Windows 10: Unable to complete installation

Hi all. Apologies if this is a repeat topic, I had a look and couldn't see anything here that answered my question.

I'm trying to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on a laptop. The laptop was previously on 7. I am also replacing the HDD with an SSD, and adding new RAM.

Here's what I've done so far. I used the laptop to download the Windows media creation tool and create a USB stick to boot from. I then took the laptop apart to replace the ram and hard drive. I put it back together, put the USB in and started Windows 10 installation. I put the Windows 7 key in when prompted for a product key, it seemed happy enough with this. Went through steps regarding which setting to turn on/off, log in with Windows ID, turn Cortana on, etc. As far as I can tell the whole process went ahead fine, and I ended up at a blue screen saying something about "we're setting things up for you" or similar. As far as I can tell, I'm at step 25 on this tutorial thread: Windows 10 - Clean Install - Windows 10 Forums

The screen stays around for a while, the blue background kind of pulses darker and brighter. Then after a couple of minutes the screen just goes black with nothing on it. The actual screen is still on (I can see the backlight) but nothing happens.

I've been through these steps a few times now. Same thing every time. I left it for about an hour one time. I've forced a restart and it won't boot into Windows - sometimes it tells me that Windows hasn't been installed properly, sometimes it doesn't even get that far. I've tried resetting the laptop through the tool on the USB drive, it seems to go very slowly and eventually fails.

Does anybody have any idea what's going on here? Any help would be much appreciated!

For reference the old hard disk still has Windows 7 on. I realise it would be wise to replace this to see if the laptop still works, but it's a huge PITA to change it and I don't expect it to help anything, so I'm trying to find info on my issue before I do this.

:)

 

unable to complete installation

I realized this problem after i installed, and then Uninstalled skype on my e71.

It may have existed before, I'll try installing it and uninstalling it again and see what happens

 

unable to complete installation

nothing recently, newest application is 2 months old

 

It might help if you give full specs in the User CP as it is difficult to offer advice without some basis to support it on. "A laptop" doesn't help much.

I would advise running the windows 8.1 upgrade assistant

Upgrading to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7 - Windows Help


to check general compatibility first, and (against all advice generally given), upgrades, in the first instance, may be better than attempting clean installations on older hardware, such as that used to run Windows 7. In all cases, if the upgadeable OS is fully up-to-date, it is preferable, as the presence of old failed updates may cause the 10 setup upgrade to fail.

In all upgrades of this type, I now recommend that internet is disconnected, non essential hardware is disabled, and no peripherals or USB attachments present, even to the extent of running setup from the /sources folder copied onto the hard drive from the USB, DVD or iso, with the USB or DVD removed, and the tray left open to disable the optical device temporarily. This expedient removes the likelihood of incompatible Windows 10 device drivers being used during setup by WinPE, and getting installed into the new installation.

It may be wise to perform an image backup of the Windows 7 installation and keep on external storage in case you need to repeat the exercise, or give up in disgust! *Smile

 

Thanks for your quick reply Fafhrd.

The laptop is a Dell Inspiron N5110. Core i3 2.2 ghz processor, originally 4gb ram but as mentioned above I've added to it so it's now 8gb. I believe gpu is part of the motherboard. The new SSD is a SanDisk 480gb. That's all I expect is relevant but if there's anything else, the original spec is here: Dell Inspiron N5110 Specs - CNET

I tried another installation but didn't connect to the internet this time, it seemed to help! Managed to get all the way to logging in. Windows seemed happy so I connected to the internet. It wanted to update some graphics drivers and such so I let it, during this process the screen went black. Tried connecting to the TV as a second monitor, this works. However Windows only recognise the HDMI output and not the inbuilt screen. Inbuilt still definitely works - upon restart the Dell splash screen shows up on it.

Many thanks for your help! My next step is to try and work out what's going on with the display.

 

Google

is a good place to look for others who have tried the same thing as you.

 

Check Device Manager through your TV interface and see what's up with the onboard graphics circuitry for the Dell motherboard. My best guess is that there's a driver problem with the onboard display device. You may see a device with a yellow exclamation point under the Display heading, or there may be something under the Unknown Device heading instead. Either way, a driver fix may set you right. You should be able to use a Windows 8 or 8.1 driver for this laptop if a native Windows 10 driver is not available (check Dell Support/Drivers & Downloads to see what's what).
HTH,
--Ed--

 

Some problems inexplicably mend themselves, after a reboot or two.

You may also run MSInfo32, alongside Device Manager and look into any conflicts or shared IRQs if you have problems flagged in Device Manager. Sometimes disabling one device in DM frees the other to work properly. Although these things should be handled by plug and play, Windows 10 can get confused during setup. Then you need to figure a way to get fixed hardware in a laptop to change interrupts, since you can't swap expansion slots around, or flick dip switches or jumpers - fiddling around in the device properties is one option!

 

Thanks Ed. I've done some research and you're exactly right, it's a driver issue. Intel no longer supports the 2nd gen i3, which is what I'm running, and as far as I can tell there's no compatible diver. I've tried done Windows 8/8.1 divers to no avail.

Fafhrd, that's the first place I went after posting that last message! As mentioned I'm certain there's no suitable solution. I'm posting this in hope that it'll help out others with the same issue.

I've decided to abandon Windows 10 and revert to 7. I wasn't that concerned with Windows 10 in the first place, what I originally wanted to do was upgrade the RAM and add an SSD, so moving to 10 with the new hard disk seemed sensible. Happy enough to keep using Windows 7 though. Many thanks to both of you for taking the time to help me!

 

Glad you've made your decision, but if it's not too late, there's a little more you could try:

You can sometimes run the basic display driver to reasonable effect (as far as resolution and stability is concerned) on a single monitor/screen with unsupported Intel integrated graphic chips - as long as you adjust the advanced display options - it's getting them to stick after rebooting that's difficult, I find. You may need to disable the problem unsupported graphics device to enable the generic driver to appear in Device Manager. It may not support multiple monitors etc., though, just one at a time.

Although Chipset drivers do not show up as a category in DM, they are just inf files that inform your system what's there, they may do something more with integrated graphics: try Setupchipset.exe, but the driver updater software has never done anything on older systems I tried.

Download Intel Chipset Device Software (INF Update Utility)