My laptop and W10 do not get along

[Flanker]

I used to windows update path to upgrade from W7 to W10:
-It seemed to go smoothly at first but on the second phase (installing devices and drivers, if I remember correctly) a boot happened.
-Then I got to see the windows logo and the circling dots. After that I get a black screen where nothing happens for ~10 hours, literally. There is still signal to the screen, but its just all black, no cursor, nothing.
-The laptop can still go to sleep, the capslock LED on the keyboard still work.
-Hard reset does nothing

Then I tried to do a clean install of W10 instead:
-It went smoothly, I set up everything and got to the desktop with everything installed and done.
-I opened the start up menu, heard the sound of something (like a USB device) unplugged.
-Screen turns black, back to where I got with the Windows update path again.
-Hard reset does nothing, after the logo and circling dot screen, screen turns black.

Laptop specs:
Dell Vostro 3350
i5 2410M
4GB DDR3 laptop RAM
320GB Seagate 5400 rpm SATA HDD

Does this problem ring a bell to anyone?
Should I sit on W7 and wait for Dell or MS to come up with an update or something?

 

[Mjberman]

I used to windows update path to upgrade from W7 to W10:
-It seemed to go smoothly at first but on the second phase (installing devices and drivers, if I remember correctly) a boot happened.
-Then I got to see the windows logo and the circling dots. After that I get a black screen where nothing will ever happen anymore. There is still signal to the screen, but its just all black, no cursor, nothing.
-The laptop can still go to sleep, the capslock LED on the keyboard still work.
-Hard reset does nothing

Then I tried to do a clean install of W10 instead:
-It went smoothly, I set up everything and got to the desktop with everything installed and done.
-I opened the start up menu, heard the sound of something (like a USB device) unplugged.
-Screen turns black, back to where I got with the Windows update path again.
-Hard reset does nothing, after the logo and circling dot screen, screen turns black.

Laptop specs:
Dell Vostro 3350
i5 2410M
4GB DDR3 laptop RAM
320GB Seagate 5400 rpm SATA HDD

Does this problem ring a bell to anyone?
Should I sit on W7 and wait for Dell or MS to come up with an update or something?

I am in your boat except with a core i3 3350 vostro. Did a clean install, wiping out the 2nd backup partition in the process, so I hope you made win 7 recovery disks. You might be able to see the screen if u connect you laptop to a TV via hdmi but I got stuck in a reboot loop after the wifi setup still. I am currently watching DVD 1 of 2 for my windows 7 dell Factory recovery load...what a disappointment as I had high hopes that win10 could at least get a standard integrated video card driver to work.

 

[Flanker]

I am in your boat except with a core i3 3350 vostro. Did a clean install, wiping out the 2nd backup partition in the process, so I hope you made win 7 recovery disks. You might be able to see the screen if u connect you laptop to a TV via hdmi but I got stuck in a reboot loop after the wifi setup still. I am currently watching DVD 1 of 2 for my windows 7 dell Factory recovery load...what a disappointment as I had high hopes that win10 could at least get a standard integrated video card driver to work.

Pretty much, good thing I kept all my installation discs.
I suspect the generic monitor driver of W10 doesn't work with our screens, because not being able to work with intel iGPU is absurd

 

[Caring1]

Yeah, it's not the plug and play monitor as yours isn't any different than any other laptop.
It shouldn't be the standard VGA driver in Windows either, I'd say a driver issue though.
Try safe mode, that should prove it.

 

[Flanker]

Considering this laptop is the only PC I got atm, and I do need to use it daily. I think I'll wait for guinea pig results before any more experiments

 

[Mjberman]

Yeah, it's not the plug and play monitor as yours isn't any different than any other laptop.
It shouldn't be the standard VGA driver in Windows either, I'd say a driver issue though.
Try safe mode, that should prove it.

So getting to safeed mode during the win10 install requires you to hold the staff at the right time of day so the light shines through the scepter and onto the map while snakes pour out of the walls.
I was able to get to the win10 menu to choose options, but safe mode just restarts.

Another great thing is that During the setup of win10 using my TV as a monitor, I chose my wifi git next and then it reboots, but freezes unless I unplug the hdmi cable for the initial blue windows logo to show, then once the screen goes black I can plug my TV back in, but I never get past the initial settings of time zone, even if I switch the wifi adapter off.

 

[SSRCharlieB]

I don't know much of anything about 10, I'm retired (tech) and it just hasn't piqued my interest level enough for me to invest the time required, but I do know computers. I know them well, and I agree with the problem perhaps being a driver issue with the video as a good place to start at the least, since this seems very possible from your description.

Try the suggestion about using the external vid out to connect a standard LCD/LED Monitor to your laptop to install 10. If this works (very possible, I have used tricks like this in the past), you should be able to finish the installation and get the proper bios/video drivers for the Vostro from Dell. It could be that your Vostro requires a bios update before you can successfully install 10. DEFINITELY, check for a BIOS update. If you have aborted the current install without intention to complete it, you should update your laptop's BIOS before attempting to update to Win 10 again.

I don't know if you did it or not, but you should ALWAYS do the system check for compatibility with your native hardware before upgrading to a new OS, especially in a notebook, as those little b@$t@rd$ are incredibly proprietary at best. Also Dells are the absolute kings of proprietary. They didn't invent it, but they sure upgraded and refined the heck out of it.

Just my two, hope it helps.

Charlie

 

[zsolt_93]

I am sure you will be stuck with WIndows 7 though. Dell usually doesnt provide new drivers years after release. I have installed 8.1 on mine and there were a few devices i had to live without. Such as the Bluetooth and the QuickSet driver. They usually use a non standard driver although they are atheros chips rebranded as dells own product. There were drivers for 8 that did not work, and nothing newer thereafter. I am having no hopes for 10 to be different. This thing is almost stopping me from trying the upgrade on mine although its an Inspiron but its from pretty much the same hardware era.

 

[OneMoar]

pebkac
the blackscreen during install is completely normal you should't have interrupted it can last upwards of 10M if the hardware is slow
now you need to reinstall windows 7 and then upgrade again this time leave it the fk alone and let it do its thing its pulling drivers from windows update and installing them

 

[Flanker]

I don't know much of anything about 10, I'm retired (tech) and it just hasn't piqued my interest level enough for me to invest the time required, but I do know computers. I know them well, and I agree with the problem perhaps being a driver issue with the video as a good place to start at the least, since this seems very possible from your description.

Try the suggestion about using the external vid out to connect a standard LCD/LED Monitor to your laptop to install 10. If this works (very possible, I have used tricks like this in the past), you should be able to finish the installation and get the proper bios/video drivers for the Vostro from Dell. It could be that your Vostro requires a bios update before you can successfully install 10. DEFINITELY, check for a BIOS update. If you have aborted the current install without intention to complete it, you should update your laptop's BIOS before attempting to update to Win 10 again.

I don't know if you did it or not, but you should ALWAYS do the system check for compatibility with your native hardware before upgrading to a new OS, especially in a notebook, as those little b@$t@rd$ are incredibly proprietary at best. Also Dells are the absolute kings of proprietary. They didn't invent it, but they sure upgraded and refined the heck out of it.

Just my two, hope it helps.

Charlie

I don't have another monitor or TV to try this so that probably isn't an option for me. I did do a compatibility check and everything reported to be OK...
I guess this is a lesson on proprietary for me

I am sure you will be stuck with WIndows 7 though. Dell usually doesnt provide new drivers years after release. I have installed 8.1 on mine and there were a few devices i had to live without. Such as the Bluetooth and the QuickSet driver. They usually use a non standard driver although they are atheros chips rebranded as dells own product. There were drivers for 8 that did not work, and nothing newer thereafter. I am having no hopes for 10 to be different. This thing is almost stopping me from trying the upgrade on mine although its an Inspiron but its from pretty much the same hardware era.

Ugh, I thought as much. I am remembered why I avoided branded PC systems.

pebkac
the blackscreen during install is completely normal you should't have interrupted it can last upwards of 10M if the hardware is slow
now you need to reinstall windows 7 and then upgrade again this time leave it the fk alone and let it do its thing

well, in my case it lasted for about 2 hrs before I went to bed and I left it overnight. The next morning the black screen was still there so I decided it wasn't normal.

 

[OneMoar]

I don't have another monitor or TV to try this so that probably isn't an option for me. I did do a compatibility check and everything reported to be OK...
I guess this is a lesson on proprietary for me


Ugh, I thought as much. I am remembered why I avoided branded PC systems.


well, in my case it lasted for about 2 hrs before I went to bed and I left it overnight. The next morning the black screen was still there so I decided it wasn't normal.

did you try win+p

 

[Flanker]

did you try win+p

yes and nothing shows up

 

[GreiverBlade]

did not really test on mine (Vostro 15 3549) but i will once i get it ... (still fresh install of 8.1 from the Dell backup DVD works no matter what HDD or SSD i swap )

 

[Mjberman]

pebkac
the blackscreen during install is completely normal you should't have interrupted it can last upwards of 10M if the hardware is slow
now you need to reinstall windows 7 and then upgrade again this time leave it the fk alone and let it do its thing its pulling drivers from windows update and installing them

It lasted upwards of 8hrs

 

[Mjberman]

I Ran a compatibility check from Microsoft and everything was good for launch. If you look on dell's website they do not have a go or no go for the 3350 as they didn't test it.

http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN297954/EN#Vostro-NB

 

[Mjberman]

So I spoke with Microsoft and there is not driver for our laptops....I was told to ask Dell for help there, on my 4.75 yr old laptop - running the most basic graphics setup from intel, microsoft told me to contact dell. Outstanding - I feel like an Apple owner who was just told that their 4-yr old iPad that cost more than his laptop can no longer play youtube videos because the iOS cannot be upgraded any further....doh!!

Since I was told win10 does not dual boot, I downloaded an ISO version of W10 and will grab an old HDD to toss into my 3350 and see if I can get an install using generic drivers. Anyone else have any luck?

Upgrade the world....well some of the world...

 

[Flanker]

Let's just say, a whole week of experimenting was quite enough for me. I now sit on W7 until Dell explicitly say they know how to get W10 working.

 

[Mjberman]

FYI - https://github.com/rn10950/I-Dont-Want-Windows-10/releases/tag/2.0

This tool gets rid of the icon in the task bar without going through the registry and disabling the autostart feature for the icon app!

 

[r.h.p]

Hi , I updated my Toshiba Satellite core i3, 4 gb ram , radeon hd 5xxx etc... from Win 7 to 10. Most of the time I wouldn't upgrade a 3 year old laptop cause it was working great...
Anyway first thing I noticed is the slaving slow boot up haha . My Bluetooth mouse works 50 / 50 % time , and there is no new mouse win 10 drivers lol . So persisting , I find out that my
favourite Games for my laptop Civ 5 and Civ 5 Beyond Earth will not be win 10 supported YEEEEEEEssssssss awesome So Good by WIN 10 , restored back to win 7 now all is swell

 

[GreiverBlade]

did not really test on mine (Vostro 15 3549) but i will once i get it ... (still fresh install of 8.1 from the Dell backup DVD works no matter what HDD or SSD i swap )

installed no problems no hiccup, so far.

 

[P4-630]

My first forced installation upgraded from win7, windows 10 failed to activate (and no button to activate btw).
Today I tried it again, a forced install, this time it activated successfully!

Then I wanted to install comodo firewall, all seemed fine and had to restart, once restarted I went to the control panel and suddenly the system locked up, hdd drive light went off, I had to do a hard reset and the laptop failed to boot and I could not simply repair it, I had to do a refresh with the win10 usb stick connected.
It went fine for a while but then it stopped going any further with the drivers and features installation, the hdd light was blinking full.
I had to do the system refresh all over again and now it worked, I'm not installing comodo again...
Till now it's working fine again, only installed chrome.

Edit: Today before the install I had about 32GB free space on the windows 7 C drive, after the first windows 10 attempt I had suddenly 40GB free space after the upgrade... After the windows 10 refresh I had suddenly 80GB free space again on the C drive.. With currently one windows.old folder on C

 

[P4-630]

Lastnight I left my laptop powered on, in the morning I found out it had installed some updates and it needed a restart.
The first 30% went well, it restarted and I noticed the hdd light just stopped blinking again and I just had a black screen, I did a hard reset and restarted, currently I'm trying to do a system restore which takes abnormally long. I had almost never had any issues within windows 7 SP1.
Is my hdd dying? If so, when I replace it for an SSD and install windows 10 on it, will it still be activated? Or do I have to buy it?

I did check hdd health with the command prompt wmic and the status was ok

Update: A system restore did not work...

I can't get into windows anymore, the hdd seems to turn off everytime (hdd light stops flashing) and it just gives me a black screen

 

[Aquinus]

pebkac
the blackscreen during install is completely normal you should't have interrupted it can last upwards of 10M if the hardware is slow
now you need to reinstall windows 7 and then upgrade again this time leave it the fk alone and let it do its thing its pulling drivers from windows update and installing them

This. Once the upgrade is started it is 100% automated. Do not touch it and just wait for a login screen. It was fast on my machine because I'm upgrading on RAID-0 with SSDs but I suspect it will take a whole lot longer on my wife's laptop which has a hybrid HDD.