Solved Win10 rendered my SP3 unusable

[malberttoo]

Hi guys,

I had Win10 installed on another machine I had laying around the office, and had minimal issues with it.

I installed it on my SP3 a few hours ago, and now the poor SP3 is a heaping pile of uselessnes.

The installation went ok, and I was taken to the setup screen where you pick your WiFi and sign in to your account. It then took me to the Start screen, and then at that point the screen would flash black every 15 or 20 seconds, and the keyboard and mouse were mostly unusable except for 2 or 3 second periods after a black flash. It would flash for 5 or 8 times or so and then just immediately reboot. I let it do that about 3 or 4 times before I figured it was hosed.

I really felt like if I could get to Windows Update and download new updates, it would fix the problem, but that is absolutely not doable in the regular Desktop/Start environment.

I made it into Safe Mode, and the machine ran beautifully then, but Windows Update isn't available in Safe Mode. As well, there were no restore points for System Restore to use.

What do you guys think, am I going to just have to wipe the whole thing and reinstall fresh, losing all my data?

All my important stuff is backed up, I haven't lost anything important.

 

[VickiFL]

I'm very sorry to hear this. Which SP3 do you own, i5, i7?

 

[malberttoo]

i5.

 

[jnjroach]

Ouch...can you remove your Antivirus in Safe Mode? (Assuming you are running 3rd Party)

 

[malberttoo]

I am running Nod32. I'll try.

 

[VickiFL]

I also own an i5/4GB RAM. I really want to upgrade to Win10, but not if it's too taxing on my SP3.

 

[malberttoo]

Ouch...can you remove your Antivirus in Safe Mode? (Assuming you are running 3rd Party)

No go there Jeff. Can't do it in safe mode due to the installer service not running. I did find a registry hack that will allow the service to run in SM, but by then you already had me thinking about something else. I went into Msconfig and disabled every single app and service that didn't look important. But the same behavior persisted. I got as far though as Windows Update (on the normal Desktop) and could see that there were 10 or so updates pending, and hit the button to install, but a few seconds after that the SP3 rebooted again.

I'll mess around with it a bit more, but I mostly wanted to make sure I wasn't overlooking anything and could avoid re-installing.

 

[malberttoo]

I also own an i5/4GB RAM. I really want to upgrade to Win10, but not if it's too taxing on my SP3.

This forum is filled with folks who are very happily and successfully using Win10 on their SP3's, no way would I call it too taxing.

It's annoying that this happened to me, but I'm in good shape. I don't have any data on it that's not backed up, and I know that one way or another I'll be back in business.

I wouldn't let my experience deter you if you want to give it a go. Just use my situation as an example- make sure your stuff is backed up, and you won't be in crisis mode if things go south.

Better yet, use Macrium and make an image before you jump in.

 

[VickiFL]

This forum is filled with folks who are very happily and successfully using Win10 on their SP3's, no way would I call it too taxing.

It's annoying that this happened to me, but I'm in good shape. I don't have any data on it that's not backed up, and I know that one way or another I'll be back in business.

I wouldn't let my experience deter you if you want to give it a go. Just use my situation as an example- make sure your stuff is backed up, and you won't be in crisis mode if things go south.

Better yet, use Macrium and make an image before you jump in.

Honestly, I was seriously considering just making a tech appointment at my Microsoft store, and letting them do it for me, both my SP3 and my Lumia.

 

[malberttoo]

Honestly, I was seriously considering just making a tech appointment at my Microsoft store, and letting them do it for me, both my SP3 and my Lumia.

It's a great idea, but I highly doubt they'd do it, as it's not supported software yet. I can't imagine that they'd want the liability once they put their hands on it.

 

[VickiFL]

It's a great idea, but I highly doubt they'd do it, as it's not supported software yet. I can't imagine that they'd want the liability once they put their hands on it.

Even if I have coverage for tech support via Microsoft Complete?

 

[malberttoo]

Even if I have coverage for tech support via Microsoft Complete?

You can certainly ask. But Windows 10 is still technically "Beta" software, not at all ready for production (this thread case in point ). I just can't see a company wanting that kind of liability, where if it toasted your device, then it would be on THEM to make things right. The Windows 10 download page is plastered with language that basically says "This software is rough and unfinished, and we are not responsible in any way if it makes your data go up in smoke".