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General discussion

Help! My laptop will not upgrade to Windows 10

Jun 17, 2016 4:43PM PDT

I have a Lenovo G555 laptop, circa 2010. It has Windows 7 home premium, 4GB RAM, 160GB HDD (not much on it), etc. Received one of those "Upgrade to Windows 10" reminders and went for it. It wouldn't go! Froze at 99% finished. Called MS Answer Desk and a tech helped me redo it. Still did not go. Next day, another MS tech, same thing. The latest tech guy said it was because my BIOS would not allow me to change my operating system...fancy that. He said I'd have to contact Lenovo. So, I did. What a disaster! They wanted me to pay a premium fee to find out how or if my computer would accept Windows 10. I declined their ridiculous offer! Bottom line from them and from research I attempted on the Net, Win10 is "no can do" on this laptop. So, even though MS says if you have Windows 7, you can upgrade to Windows 10, someone is not telling the whole story. By the way, I also used MS tool to check "is your computer capable of running Windows 10" and it said yes. Maybe some of your followers can help me get to Windows 10. As you know, the freebie for W10 expires July 29. If I can't get it for free, I "ain't" getting it. I'm not about to spend $119 for it, ever! Thanks for your time.

--Submitted by Larry A.

Discussion is locked

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Landfill?
Jun 25, 2016 1:34AM PDT

I hate to say it, but you sound like a rich snob. There are many people who would love to have a computer that was only 10 years old. Many people run machines that are more than 5 years old.

Computers are expensive. It is nice to be able to always have one that is only a few years old, but the reality is that most people have to make do with what they have for a long time.

Any functional computer does NOT belong in a landfill. Give it to someone who doesn't have one.

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Landfill?
Jun 25, 2016 6:17AM PDT

I totally agree with 4Denise. They are expensive if you want one that'll run smooth and meet your requirements. I do have a 2007 zt group brand computer I use only to check my email and run around the net with. It had xp on it then windows 7 and now windows 10. It only has 1gb of ram and a 160gb hdd. Amd dual core processor and onboard graphics and sound. I upgraded using a usb flash stick. The whole process went fine and it runs ok after it gets warmed up a bit. I will only throw it away when it totally craps out.

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Baloney!
Jun 24, 2016 8:32PM PDT

I have Win 10 Pro running on a refurb HP-Compaq laptop that originally came with Vista. I've upgraded it to 3GB DDR2, and it has a 250 GB hard disk partitioned as 155 and 95 unallocated. If I wanted more speed I could replace that with a 240GB SSD easily.

Speedwise it's fine, and I have a 500GB drive partitioned as 100 + 400 that I haven't bothered putting in.

Sure, if you want to run 8 major programs simultaneously and have 10 browser tabs open, you'll see speed problems. But for normal use Win 10 will run fine with 4GB and a SATA drive.

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That's cool Rick
Jun 24, 2016 9:39PM PDT

you're running a Win 10 OS on those 2 or 3 GB's of RAM (must be 32 bit?) ?

I don't understand the part about >
" Speedwise it's fine, and I have a 500GB drive partitioned as 100 + 400 that I haven't bothered putting in.".....
What are you using for a HDD since you haven't bothered putting one in ?
I know this can be done with a different OS but not Windows ...

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Success with Win10 upgrade after 10 months
Jun 22, 2016 5:54PM PDT

I have been fighting the Win10 upgrade on one of my desktops since last summer. It continually fails. I thought it was because of the raid 1. So I decided to go ahead with the Win10 upgrade on my old Asus laptop, but it also failed. So I had a brainstorm and uninstalled the nVidia video driver. Wooho, success. So I uninstalled the nVidia driver on the old Gateway desktop and woohoo, success again. So check your video drivers. By the way, both of these units were Windows 7. I have been using Win10 on my main computer which is a Asus G750 laptop since the day after it was released last July (and it had nVidia video driver, but upgraded fine) and have no issues whatsoever. It is great. Now all 4 of my computers are running Win10.

Dave

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Let me share what I think works after the W10 upgrade.
Jun 22, 2016 6:06PM PDT

Go get the "Geforce Experience" app and let it figure out which video driver to get next.

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Nvidia driver problems
Jun 24, 2016 9:10PM PDT

Nvidia drivers also can cause Win 8 & 8.1 to crash. I had two almost identical computers, same motherboard, one with an Nvidia card, the other using on-board Intel video. The one with the Nvidia card could dual boot to Win 7 or 8/8.1 - on separate drives.

Win 8/8.1 crashed repeatedly on the one with Nvidia. Not only did it crash, it would even damage the file system on the Win 7 drive. I got so disgusted I stopped using 8 on that completely. 8 worked fine on the other machine.

About a year later, the mobo on the Nvidia machine cratered. Since that is my main PC, I took the board out of the other machine. Now 8.1 crashed on that board! Then I realized ... 8.1 worked fine for a year on that board. The problem can't be 8/8.1.

Then I realized that it worked for a year with a non-Nvidia video chip and drivers. I searched on-line and found loads of mentions that Nvidia drivers are not fully compatible with Win 8/8.1 and nobody, including Nvidia, is sure what the problem is. I replaced the Nvidia card with an AMD card and Win 8.1 ran fine since.

On the other hand, I recently had to replace two low-end AMD cards with Nvidia cards (one of which was the one that crashed 8.1) because AMD's latest Win 10 drivers won't run the cards at full 1920 x 1080 resolution on my monitor but the Nvidias will.

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AMD video cards
Jun 25, 2016 6:28AM PDT

I'm using an AMD Radeon R7-200 series card and after my problems with, I can only surmise, my external Wi-Fi adapter the video is AWESOME! In fact it recognizes the card and recommends using the 1920 X 1080 setting on my monitor!! Did not have ANY issues with the video card to the best of my knowledge!!

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Help! My laptop will not upgrade to Windows 10
Jun 24, 2016 2:14PM PDT

according to the microsoft update it can be done after 29 jul 2016.

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Re: 29 jul 2016
Jun 24, 2016 2:35PM PDT

Surely you can install Windows 10 after that date, but it won't be free anymore. It will be the usual $100 or so for a license.

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windows 10
Jun 24, 2016 6:12PM PDT

My youngest son had to finally replace his PC running Windows XP. The computer we got had Windows 10 already installed. He says he likes Windows 10 a lot better than Windows 8. His brother has a computer with Windows 8.1. When he tried to update it to Windows 10, the update failed to install. So, you are not the only one with this failure to install or update for Windows 10.

I am thinking that we may have to take it into the shop to get Windows 10.

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djnova50
Jun 24, 2016 6:51PM PDT

time to get a new computer instead of wasting your money on having someone else try to install windows 10 on an outdated machine.

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Windows Update is the problem
Jun 24, 2016 6:15PM PDT

It is almost certainly an issue with Windows Update. You have to turn it off and then run the upgrade. Follow the below and it should work:

Before using the Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant, perform these steps:

Set Windows 7 updates to "Never install updates".

Stop the update service by right clicking on the command prompt, and choose "Run as administrator".

Type "NET STOP WUAUSERV" (without the quotes). It should say: "Windows update service is stopping....windows update service is stopped."

After completing the above steps, start the Windows 10 Upgrade assistant, and it should complete.

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Win10 Upgrade From Win7
Jun 24, 2016 6:37PM PDT

I had the same issue and had to make my Reserve Partition larger. It was 100mb and when I enlarged it to 500mb it went without a hitch. That Reserve Partition is the Master Boot Record or Data Partition [thats what it is currently called in W10] is the small partition that precedes the main partition that has the OS. Currently it holds 404mbs. I increased it to 838 as the partition utility I used to create it was having a hard time making smaller partitions so I just went with it.
There are several out there.
Another way is to just do a clean install on a reformatted hard drive...then it'll create its own usually around 400mb. Had to do it to a friends also not long ago. His W7 wasn't upgrading as it should.

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Be glad...
Jun 24, 2016 6:40PM PDT

I went through the same situation with a home build, ultimately told it was probably the bios.
The only reason I tried to install anyway was the Win 10 "upgrade" had somehow blocked my ability to install Win 7 updates. MS was good on their word about re-installing win 7. From what I have learned, you may be glad in the long run.

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I Don't understand the infatuation and obsession: Win10
Jun 24, 2016 6:45PM PDT

I don't understand the logic or mindset in upgrading an aging or old computer when everything works and the OS is fully supported. Many people did the same with Apple iPhone devices only to find out their devices were virtually crippled.

Microsoft added more lure to this entire Windows 10 upgrade fiasco. It's free so it must be a good thing, right? Heck no!

I have a 2013 Custom PC that was solid and fast at the time. It still is for my purposes. It has 6 GB of RAM but my system resources rarely go above 30%. I have several terabytes of HD space.

I upgraded to Windows 10. Granted, I didn't do a clean install. It was not available at the time. After upgrading, my system was super slow. Many features were missing and I found the OS counter intuitive, I wanted to throw my desktop out the window.

I calmed down and I then downgraded back to Windows 7. Everything was back to "normal" except Windows 10 corrupted virtually all my "Tasks" within Task Scheduler (a known issue). I downloaded an app to fix this, but I haven't ran it yet.

I found Windows 7 to be the most solid and reliable Microsoft OS I have ever used. Traditionally, I had to do a full clean install every 6 months. With Windows 7, I didn't need to. After all this mess with Windows 10, I likely will do a fresh install of Win 7 but that will be very time consuming installing all the hundreds and hundreds of different apps I have on my PC. Nonetheless, it must be done.

Many people like the OP have the "latest must be greatest" mindset. They should get it out of their head. This insanity must stop.

If your system is running fine and there are no security issues, keep it as stock and ensure your security updates are current.

As for me, I can use my Windows 7 key and upgrade to Windows 10 at later date because I already upgraded. However, I will not upgrade my current system. If anything, and if I must, I will buy a pre-fab system with Win 10 already installed that has the most current hardware. The chance of this is unlikely because Win 7 will be supported until January 14, 2020.

Moving forward, I think Windows 10 is a botched up OS on so many levels. It will be interesting to see how Microsoft handles people not upgrading after July 29.

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You are mistaken
Jun 24, 2016 8:12PM PDT

There is no need to have a new computer for Windows 10. Mine is a home build from 2010, and Windows 10 runs great on it. I have no issues.

The reason for taking advantage of the free upgrade is that you then have two operating systems you can choose from at any time on that machine. If you do not like Windows 10, then don't use it. Don't decide that your experience is the only one that matters, because it isn't. Many of us like Windows 10 and we are keeping it.

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Upgrading to W10
Jun 24, 2016 7:11PM PDT

Larry, I've done 9 machines now and all have had different problems to resolve before final victory. My 2007 HP laptop with security chip and finger print reader upgraded fine, as did my new Dell desktop. I ran into trouble with a 2014 Toshiba because I was on a domain and I had too many files to save and move to the new OS. I moved files and went back to a Workgroup to solve. I had trouble on an Acer laptop in the office where we have slow internet (2 bonded T-1's) but went OK at home on 6 MB DSL using the upgrade utility on the laptop. Had another issue when I used a USB device that had W10 Pro on a W7 Home machine; I needed a key for Pro to continue. There seem to be a lot of "gotchas". MS tech told me the best way to do each machine was with the utility on that particular machine, not the USB or DVD drives.

Here is the link: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

BTW my 2009 Lenovo SL upgraded fine with the USB. Who knows for sure???
doogermeister

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Watch out for USB devices
Jun 24, 2016 7:22PM PDT

Larry, I am not a professional but I am the techie type that all my friends and family come to. I have had problems updating to 10 and other types of large updates caused by a USB wireless mouse. Also some USB attached devices can stop it too. Most of this seems to freeze around 90% so you might try disconnecting all external devices and use the keyboard and keypad that is native to the laptop.

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Same problem
Jun 24, 2016 7:22PM PDT

My HP Pavilion with Windows 8.1 also will not upgrade to Windows 10. What does 10 offer anyway?

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Regard to Larry matter
Jun 24, 2016 7:30PM PDT

Yes! I believe that Larry had done so many troubleshooting and whatever. And I guess he is not that smart in windows. Well, l have read so my comments from our fellow member. After reading every comments, I think there is still another option which he can fixed without single penny.
1. Back up every data and files.
2. Reset the system.
3. Try to upgrade one time if not working upgrading online, go for offline.
4. I hope he will have some friends who has windows 10. Try upgrade using original hard drive copy. I hope these times it will work 100%. But it's not simple for person who don't have knowledge about Windows. But I hope there will b some friends who can help during that moment.
Thanks

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Might be in your best interest
Jun 24, 2016 8:00PM PDT

I have a dozen PC's. All had Win7 on them except one which had XP. After all the excess badgering on the part of Microsoft, I relented and installed Win10 on 3 of them. I found no improvements in 10 over 7. Quite the opposite. Everything ran slower from turning them on through functioning of programs. Startup at my office became a nightmare as I went through the aggravating wait while Win 10 downloaded and installed the latest round of infinite upgrades. Oh yes, some of my peripherals such as printers and scanners, ceased to work.

Let me state right now that I'm not some PC novice. Been using them since DOS and, except for Vista and ME, I've been satisfied with Microsoft. But Win10 has been a waste of my time. I've re-installed Win 7 on 2 of the 3 PC's and will change the 3rd one as well when time permits

I've seen others who are quite happy with Win 10. Good for them.

I advise making a system recovery disc prior to installing Win10 if you do insist on in installing it. I had recovery discs for the second PC that I took back to Win 7 and it saved a lot of time doing it over the time required for the first PC.

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Windows 7 upgrade
Jun 24, 2016 8:11PM PDT

I was having problems with Windows 7 getting updates. I was frustrated and went to Microsoft help desk like you. So I told them, maybe I'll just upgrade to Windows 10. Well, guess what, my computer can't upgrade because she checked some of the system and whatever and basically said that, no, my computer can't do the upgrade. I am glad I found that out before I tried it. I think Microsoft should get you out of the mess because it's their fault. They make you think that anyone can upgrade. Not true. I think my laptop is about 2010, too, a Sony Vaio. So I think it's a fraud to tell people they have a free upgrade when you might not even be able to upgrade because your computer can't handle it...That's why I bought a Mac.

they did get my computer back to normal, though. They had to re-install Windows 7 and I can get upgrades once again. For how long, who knows. Same thing happen with another Windows 7 computer I have....

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Love/Hate relationship with W10
Jun 24, 2016 8:19PM PDT

Hello,

First I'd like to suggest a strategy that worked well for me in the past when you are being "ping ponged" between two companies - human nature (cannot fight it) is to "pass the buck" - here's how to eliminate that frustration.

I had a problem with an old computer and an HP printer that had been working perfectly for a long time then just spontaneously stopped talking to the computer. I wound up being "ping ponged" between HP and Microsoft. I decided to remove the ability for the two help desks to "pass the buck" by doing a conference call. This takes the ability for either tech to say call the other guy and hang up. It also puts the ability into the techs hands to talk to each other and bounce ideas off each other until something works. What finally wound up working was that due to an update in the driver for the printer my computer needed to have the BIOS flashed and had the two techs not been able to talk to each other this never would have been deduced. As for Lenovo being stubborn and cheap (never liked that company nor their products) I would suggest getting Microsoft on the phone first so that you can put Lenovo tech support on the spot in front of Microsoft techs about helping you. Definitely play the strong arm and humiliation cards with Lenovo. Best bet with this practice is to do it with a supervisor from Lenovo; they will have the authority to issue the "comp" on the troubleshooting. Now that I have conveyed that piece of non-technical advice has been conveyed let's talk some tech stuff.

You definitely should find out from MS if the reserve partition plays any part in the installation process. Also how old is the machine? Does your BIOS need to be flashed/updated? I had to go through reinstalling W10 once after the initial upgrade. I did the smart thing and made an image of my W7 system first using Acronis but when Cortana completely failed on me requiring I reinstall W10 and I tried to apply the W7 image Acronis kept choking on applying the image giving me a "corrupt image" error every single time. I was 100% unable to apply the W7 image but luckily I was able to "pluck, pick and choose" my data out of the image because I could get into the image just not apply it, so I didn't loose anything other than some programs.

Have you tried the "ISO" to disc routine yet? That is what worked for me when trying to upgrade to W10. No matter how I tried to do the upgrade and how I tried to get my laptop to give me the "notification" my laptop just would not give me that upgrade notification offer so I had to DL the ISO but once I did it worked fine. Honestly if your machine is 4 years old or older I wouldn't waste my time trying to upgrade it to W10. I would keep it at 7 and start thinking about a new machine if you really want W10.

Hope my suggestions help...........

Wonder-Woman

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I experienced many of the same issues but it finally worked
Jun 24, 2016 8:43PM PDT

I have entry level Dell Latitude with 2 GB Ram & 75 GB HD. (2/3 full.) It took over a week finally get Windows 10 to install. The first 4 days were spent trying numerous times to install the upgrade or to install things to "fix the computer" to do the upgrades. I tried freeing up memory by deleting files and even removed AVG (unrelated to the upgrade) before trying the download process.

I went online to Microsoft support and had the technician remotely install a "media Creation tool" that was supposed to supplement or replace the Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant that was not working properly. That really did not show any improvement, so I downloaded a "Windows Readiness Tool" app from the Microsoft website and that too did not show any signs of working.

By that point I had had 2 days of staying up for 24 hours straight followed by a few hours sleep and was really angry & fed up. I tried one more time and it stalled out again. I closed Windows update that was still showing 0% installed, and attended to backlogged email and other things for a bit. I finally just left it operating and attended to other chores and sleep. Three days later, I went to town for a few hours, and when I returned, it was installed and awaiting my input on the settings. I still don't know what actually "fixed it," but it works.

Whatever it was, it should not have taken a week for the fix to happen, nor taken full three days to install.

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No guarantees with Windows 10
Jun 24, 2016 9:19PM PDT

For you, misery loves company. I bricked by newer Thinkpad X240 UPGRADING to Windows 10. Then I did a clean install of Windows 10 and all was well. But a clean install loses all your personal data and licensed software, so that is not the answer. It was for me, because I had $0.00 of licensed-and-paid-for software on the X240.

And for you and everyone else, a clean upgrade install of Windows 10 is not guaranteed. Hey, even an install from scratch is not guaranteed either. Yet Microsoft wants us all to drop everything we are doing, install FREE! FREE! FREE! Windows 10, then pay lotsa dollars to buy newer versions of expensive licensed software like ProTools or QuickBooks and to replace hardware made obsolete by the latest Windows creation, following the age-old Microsoft tradition of close collaboration with major hardware and software vendors to make sure that their revenue is improved.

There is no easy answer for your G555, except to keep using Windows 7-or-8 and install GWX Control Panel to keep Windows 10 from installing itself, even when you click the X in the right corner of the dialog box making the offer.

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You may be almost there
Jun 24, 2016 9:27PM PDT

This happened to me upgrading an underpowered laptop from Win 8.0 to Win 10. (Which _IS_ an improvement!) After some online research, I simply powered the hung computer off, and when I turned it back on, the upgrade finished successfully.

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Definitely worth your while to try a "clean install"
Jun 24, 2016 10:04PM PDT

using either Win10 iso image or bootable USB (minimum 8GB). Create a complete image backup of the old system, then give it a go. If it works, you can "restore" your data and off you go; otherwise, just restore your old Win7 and you have just lost at most a day's work - the upgrade on one of my laptops ran overnight, I got to 99% and it stayed there (seemingly) forever, but I toughed it out and left the laptop on through the night. The next morning, I was rewarded with the Win10 "welcome screen".

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This can be done
Jun 24, 2016 10:43PM PDT

I have a ten year old Lenovo G570 which I use as a beta tester for Windows 10. I have "upgraded" two other computers to Windows 10. None of these upgrades were completed without problems. But they were completed successfully. There a few things that Microsoft neglects to tell people before they attempt to upgrade. First you must completely uninstall any and all anti virus software, firewalls, anything that might interfere with the upgrade. Next you may need to use a stand alone ISO version of Windows 10 to complete a successful installation. The ISO file is available from Microsoft. Type Windows 10 ISO file into the search box and then click on Microsoft link. There are instructions provided for using the file. If you do end up using the stand alone installation you will need to reinstall your programs once Windows 10 is installed. I would suggest running Belarc prior to doing anything so that you will have a current profile of your computer before you start. I also backed up my files just in case something went wrong and I lost them (I didn't). Finally, you are going to need patience to see this through. Good luck!

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Buying a cheap WIN8.1 as intermediate step may do the job
Jun 25, 2016 12:32AM PDT

I have changed to Windows 10 on 3 PC's.
The first one was a brandnew ASUS notebook with 8.1 on it. Even on this PC I had some problems to solve, e.g. updating all drivers.
The second one was an old 2010 Sony VAIO with Win 7, for which SONY advises not to upgrade. It took me quite some time taking programs of, and updating drivers. Plus multiple very important tips that can be found on the internet on how to upgrade to windows 10. For sure the upgrade tool from Microsoft is NOT working. You need to download windows 10 from Microsoft, and install it from disk or USB-stick.
The third one, my Medion desktop PC was the most difficult one. NO way to get this upgrade from WIN7 to WIN10 working. I found a solution in buying a cheap version of WIN8.1 Prof. This version is now new available at internet shops at relatively low price. After installing this new WIN 8.1, I could use the upgrade to WIN10. By the way, I transferred the old WIN7 first to a spare HDD, this makes it possible to go back and forth for some time between WIN7 and WIN10 by switching the startup drive in the BIOS. Very convenient during the transfer period.
Upgrading these PCs has taken me many days of work, searching for solutions.