Heyo! So I work at a computer repair shop, and I've run into a bit of a problem with a customer's machine. Currently working with a laptop originally on Windows 10 but was downgraded to Windows 7 (via clean install I believe) a couple of years ago. The owner is wanting to upgrade it back upto 10, but they want to avoid a clean install if at all possible. (I probably will end up doing a clean install anyways after I talk to them, I'm just curious if anyone else has run into this issue). Short version: Directly upgraded a Win7 laptop to Win10 via setup.exe on a Win10 bootable thumbdrive to 1909 within Win7. Win10 updated to build 18363.592 seemingly without issues, but gets stuck in "unable to automatically repair"/Windows RE loop if updated to 18363.628 or beyond. Long version: We got it upgraded to Win10 1909 seemingly without issues within Win7 via a Win10 bootable thumbdrive and double-clicking setup.exe, which we've rarely had issues with before. After install, it installed a couple of updates with fresh/updated drivers and all seemed well, so we gave it back to the customer. However, the customer came back in a few days later with it in an automatic repair loop. I tried a system restore and wasn't expecting much, but surprisingly it rolled back and booted to 1909 build 18363.592. Ran Windows update again (as I thought it was possibly a missing driver or bad update), updates installed and asked to reboot, and upon reboot it was back in the "Unable to automatically restore"/Windows RE loop. Once rolled back to 18363.592, it runs fine without throwing a fit. What I've done: - Downloaded and installed a bunch of drivers from the manufacturer's website for this laptop made specifically for Win10 (rebooting inbetween installs when possible). - Updated drivers through Device Manager. - Updated the BIOS (because Intel Management Engine Interface was throwing a fit about firmware versions in the event viewer), - Ran both Code: sfc /scannow and Code: dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth (which both came back clean with no bad system files). - Directly installed the 18363.628 update via a cab file retrieved from this forum here and installed via Code: dism /online /add-package /packagepath:"<path-to-cab/windows10.0-kb4532695-x64.cab" which again put it in the automatic repair/Windows RE loop. Laptop in Question: (snagged via Speccy, dunno if you need it but it doesn't hurt) - Clevo N155SD with Windows 10 Pro 64-bit - - Intel Core i7-4720HQ - - 16GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 799MHz (11-11-11-28) - - Intel HD Graphics 4600 - - NVIDIA Geforce GTX 960M - - Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
18363.628 is only offered when the user manually installs the optional update, best to leave it at 592 till next tuesday the new updates arrive.
For personal machines of mine, I never upgrade from one OS to a newer one. I always clean install. I even recommend clean installs to my customers after assuring them that I can backup their important data and reinstall their apps for them if they wish. But as @enthusiast stated, Patch Tuesday is next week and this might just resolve itself with a later CU.
I once had to do a clean install, the client gave me 20 something original software DVDs with licenses, here you go, she said
Yeah, I try to always do clean installs for my own machines as well. With customers, we do offer to backup all of their data when we have to do reinstalls, but we're not always able to reinstall programs. We usually leave that to the customer as there's times when we can't even tell what the customer had installed to begin with. This laptop is one of several machines this customer has brought in over the last two weeks, all of them are used by various employees for his business. I'll talk to him about us clean installing this one, but we did have to clean install another of his and he wasn't too happy about it as licensing issues decided to rear their heads. It does seem to be otherwise stable, as long as the optional update isn't taken. Okay, good to know. Was just trying to get it up where there wasn't any updates (as with a lot of our customers, even if it says "optional", they'll still try to install it which puts everything back at square one. Either that or they've never updated the thing in ages and it's still stuck on 1803 or something). Oof, that sounds painful. x.x Hopefully they were at least compatible with Win10 instead of XP/Vista/7 programs that barely works with 10. Have had a customer in the past who wanted me to reinstall his Win98/XP/Vista chess game onto his Win10 machine. . . It'd install, but never could get it to run.
If I were you, I would return the laptop to him with .592 on it and explain to him that .628 is optional and the next CU will be out next Tuesday and may install just fine and if not, then you can discuss clean installation.
One other thing that might be worth trying, go to UUP Dump and create a 18363.628 ISO and try to do an in place upgrade by mounting the ISO and running setup from within explorer.
Well, I jinxed myself somehow. I (temporarily) blocked updates and restarted the machine, just for it to go back into the recovery loop. Tried to roll back like I have been been, and I found I couldn't as all my restore points (both automatic and manual points) got eaten/disappeared. Guess I have to do a clean install anyways. . . Thanks tho!
Oh s**t. Since when is this account a thing?? This is supposed to be ConfusedOwlet/OP, but apparently I had a different account that got auto-logged in on my phone? I have no idea. x.x
Well. That was awkward. Back on the correct account now tho. Anyways. . . If I can get the thing to ever boot back into Windows, I'll give that a shot. Thanks for the ideas at least before it died again. Was told by a coworker as I was leaving that the SSD was dying in it, so that prob played a good part in it. . .