I'm pretty sure Windows 10 bricked my Laptop


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Only way to get a laptop bricked these days is with a sticker:

-font-b-Brick-b-font-wall-font-b-laptop-

 

On a more serious note, did you scan your hdd for broken sectors? Broken sectors aren't noticed on daily usage till it's too late and your harddrive doesn't boot anymore...

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Ya Bricked is the wrong term for sure. Bricked means broken with no hope of recovery, the only thing that could potentially do that would be a BIOS Upgrade, or other firmware on the mobo. Worst case in your situation, you reboot with an installation media, and reinstall a OS. Not convent, but hardly bricked :p

 

Anyway, I had stuff like this happen too, often times a reboot it'll pick up where it left off and continue, or if it was fatal, roll back.

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Throw a brick at your laptop and it'll be bricked:
 
portfolio-114.jpg
 
Like Seahorsepip said, the problem might be with your Hard Drive. Windows 10 takes a very long time to install on an HDD, but it shouldn't take over 24 hours.
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Given it's a laptop, it probably ran into a problem with upgrading drivers or some software that is causing a conflict. Upgrades are never foolproof, it's annoying but it happens.

I have upgraded 3 machines (and after the upgrade, did a clean install), and all went smoothly. They all have a variety of hardware and didn't have any major issues.

May just be bad luck unfortunately.

they are not, thats why MS needs a better compability check, not just say that everything is compatible, go ahead upgrade, and good luck

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they are not, thats why MS needs a better compability check, not just say that everything is compatible, go ahead upgrade, and good luck

MS just checked if it meets requirements, and if there are any KNOWN issues. They can't possibly check every mix of hardware and drivers in existence. Most of these issues would go away if it was a clean install, vs an upgrade, cause it's driver issues causing it.

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MS just checked if it meets requirements, and if there are any KNOWN issues. They can't possibly check every mix of hardware and drivers in existence. Most of these issues would go away if it was a clean install, vs an upgrade, cause it's driver issues causing it.

Exactly, "Most of these issues would go away if it was a clean install"... which I would MUCH prefer to do... but MS is making you do an upgrade in order to get the OS for free.  If they're going to make you do an upgrade instead of a clean install in order to qualify for the free upgrade then it's on them if the install fails due to software issues.  They take that burden on themselves when they disallow clean installs.

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Exactly, "Most of these issues would go away if it was a clean install"... which I would MUCH prefer to do... but MS is making you do an upgrade in order to get the OS for free.  If they're going to make you do an upgrade instead of a clean install in order to qualify for the free upgrade then it's on them if the install fails due to software issues.  They take that burden on themselves when they disallow clean installs.

Gotta love people complaining about how the FREE upgrade isn't good enough. 

Want an upgrade that'll let you do a clean install? Sure, pay for it. Done.

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I have an Acer laptop from 2009 that failed the Windows 10 install process several times. I was finally able to get the install to work after uninstalling ALL of the Acer software and flashing a newer version of the bios. The update was Windows 7 Home Premium to Windows 10 Home.

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Gotta love people complaining about how the FREE upgrade isn't good enough. 

Wait, so you're all for an upgrade that DOESNT WORK as long as it's free?

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Wait, so you're all for an upgrade that DOESNT WORK as long as it's free?

You're lazy, you can just select to keep nonthing on upgrade which is exactly the same as a clean install. And you can always clean install after you've upgraded once.

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If I were you I would first attempt to do a (FACTORY RESTORE) of the OS if your computer is capable of that. Most brand name PCs as far as I know it usually have some sort of key combination you can hit during boot that will allow you to basically clean install windows restoring your PC to its FACTORY DEFAULTS! After that I would then reattempt to install windows 10.

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You're lazy, you can just select to keep nonthing on upgrade which is exactly the same as a clean install. And you can always clean install after you've upgraded once.

Agree

many people are complaining about the free upgrade but forgetting about this

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You're lazy, you can just select to keep nonthing on upgrade which is exactly the same as a clean install. And you can always clean install after you've upgraded once.

Did you bother to read any of this thread before you posted... like maybe the first post even?  I can NOT select keep nothing on upgrade because the upgrade breaks BEFORE I even to get that prompt.  I've even stated multiple times already my plan IS to do a clean install after I've upgraded once and got my hardware registered.  So maybe you shouldn't be so lazy and should actually read the thread you are posting to before you start accusing others.

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Status Update:

Last night when I got home the system was indeed still at 32% as I suspected.  I rebooted and it fortunately did roll back to 7.  I went ahead and ran a chkdsk but the last stage was taking a bit so I headed out for the night (it was Friday night after all).  Got up this morning and looked in the log and there are no bad sectors.  I've also moved the PC from the living room where I was using WiFi to the office and wired it directly into the switch in case maybe the download was corrupted or something.

Are there any particular log files or anything the upgrade creates that I can check to see what exactly the issue was?

Also since someone asked about space I have 111 GB free of 224 GB (with the Win10 upgrade already downloaded) so HDD space isn't an issue.  Again I planned to do a clean install once I completed the upgrade and got my hardware registered with MS so I've cleaned off a lot of my stuff already.

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There should be a log file in the hidden folder at "C:\$Windows.~BT\Sources\Panther\Setupact.log". Do a search for "FatalError" starting at the end of the file. If you then look above that line there should be some indication of what kind of things it was doing when it failed.

The upgrade process starts off very much like a clean install. The old OS is moved into the "Windows.old" folder to get it out of the way and then Win10 is installed normally. By that 32% point it has already installed Win10 and has moved on to migrating things (settings, drivers, applications, etc) back from the old OS and other tasks.

The best way to do the installation is to run the media creation tool to download and create an install disc (or USB flash drive.. or ISO). If you run setup.exe from there (Don't boot from it. You have to run setup from within Windows to do an upgrade), you get asked whether you want to keep any of your old data and settings (upgrading through Windows Update never asks you that). I assume you won't want to keep anything. If so, then the only thing it keeps are drivers (as far as I can tell). I'm not yet certain under what conditions it will use the old driver vs. one from the Win10 media vs. one from Windows Update. It wouldn't hurt to check for updated drivers from your PC manufacturer before doing the upgrade.

Some other things that have worked for people:
- Open a command prompt as admin and run this to clear up unused drivers in your drivers store: "rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /DRIVERS /MAXCLEAN"
- Disable your network access during the actual upgrade (by unplugging cables or disconnecting from wi-fi). Or don't. It will grab some things from Microsoft during the install and that might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what is causing the problem in the first place.

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I'm not one to test pre-release versions of an OS.  I'm not in the insider program and so I waited patiently for to get my Windows 10 upgrade via Windows Update.  On Wed. night I got the notice on my primary desktop (which I don't want to go first) so I checked booted up my laptop and sure enough my update was ready there too.  At about 8pm I clicked the button and got a windowed screen with spinning dots on some message along the lines of "We're working on it." (that may not be the exact text but something like that).  So far so good?

At about midnight the same screen was still working on it... It sure would be nice if there was SOME indication of what it was working on (download, existing setup scan, whatever).  There is no "advanced" button or detail or anything... so I went to bed for the night figuring maybe it was a HUGE download (reasonable given it's an entire OS) and it's just taking forever over my 2009 era Wifi (laptop is a 2009 Sony VAIO SR series).

Thursday morning before work, same screen but I need to go to work so I just left it be.

Thursday when I got home from work, same screen.  At this point I gave up.  I just closed the window, noticed the icon on the shutdown button indicating there were updates and so rebooted.  Fortunately everything came up fine so I figured may as well try again and maybe it will just resume where it left off.  After several tries at about 11pm I FINALLY got it to tell me it was ready and ask if I wanted to go ahead and install now or schedule the upgrade for later.  Wanting to get the process going (at this point expecting it to take all night) I said install now.  It rebooted to the full screen with the circle and the percentage in the middle... from 11 to midnight it got to 2%.

This morning I got up to go to work and it was at 32%.  I checked it as soon as I got up and then went about getting ready for work.  Before I left for work I checked on it once more and it was STILL at 32% so I suspect it will be stuck there when I get home.  If it is then there's probably a good chance my OS is hosed since it was part way through an install.  At this point even if it is done it's taken over 24 hours to install which is insane!

Needless to say I'm not even going to attempt to install Win10 on my Primary desktop for some time.

 

 

Sony said not to upgrade their laptops to Win10 yet.  There are issues with their proprietary crap.

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Sony said not to upgrade their laptops to Win10 yet.  There are issues with their proprietary crap.

I'm pretty sure they're not going to upgrade the drivers on a 6 year old computer.  Especially since they sold the computer division.

Here's their page: https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/os10upgrade.pl?

Note it says:

Sony will not be providing support for all models that qualify for this upgrade.

I would hazard to guess since my laptop shipped with Vista and everything on the page says either Windows 8.x or Windows 7 mine will not be supported.

I fully expect to lose all their proprietary crap as a result... in some cases I look forward to it.  My buttons under the monitor may not work, heck the touchpad may not work, the Sony memory stick reader may not work, etc.  I do expect the OS to be able to boot though and I'll go from there.

I really don't have much of a choice as I have to upgrade in the next year to get it for free and I have to upgrade at some point to remain supported (it's dangerous to stay on Win7 after security patches stop) so I'm going to have to make due with whatever I can get working and hope I can find workarounds for whatever doesn't (use a mouse instead of the touchpad for example).

I didn't think I'd have to do this at all, I was hoping I'd just buy a new laptop with Win10 but I like this device and I'd need to replace it with something that does the same thing.  Manufacturers don't seem to make them anymore though.  I can't for the life of me find a < 15" laptop with a Blu-Ray drive.  I can't stand > 15" laptops as I have to lug this thing around with me everywhere and I use the optical drive all the time (Blu-rays from Redbox are my friends on the road!) but no one seems to include them anymore.  If a laptop doesn't have a optical drive then really I don't see much benefit in it over a tablet with an optional keyboard.  I hope to pick up tablet either later this year or next at which point I'll likely compare a Win10 based > 9" like maybe the Surface Pro 4 with likely an Android M based > 9" tablet and go from there.  If I find that my new tablet makes my laptop unnecessary that's great but that remains to be seen and based off of my current usage patterns that's unlikely (most notably optical drive usage... I can't see myself preloading every movie I might want to watch every time and I often either don't have a 'net connection or have a metered one that I don't want to be streaming HD video over).

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I'm pretty sure they're not going to upgrade the drivers on a 6 year old computer.  Especially since they sold the computer division.

Here's their page: https://esupport.sony.com/US/p/os10upgrade.pl?

Note it says:

I would hazard to guess since my laptop shipped with Vista and everything on the page says either Windows 8.x or Windows 7 mine will not be supported.

I fully expect to lose all their proprietary crap as a result... in some cases I look forward to it.  My buttons under the monitor may not work, heck the touchpad may not work, the Sony memory stick reader may not work, etc.  I do expect the OS to be able to boot though and I'll go from there.

I really don't have much of a choice as I have to upgrade in the next year to get it for free and I have to upgrade at some point to remain supported (it's dangerous to stay on Win7 after security patches stop) so I'm going to have to make due with whatever I can get working and hope I can find workarounds for whatever doesn't (use a mouse instead of the touchpad for example).

I didn't think I'd have to do this at all, I was hoping I'd just buy a new laptop with Win10 but I like this device and I'd need to replace it with something that does the same thing.  Manufacturers don't seem to make them anymore though.  I can't for the life of me find a < 15" laptop with a Blu-Ray drive.  I can't stand > 15" laptops as I have to lug this thing around with me everywhere and I use the optical drive all the time (Blu-rays from Redbox are my friends on the road!) but no one seems to include them anymore.  If a laptop doesn't have a optical drive then really I don't see much benefit in it over a tablet with an optional keyboard.  I hope to pick up tablet either later this year or next at which point I'll likely compare a Win10 based > 9" like maybe the Surface Pro 4 with likely an Android M based > 9" tablet and go from there.  If I find that my new tablet makes my laptop unnecessary that's great but that remains to be seen and based off of my current usage patterns that's unlikely (most notably optical drive usage... I can't see myself preloading every movie I might want to watch every time and I often either don't have a 'net connection or have a metered one that I don't want to be streaming HD video over).

Just create a new partition, install Windows 7 there and upgrade to Windows 10 from that point out. You don't have to harm your current installation and you free upgrade is secured so you can upgrade that laptop whenever you want later on. Also, if it turns out that the upgrade goes fine there, just give it another try. If it fails, Windows will roll you back. If you got a fresh Windows 7 install upgraded to Windows 10, you can also do a clean install now as your hardware will be registered by Microsoft and thus activate automatically.

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You're lazy, you can just select to keep nonthing on upgrade which is exactly the same as a clean install. And you can always clean install after you've upgraded once.

You were clearly too lazy to read his description of the problem.  He cannot select to keep nothing because the upgrade process fails before even reaching that point.

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You were clearly too lazy to read his description of the problem.  He cannot select to keep nothing because the upgrade process fails before even reaching that point.

No he didn't, het got to the circle where it got stuck at 32%.

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Seems like this is more of a hardware issue than software.

I do suggest downloading the ISO, and making a bootable thumbdrive. I had to do that with my brothers laptop because I had a similar issue, it from from 0% to 99% in about 2 minutes (Which i think is impossible?). It sat on 99% for 2 days, rolled it back (restore point save / back up before I made the upgrade), and I used a USB, only I had available was a 1TB USB WD Elements Drive. it worked, but kind of useless, lol. Got it to install that way.

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No he didn't, het got to the circle where it got stuck at 32%.

At no point was I presented the option to keep nothing.  The only option I was given at all is to start the update now or schedule it for later, everything else was completely non-interactive.  I don't know when this option is supposed to present itself but it did not do so before getting stuck on 32% for me.  Maybe it's different if you use the USB/ISO option or something.

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Okay guys, I have literally upgraded 7 PC's already all perfectly. 1 of them by Windows Update. If the upgrade gets stuck at whatever percent, just reboot and it will restore the previous version of Windows. If the OP can get back to Windows 7 here is what you should do: 

With the free upgrade from Windows Update, it never asks what you want to keep. EVER. Not an option at all!

The BEST way to UPGRADE is with the Media Creation Tool. (Don't create ACTUAL MEDIA though.)

Once you download the tool from Microsoft's Website, it asks you if you want to UPGRADE THIS PC OR create media.

Of course, choose UPGRADE this PC. This checks you hardware, downloads the Windows 10 files all over again.. I know it takes forever but whatever... VERIFIES the files, AND asks what you want to keep. If you upgrade this way, it will give a fully activated copy of Windows 10.

Problem solved

No need to boot from USB or DVD or anything. Hope this helps :) Any other questions just ask.

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