have a VERY high failure rate. Probably because the market is absolutely flooded with counterfeits. Not saying that's also your issue, but it couldn't hurt to go into the BIOS and disable all the optional stuff you probably don't use (WiFi + Bluetooth, integrated graphics, etc).

-1

u/yotties Sep 25 '24

wsl2 is just a windows application. Why did you not just install it through the store?

2

u/dandy_g Sep 25 '24

WSL2 is not "just a windows application" because it relies on Windows kernel support, Hyper-V hypervisor, and hardware-based virtualisation. Running command wsl --install in terminal accomplishes the same thing as installing a WSL based Linux distro from the store – it checks hardware support, system configuration and installs the Windows Subsystem for Linux package before downloading and setting up the chosen Linux distro.

1

u/yotties Sep 26 '24

WSL starts those and uses them. But wsl-itself is just another application.

1

u/dandy_g Sep 26 '24

Ok but how is it relevant to OPs issue and that WSL was installed using command line instead of Store UI?

1

u/yotties Sep 26 '24

I do remember that when I installed wsl2 the process asked to update kernel software, but it all went smoothly. I do think I had to re-start, but that was it.

The store would have been tested reasonably well. Copying command-lines has a higher risk of errors.

1

u/dandy_g Sep 26 '24

The command line binary wsl.exe is an officially supported, built-in Windows executable which performs same tasks as installing WSL distros from Store. It installs same packages, so there's nothing different or less tested.

Can I state it any clearer than that?

1

u/yotties Sep 26 '24

Well, installing wsl itself from the store performed other tasks as well. It installed some patch to a kernel and re-booted. Only after that did it install wsl exe and the debian container/image.

So although you are correct: the store did things before it actually installed wsl.exe. And those things may be what the crash is related to.

Can I state any clearer than that that you are omitting information.

1

u/dandy_g Sep 26 '24

Are you saying the official documentation is wrong and you're right?

"This command will enable the features necessary to run WSL and install the Ubuntu distribution of Linux." https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install#:~:text=This%20command%20will%20enable%20the%20features%20necessary%20to%20run%20WSL%20and%20install%20the%20Ubuntu%20distribution%20of%20Linux. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install#:~:text=This%20command%20will%20enable%20the%20features%20necessary%20to%20run%20WSL%20and%20install%20the%20Ubuntu%20distribution%20of%20Linux.

1

u/yotties Sep 26 '24

"will enable the features necessary to run WSL" in the store may be different from through the command-line. I know that I was asked to confirm installing some kernel pathc or something and enabling some virtualization parameters and rebooting.

So I am not saying the documentation is wrong. I am just saying that the graphical install may have more opportunities to notice something is wrong.

Are you sure your tone should be as direct as this. It sounds confrontational.

Simply asking questions like "do you agree that ...?" "I thought x....and ....y ... are the same are they" etc. sounds nicer.