Can't re-install Windows 10...? 31 March 2020 at 9:03PM in Techie Stuff 18 replies 191 views

esuhl

I'm trying to install Windows 10 on my PC, but no matter what I do, the installation freezes almost instantly on a black screen showing just a blue Windows logo.  The PC is fairly old, but still quite high-spec, and I've installed Windows 10 on it previously with no issues.

So far I have:

• Used the "Windows 10 Update Assistant" to confirm that Windows 10 is compatible with my PC.
• Confirmed that I am still running the latest BIOS version (unchanged since I last installed Win10).
• Removed all peripherals, the second monitor cable (unused) and all USB devices other than the bootable USB stick.
• Used the official Win10 "Media Creation Tool" to create a bootable USB with the latest Win10 version.
• Used Rufus (software) to write USBs containing old versions of Win10, US English versions, International English versions, single language versions, etc.
• Tried booting from a hard drive partition containing the Windows10 installer, rather than USB.
• Unplugged all other hard drives except the one I want to install to.
• Tried removing my PCIe NVMe SSD.
• Tried with the new drive "unallocated" with no partitions, and with pre-prepared partitions, and with pre-formatted partitions.
• Tried disabling Intel SpeedStep in the BIOS.
• Removed half of the 12GB RAM, leaving a single triple-channel 6GB matched set.
• Set all RAM timing settings to "auto" in the BIOS.
• Tried swapping to the old graphics card I was using when I last installed Windows 10.
• Manually set "USB emulation type" to "hard disk" instead of "auto" or "floppy".

Literally, nothing makes the slightest bit of difference.  Every time I boot from the installation media, without fail, I see nothing but a blue Windows logo on a black background.

I would have given up by now if I didn't already know that the PC has happily run Windows 10 in the past.

Can anyone think of anything else I could try?  I'm seriously tearing my hair out with this one!

debitcardmayhem

I would try a different USB with linux on it first to see if the machine boots perhaps , leave the hammer in the garage for now

esuhl

debitcardmayhem said:

I would try a different USB with linux on it first to see if the machine boots perhaps , leave the hammer in the garage for now

Oh, it does start booting from the Win 10 USB stick, it's just that the installer crashes.  The PC boots into Linux USB images (like GParted Live and Arch Linux) just fine.  :-/

grumpycrab

Tried removing my PCIe NVMe SSD.

What else did you try to install too?

esuhl

grumpycrab said:

Tried removing my PCIe NVMe SSD.

What else did you try to install too?

I'm not trying to install to the SSD, but that doesn't matter as the installer doesn't run.  The installer crashes before it does anything like letting me choose where to install Win10.

I just installed Windows 7 from my retail DVD, activated it, then upgraded it to Win10.  After a few reboots, exactly the same thing happens -- I get a blue Windows logo on a black screen and the PC crashes.

mksysb

esuhl said:

debitcardmayhem said:

I would try a different USB with linux on it first to see if the machine boots perhaps , leave the hammer in the garage for now

Oh, it does start booting from the Win 10 USB stick, it's just that the installer crashes.  The PC boots into Linux USB images (like GParted Live and Arch Linux) just fine.  :-/

Best to stick to linux then, You'll appreciate it in the long run :-

DoaM

Left-field suggestions ... are your RAM sticks properly seated? Does your CPU need the thermal paste replaced? Has the CPU heatsink been accidentally knocked so it's not seated correctly?

Neil_Jones

Just for kicks, grab an older version of Windows 10, try installing with that an see what happens (you can always upgrade it):

https://superuser.com/questions/1108085/where-can-i-get-a-clean-iso-of-a-specific-build-of-windows-10/1250099#1250099

DoaM

Neil_Jones said:

Just for kicks, grab an older version of Windows 10, try installing with that an see what happens (you can always upgrade it):

https://superuser.com/questions/1108085/where-can-i-get-a-clean-iso-of-a-specific-build-of-windows-10/1250099#1250099

Good advice ... the Windows Update Assistant doesn't always give the right answer; there may be something in your PC that's incompatible with the latest W10 version but the WUA can't see it.

esuhl

Thanks -- I tried reseating the RAM, and also removing half (I saw rumours that Win10 had problems installing on old machines with lots of RAM).

I also used Rufus to download the oldest available Windows 10 ISO -- "1507 [Threshold 1] (Build 10240.16384 - 2015.07)... In both cases the same thing happens -- just a blue Windows logo on boot. :-(

Argh!  Good advice about sticking with Linux -- it's my main OS, and it's so much easier to maintain and configure reliably!  But I do need Windows sometimes... :-(

debitcardmayhem

Perhaps boot a Linux live image and examine the "blank" disk to see if Windows has done anything with it just a 5 min job