Cannot install windows 10 anymore

[Pristina]

Dear Community,

I have a Dell OptiPlex 755 SFF desktop PC. I bought this PC second hand from a PC shop and WinXP was installed on this PC. Since Microsoft decided to stop their support for WinXP based systems I was on the look for a newer operating system and I installed Windows 8.x 64-bit. At some point during updates I was asked to upgrade to Windows 10 which I did via a clean install. Everything worked great and my PC was even faster since the update. Because Win10 installs updates automatically without any user input recently the anniversary update was installed on my PC. Since this update BSOD, automatic restarts, etc.,.. have become worse and worse. I wanted to perform a clean install of Win 10 Pro but this is no longer possible. BSOD's, auto reboots and freezing during install is all that I can notice. I can say that I tried every possible way that I could think of but nothing solves the issue. IRQL not Equal or Less is one of the BSOD's which shows up but also others have been active and prevents the clean installation of Win10 Pro on my system. I gave up because I got nervous and frustrated. This is really the first time that I notice such problems during a reinstallation of an operating system. How is it possible that it worked before and now it is no longer possible? I even downloaded the latest media creation tool and installed the installation files on an USB stick but I got stuck everytime during installation and on various points of the installation. How is it possible that in a few months time this is no longer working? Should I throw my PC on the garbage heap or is there still some hope left?

 

[Rocky Bennett]

How come you can not perform a clean install of Windows 10? Do you have a license for Windows 10?

 

[SinxarKnights]

How come you can not perform a clean install of Windows 10? Do you have a license for Windows 10?

Might want to read the OP.

Do you know what hardware is in the PC? Do you have anything attached to the PC that wasn't there before? Perhaps USB disc drives, HDDs, cameras?

 

[Rocky Bennett]

I read the OP and that is exactly why I asked.

 

[SinxarKnights]

I read the OP and that is exactly why I asked.

But you clearly didn't.

BSOD's, auto reboots and freezing during install is all that I can notice. I can say that I tried every possible way that I could think of but nothing solves the issue.

I even downloaded the latest media creation tool and installed the installation files on an USB stick but I got stuck everytime during installation and on various points of the installation.

 

[Rocky Bennett]

That does not indicate one way or the other if the OP has a license for Windows 10. I am sorry man, I am on your side trying to determine this users problems but I have to go eat so maybe you can help them.

Good luck with this endeavor.

 

[SinxarKnights]

That does not indicate one way or the other if the OP has a license for Windows 10. I am sorry man, I am on your side trying to determine this users problems but I have to go eat so maybe you can help them.

Fair enough. I just get frustrated when people seem to either parrot information somebody else said before (this is done by mods a lot and they always get best answer, guessing because they are mods and seem official or something), or seemingly not read the help post.

I'll take your word for it and drop it. Thanks for your contribution to the Tom's Hardware community.

 

[USAFRet]

If the system was actually updated to Win 8.whatever...and then subsequently Upgraded to Win 10, and if that Win 10 was actually activated....then yes, you DO have a Win 10 'license'.
Rather, a 'digital entitlement.'

The ability to install or not has nothing to do with the licensing.
2 different things.

So, enough of that.
Now...let's investigate what issues there are with the actual install/reinstall.
What did you use to make the Win 10 install?
Exactly what error messages do you get when booting from this install?

 

[Rocky Bennett]

My first guess is because of the age of the system, maybe the OP's computer is not even able to boot from USB. I would try to use a DVD as a boot medium.

 

[Pristina]

Dear Gents,
First of all thank you for the replies so far on my thread. Some of the ongoing discussion or confusion might be my fault. I’m sorry but English isn’t my mother tongue but that doesn’t matter as long as we can communicate with each other. 

I first migrated my PC from Win 8.x Pro to Win 10 Pro. I rather prefer a clean install over an upgrade. The Windows 10 Pro key was automatically assigned after the migration and I could activate Windows 10 Pro without any problem. Also the actual installation ended successfully. There were only two drivers that were missing being : Intel AMT SOL/ LMS and the Intel AMT HECI drivers. After a very long search I was able to find them and Windows 10 accepted the installation.

If specs regarding my system could help you? Here is the link : http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/optix/en/opti_755_techspecs.pdf. From this series I have the Dell OptiPlex 755 Small Form Factor. I have to admit that Dell clearly announced that this system was not tested by Dell regarding a possible Windows 10 upgrade nor does Dell provides specific Windows 10 drivers on their support website. However I ran the Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade advisory tool and at that time the report generated by this tool reported that an update would be possible. Again it is a tool and I’m not sure if every hard- or software have been thoroughly tested by the tool to guarantee a possible upgrade.

Two years ago I moved from one address to another. During this move a few boxes got lost and I did lose my original Win 8.x media and key. To stay legal I bought a new Windows 10 Pro English 64-bit ESD key / download and this key hasn’t been used yet. The old installation was still running on the key generated by Microsoft during the migration from Win 8.x to Windows 10. Although you don’t need a key to install Windows 10 successfully. The key is only needed once you are prompted to activate Windows 10.

Did I change any hardware? Yes I did. The original HDD crashed and has been replaced by a WD Blue 1 TB Sata HDD. The original CDRW drive has been replaced by an Asus internal Blue Ray drive. The system has an Intel Q85 onboard GPU. To be able to play War Thunder I added an Asus Radeon HD5450 PCIe VGA card because the Intel Q85 onboard GPU wasn’t supported by the game. Last but not least I connected an external WD 4 TB USB My Book HDD to this system.

I think I upgraded to Windows 10 somewhere in December 2015. Even with the replaced Hardware everything worked fine and even pretty performant till the so called Anniversary Update was pushed by Microsoft week or two ago.

First symptoms since the update : general performance issues. I have the fastest internet available in my country and I guess my internet was faster than my PC. Before the update I could surf at speeds of 14 to 20 MB/s after the update at 4 AM even I could hardly gain speeds of 1 to 2 MB/s. Microsoft found a new driver for the Asus AMD Radeon 5450HD card and that update failed. Then I started to get the BSOD IRQL Not Less or Equal and the reboots. I rolled the driver back which helped. Then I deleted all the driver files of the VGA card and reinstalled the new driver from AMD. BSOD’s and error messages were getting more and more frequent till a point where the PC booted and immediately went into diagnostic mode. I never reached the login screen anymore. I tried a number of repair methods but apparently nothing helped. I thought that my best bet was to reinstall the PC with a minimum of hardware connected to the system.

I downloaded the media creation tool from the Microsoft website and created a bootable USB stick with the installation files for Windows 10 on it. I changed the boot order to USB and then tried to install Windows 10 Pro again. I got BSOD’s that made me dizzy, reboots on the go, you name I’ve seen them. How far I got into the setup wizard of Windows 10 depended from reboot to reboot. In the best case scenario the setup went to the part where Windows need to copy files for installation. I still get the 100% but in the next step it stops between 1 and 10% then the PC freezes and hangs completely. I tried another HDD also a WD Blue 1 TB however this time a 2.5” instead of the normal 3.5” but again the same problem. That’s all I can report at the moment.