Hello, first I'd like to say that I'm not a tech guy, so if I haven't done something that would be obvious to you, please excuse my ignorance.

I have a Y500 that is a few months old. I love the machine overall, the touchpad is a bit too sensitive and jumpy but nothing I can't adapt to. 

However, I have recently encountered what I consider a number of signifgicant and perhaps serious problems.

This is my problem/the symptoms: System started taking an abnormal amount of time to boot Windows 8, stopped shutting down fully, exits Windows but hardware stays on and requires me to manually turn it off with the power button (I disabled the fast boot option in Windows and this seemed to fix the shutdown problem, but did nothing for boot up time), system takes a while to load Safe Mode and I cannot load most of the tools without waiting about 3 hours, OneKey Reocvery takes a while to boot into, I try to reset to factory default, it starts to initiliaze and then 5 minutes later provides the following message 'notice, an error occured while trying to access partition information', I've tried this multiple times and have received the same error message.

This is what I have tried: AVG, Malwarebytes, Adaware, CCleaner, AdvancedSystemCare 6, Smart Defrag 2, plus a few other programs to optimize, diagnose and search for infections or problems. One of them removed a pesky Firefox add-on (Rapidfinda), and it seems the combination of using such tools has sped up browser and system performance overall, which is great but my main problems remain. I created a Windows bootable USB flash drive so that I could perhaps boot up quickly and diagnose problems from there, but it took a very long time to load, and after selecting keyboard layout it froze. I am unable to successfully load or use any of the tools in Safe Mode without first waiting for 3 or more hours. This is unrealistic and indicative of a significant problem to me. I was finally able to load Elevated Command Prompt after waiting a few hours. I ran System File Checker and received this message 'Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.' Both bootrec /fixmbr and /fixboot 'completed successfully'. Both bootrec /scanos and /rebuildbcd returned this message 'Total identified Windows installations: 0' .. which I find odd. I could not run CHKDSK because the drive is 'locked', I did not write down the error message. AdvancedSystemCare has an option to 'Repair Disk'.. I run this program on both Windows8_OS (C: ) and LENOVO (D: ). The diagnostic program finds errors only on the C: drive. It restarts the system and then takes me to the Lenovo boot screen where it says 'Scanning and repairing drive (C: ) 0% Complete.' It appears as though this function is a Windows 8 diagnostic and repair tool. It makes its way up to 40%, shoots up to 100% and then from there, restarts, goes back to Lenovo boot screen and displays 'Scanning and repairing drive (C: ) 100% Complete' then after about 5 minutes brings me to the login screen. I do this about 3 more times and it finds errors with C: each time, then on the 4th try it doesn't find any errors, I take this to be a good sign and therefore try OneKey Recovery again, but receive the same error message..

So at this point, I feel kind of stuck.. what should I do?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you for reading my post.

Under Windows 8 you have the following options:

1. Restore to a date where you think the laptop is operating normally.

2. Refresh - this will cause the reinstallation of windows 8 while retaining your files. Third party programs will be erased.

3. Reset - this will cause the reinstallation of Windows 8 erasing everything in your drive. This is similar to the OKR except that only Windows will be re-installed.

I haven't tried 2 and 3 in a laptop but have tried it in desktops. I also am not sure if the hidden partition to be use by OKR will be erased. You just have to decide which one will you choose.

If not, you can restore from a system image if you made one earlier using Windows backup. Again I cannot guarantee that okr will be functional after.

Thank you for your response. 

When I try to load either Refresh, Restore or Reset it does not load or takes an incredibly long time to do so.

Is it supposed to take hours to load either one of these tools? 

It could take some time to do the process like several minutes to few hours. I really haven't timed it when I do them. Here is a good article explaining about Refresh and Reset. Another good explanation with time estimates can be found here.

Thank you both for your responses.

I fully understand the difference between and how to Refresh or Reset using Windows 8. I have tried it numerous times but the tool itself takes hours to even BEGIN to load and eventually does not load or seems to freeze.  

From the second link posted:
"Before Windows 8, resetting a PC was a complex and time-consuming affair. But thanks to Push Button Reset, you can now “nuke it from space,” as I think of it, and return the PC to its factory-fresh state in just MINUTES."

However, it takes HOURS for me, and even then fails to load simple diagnostic and repair tools. 

Let me put it another way, my old Toshiba Satellite A500 with Windows 7, that has 'half the amount of power' of my new Lenovo ideapad Y500, now takes less than half the amount of time to boot up into Windows, and likewise comes with it's own set of problems. 

Not to mention- OneKey Recovery simply, practically out of the box, does not work. I've owned maybe 4-5 laptops in the past, have used factory reset on them a number of times and not ONCE run into a problem.

How does a power house machine succumb to simple use? I am doing everything I can to avoid shipping my computer to a support center because I rely on it for my job.

WOULD A MODERATOR OR LENOVO OFFICIAL PLEASE give this a stab or even (if possible?) create a support ticket for me so I don't have to play run around on the official support system. I signed up for the two year parts and labor warranty, does this include simple tech support? I'd hate to dish out more money because some call center tech guy thinks I'm just another ignorant end user.

Sorry to hear that the Refresh And Reset didn't work out for you. As what I have stated earlier I haven't done them in a laptop but in a desktop. Like yourself I also do not want to send my laptop, in case of trouble, back for repair. I also don't want to spend extra for the Recovery Disc that the company is selling. In other brand of laptop these disc are included in your purchase. Yes I agree that the recovery for these other brand of laptops are easy and without any problems.

I tried reading posts  in the forum in the hope of getting ideas on how to go about problems encountered by owners of Lenovo laptops to be use later for my own new Lenovo laptop. The more I read the more I come to realized that the provided solutions to problems raised is to send back for repair, buy the Recovery disc, or reinstall drivers. I have not yet read Reset, Refresh, restore, and other standard diagnostic tools ever mentioned as solution.

The options that I provided are the usual options that I would take into consideration if my laptop gets into such a problem. Followed by recovery using backup image. Erasing manually and performing a clean install of the OS would be the last resort.

Since this is a forum (where users help users as what Lenovo stated) it would be best to call technical support to address your immediate concern.

If you can easily access your hdd (unlike mine), you can remove it and connect it to another computer system for checking. You may have to use a hdd to usb adapter/enclosure. If it is (hdd) a Samsung or Seagate you can download and run disktool and verify if it is defective or not. You can run a virus and spam checker. In this way you are isolating most of your hardware (laptop) and not running a failing OS or an infected OS. What is needed when it comes to troubleshooting is patience.

Patience can be saved for the virtuous, I need to make money!  haha ;-)

Alright so this is where I am at: 

I was able to do a Reset yesterday, it took just under 8 hours in total, unbelieveable. 

Windows took me through setup without a problem. I tried to shut down, and ran into the same issue, I disabled Fast Boot, and then Windows completely failed to shutdown from Desktop, mouse moving but system unresponsive. 

Today I've been running a diagnostic tool called HDDScan 

Started a Read scan on the SanDisk SSD U100 16GB. It has been running for hours and it continues to find bad block after bad block. Starting from the beginning, it is now on block 816640 of 31277231 and reads:

Bad block found, start LBA: 817408 

Reads the same in list format for the piror blocks that have been scanned.

Anyone have any idea what this means? I'm guessing there is something wrong my SSD? More specifically I suppose, is there any way I can fix this without sending the bloody thing to Lenovo? 

*screams out the window, cries in fetal position, finds little relief in catharsis*