Windows 10: Preparing for W10 Upgrade?

How should I prepare for Windows 10 upgrade on this PC?

Specs:

AMD Athlon x4 860K @ 4GHz
Nvidia Geforce GTX 750Ti
1TB 7200RPM HDD
8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1 current OS

Why do I ask this? Well, the last time I attempted the upgrade..I suffered from the dreaded "black screen" issue. After logging into the desktop, the cursor would freeze followed by a black screen straight after - this would occur around 30-60seconds after logging into Windows.

I'm guessing it has something to do with the currently installed driver that was on the system (since it's for Windows 7). It must have malfunctioned or something after booting.

Would removing the currently-installed driver from my system before initiating the upgrade be safe to do? Will Windows 7 revert back to the generic VGA driver on boot? If so, then upgrading to Windows 10 might be possible. I just needed to clarify before deleting the driver.

This system doesn't have any integrated graphics to fall back on, so the dedicated GPU is a must.

:)

 

install updates

Since the last W10 update which wiped the history, W10 update is stuck on preparing to install update and install update

 

Windows 10 1703 cannot be installed over W10 1607

I have W10 1607 SE 14393.1593.

Windows Update tries to install W10 v1703, but it prepares the installation than download updates stays at 0% and preparation starts over again and again.

I see failure to install on August 10-14-16 and 17.

I downloaded directly from the catalogue but system reverted to 1607.



How can I properly install 1703?

Lucie

 

Hi.
It has been my experience that driver issues occur during the first of the three-part upgrade, and not after the upgrade has completed.

Quite a few of the members here use that card (or similar); you can have a read here of one discussion I ran across.

Windows does indeed install a generic video driver if it doesn't find one for your particular setup. But I'm pretty sure it will install the proper W10 driver during the upgrade.

Really, I think there are some other things you might perhaps check before trying the upgrade again:
remove any 3rd party anti-virus
remove any disk monitoring programs
remove speccy (if installed)
if you have your default libraries pointed someplace else, put them back to default
get rid of any overclocking
run sfc /scannow to make sure your system files are intact

Of course, you could just do a clean install, if your previous upgrade was "activated" automatically. Once W10 is activated on a system, you can clean install as often as you need/like.

Another option is to join the Insiders program, and clean install build 10565, which will allow you to input your W7 key during installation and activate that way. Just be sure you have an image of W7 before you do that. Macrium Reflect is a good way to do that.

Once you get the upgrade completed, turn off Fast Startup and give the system a few true shutdowns/startups (not restarts) to be sure everything gets working properly.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

 

To add to Simrick's suggestions, it's a good idea to uninstall any old software you may no longer use; less chances of conflict with less software.
Don't be shocked if the initial install isn't completely stable, making it necessary to do an in-place upgrade to repair the install.
Once into Win 10 I highly recommend uninstalling any third-party graphics drivers that Windows Update may have installed with DDU and reinstall from the manufacturers website (in your case Nvidia).
As mentioned above it's imperative that any third-party anti-virus be uninstalled before going ahead with the install. Best of luck!

 

Also have a look at my post here. The most important step is to uncheck the "Search for Updates" box at Windows Setup. You don't want Windows Update start messing with drivers before you successfully upgrade to Windows 10. In my post I mention that CUDA is not working properly in drivers 340.xx and later. I found a workaround. You can copy or download manually the old nvcuvenc.dll files (32-bit and 64-bit version), then install latest driver. Any application requiring old CUDA support can work if you copy-paste the dll file in its installation folder. If the application is 32-bit (eg Nero Vision) copy the 32-bit version in the application folder. If it is 64-bit copy the 64-bit version. Next time you launch the application CUDA will work without any issue. If you have a pre 340.xx driver installed, the 32-bit version is in C:\Windows\System32 and the 64-bit version is in C:\Windows\SysWOW64 Backup them from there before you install the latest version as they will be deleted then.

 

You can install the driver direct from the manufacturer yourself once the upgrade has completed and it'l overwrite the one that was installed. I always prefer to use manufacturer drivers where-ever possible rather than ones that Microsoft install.

 

Oh I had Speccy installed on my system when I did the upgrade. Does this do something to Windows 10 or something?

I did get some black screen problems during the upgrade as well. I just waited a bit for the HDD light to go inactive before switching it off and it went ahead with the installation.

I just thought that the Nvidia driver that was already installed on my system somehow messed up Windows 10 and just crashed (giving a black screen). That's why I asked if removing that driver before upgrading would help at all.

I wasn't able to head to the website and download the correct driver because it gave a black screen before I could do anything of significance. I had to revert back to Windows 7.

 

No it doesn't do anything to the OS. It's just software.

Regarding your black screen, try running the sfc command, tutorial here.