Re: Failing Windows 8 Upgrade

On 12/13/2012 8:59 AM, John Jones wrote:

1. Did the Windows 8 Upgrade Assistant have anything to say about drivers?

I think the only one it had a problem with was the Intel network driver "system". I had tried to run the upgrade advisor again but it didn't do anything, seemed like it ran and immediately ended.

2. Does Dell offer Windows 8 drivers for the 9100? While generic Intel
drivers should work for most everything it is possible Dell, like other
OEMs, has messed with things and only their drivers will work.

No.

3. Do you see any signs of disk or network activity while it's "Getting
Devices Ready"?

No.

4. If it seems to be stuck, what are you doing? Just rebooting or doing
some form of a recovery/cancel to get back to XP? If cancelling the
install you might consider just rebooting & letting the W8 installer try
again; it tracks installation activities and might be able to determine
that there was a problem with what it was doing or pick up where it left
off.

Power button for 5 seconds to get it to shut down. It then reboots and re-sets to XP nicely. The 12 hour wait was my 3rd or 4th attempt.

5. Are you shooting for W8 32 or 64 bit?

32.

6. Have you tried making your XP install as clean/minimal as possible?
Uninstall any drivers that aren't necessary, including the video driver
(let it use a generic one). Uninstall apps that are known to mess with the
system (video capture boards, CD/DVD software like Nero, 3rd party
defraggers & other utils). Uninstall/unplug any hardware not critical to
the installation (printers, add-on cards, additional monitors, USB gizmos).

This is a good idea and I think I'll work on it next.

Where did you find a W7 ISO? If online & not directly from MS I would
consider it suspect. Though it might work, I don't think a W8 key will
work on W7.

They're links from DigitalRiver. Here's where I read about it:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/download-windows-7-iso-official-32-bit-and-64-bit-direct-download-links/


Bill