Forumite Members › General Topics › Tech › PC Talk › Pardon my ignorance!!
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Wheels-Of-Fire.
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May 22, 2018 at 3:53 pm #21013
A while back I ‘accepted’ the MS offer of a free upgrade to W10 by simply clicking on the ‘–‘ option to close a window. Got W10 but shortly afterwards the PC died (long story!!).
Have now resurrected the PC and found that after a replacement mobo it wasn’t really happy – I was under the impression (misplaced or otherwise!) that I could re-install W10 by using the MC Tool, which I have tried but, from memory, I get a message something to the effect ‘that there are no drivers .. ?’ Now it boots to the first W10 window – the one with the 4 paned window in light blue and hangs there ad infinitum.
Johnbarry kindly sent me a W10 sticker some months ago, so cutting my losses might be the best option and to download a new clean copy of W10 for installation onto a SSD as opposed to the HDD that it was originally upgraded from W7 to 10.
Any advice would be appreciated – can I, in any way, reinstall 10 and if so, from where?
Many thanks, Dave
PS – If the title doesn’t give you an opening well …….. ?
The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans
May 22, 2018 at 5:09 pm #21018Dave has more experience with this, but it was my understanding that changing the mobo/cpu was one step too far and M$ deem it to be a ‘new’ PC. That said, given the circumstances you could go for John’s sticker with a clear conscience, and save yourself a lot of messing about.
The change in hardware probably accounts for Windows ‘hanging’.
May 22, 2018 at 5:14 pm #21020Thanks Ed P
After posting I switched it on and got:
Repairing your PC
Diagnosing your Pc – then hung up with the rotating ‘cursor’ a stationary semicircle between 6 and 12.
It is only the mobo that has been replaced, everything else is as per old m/c, but I have a new spare SSD to use with the ‘old system HDD’ though currently booting off the original HDD.
I also still have the original genuine W7 disk but I suspect that as I ‘accepted’ their offer at least 12 months ago it will be seen as an invalid serial number.
The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans
May 22, 2018 at 6:46 pm #21034It depends on the original W7 licence. If it was a full one you can change hardware to your hearts content. However, with W10’s digital licence it uses a hardware “fingerprint” to identify the PC the licence belongs to. I know that it can deal with HDD replacements but a change of mobo and everything that is now integrated on it changing too, I can imagine that’s a step too far. With a Pro licence under a fiver from E-Bay I just don’t worry too much any more.
I have continual issues with the Media Creation Tool and USB sticks where it boots W10 but says there are drivers missing so it can’t identify the hardware. No amount of persuasion will change that situation and it seems to be down to a duff creation of the ISO on the USB stick (I’ve tried using Rufus too). You may fare better creating a DVD, I did.
May 22, 2018 at 6:50 pm #21037Can you not still just call the automated line to get your licence reactivated. In the xp and vista days, I had the same licence run through about 6 pc “refeshes” maybe more .
once the automated line bounced me to a person, but they just activated it. I suppose wit the way Ms ‘fingerprints’ out pc to generate it activation code, it’s harder to get away with, my hdd broke.
May 22, 2018 at 7:12 pm #21042Thanks to you all, I accept that I do have a licebce for W7 but that was OEM and the only change in the system is the mobo. Ok if it won’t do it, I have to ask the question where can I download W10 Pro for the licence that I hold?
My wife’s W10 PC has just been updated – 1st problem MS had decided that the default language was English (USA). Yet more to come probably!
The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans
May 22, 2018 at 9:04 pm #21052Unfortunately it wasn’t “just” the motherboard, it was the network card, audio system, maybe graphics, USB controllers, SATA controllers etc. For OEM purposes this is the definition of a new PC.
You still use the media creation tool and you can create a bootable USB or DVD or just download the ISO.
May 24, 2018 at 3:02 pm #21091I have just realised the significance of Dave Rs comments – it is of course far more than ‘just’ the mobo – all the other things on it as well!!
I have now attached the SSD to the system, downloaded the ISO W10 files as per Dave Rs post, burnt them to a DVD and tried to boot from them – all I get is a message asking me to insert a bootable device in the selected boot device. I have tried same in both DVDs in the system as well as altering the boot device in the bios – still no joy! The ‘burnt DVD’ shows signs of having ‘stuff’ written to it but it won’t seem to boot.
What the heck am I doing wrong – I don’t like W10 at the best of time as what’s happening now does not endear me any closer to it!! ?
The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans
May 24, 2018 at 3:18 pm #21092It’s far quicker to make a boot ale USB stick. Ms have their own tool, think it’s called Windows creater tool.
Probably the same tool you used to make the dvd. But the USB loads sooooooo much quicker.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
May 24, 2018 at 3:48 pm #21096I have now attached the SSD to the system, downloaded the ISO W10 files as per Dave Rs post, burnt them to a DVD and tried to boot from them – all I get is a message asking me to insert a bootable device in the selected boot device. I have tried same in both DVDs in the system as well as altering the boot device in the bios – still no joy! The ‘burnt DVD’ shows signs of having ‘stuff’ written to it but it won’t seem to boot.
Dave – did you create a bootable ISO using the Windows Explorer right click / “Burn disc image” option when you burnt it to DVD or just burn the ISO as a file to a DVD ?
Never trust an atom - they make up everything !
May 24, 2018 at 6:40 pm #21100??????? Ooooopppps – it might well have been the latter – it was the latter!!!!! ☺☺☺☺☺☺
Have to get busy later on then!
The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans
May 25, 2018 at 1:17 am #21108I’ve just sorted a corrupt Windows 10 machine, which wouldn’t self repair. It was an upgrade from Windows 7 Pro.
I downloaded the ‘MediaCreationTool1803’ & following the instructions to use a USB flash drive. I didn’t have to use any other programme to make the drive bootable, the Creation Tool did it all. I only had to select from the options offered.
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May 25, 2018 at 5:48 am #21116Mine usually fail, hence trying Rufus as well. It tall goes OK and boots fine, but when you go to install it says drivers are missing.
So much so that I have a USB that works but is a year+ out of date and do the 4GB update to the latest version afterwards.
May 25, 2018 at 7:29 pm #21138Mine usually fail, hence trying Rufus as well. It tall goes OK and boots fine, but when you go to install it says drivers are missing. So much so that I have a USB that works but is a year+ out of date and do the 4GB update to the latest version afterwards.
Daft question, as it was probably you who introduced this to the forum, but have you tried WSUS Offline Update to save downloading the update every time? It does Office too
May 26, 2018 at 6:23 am #21146I used WSUS when I was a corporate drone. The 4GB upgrade works in a different way and in this age of fast data download it’s not a huge issue.
By default now W10 will get updates from any local PCs it can see (you can opt in to include PCs on the internet) so everyone gets a WSUS effect.
May 26, 2018 at 1:29 pm #21157I used WSUS when I was a corporate drone. The 4GB upgrade works in a different way and in this age of fast data download it’s not a huge issue.
When that age reaches the valleys, I might agree with you! ?
May 27, 2018 at 2:35 pm #21216As far as I can tell the media creation tool actually gets you a full copy of the latest version of Windows, not just some upgrade version.
Installing Windows from a USB stick has caused me that driver problem before on some hardware but booting from a DVD has always worked. The key is to download the ISO and then make sure you burn it as a bootable image.
Its worth trying the upgrade without entering a product key while connected to the internet. Give it a few minutes and you may find you are suddenly activated.
You may have also linked your copy of Windows 10 to your Microsoft account during your last upgrade so its worth a look.
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