Aspire R7-371T won't upgrade to Win10

TwelveTone

I've been trying numerous times to upgrade my Acer Aspire R7-371T (aka R13) running Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, having read lots of articles about doing it.  Yet every time I run the upgrade-in-place it barfs.  Naturally I'm using the Media Creation Tool 21H1, and I've tried running it straight from the Internet and from an ISO file both.  Everything goes fine until it gets 74% into the "Installing Windows 10" section and then it just aborts back to Windows with a simple dialog box saying "Windows 10 installation has failed".  No error code or other message.

I've done all the preparations - made sure all the Windows 8.1 Updates are installed, uninstalled antivirus software, disabled all non-MS services in msconfig/services and Task Manager startup, remove Startup menu items, check my HDD (no errors or bad sectors), etc.  I have plenty of disk space and detached all external devices (except Ethernet and mouse), and my Internet connection is solid.  The "dism /online /cleanup-image /scanhealth" says that no component store corruption was detected, and "sfc /verifyonly" said it did not find any integrity violations.

Looking at \Windows\Logs\SetupDiag\setupdiagresults.xml, it's always the same Abrupt Downlevel Failure with a Failed to get the provider DISM Package Manager from the remote provider store error and code 0x80004005.  File attached if interested.

I've googled like mad for this error, but haven't been able to come up with anything worthwhile.  Lots of old articles from 2015, Windows XP, even Windows 10 Updates, but nothing about the upgrade from 8.1 to 10.  Love to hear that I'm not the only one that's had this.  Even better would be to find a real solution.  After spending a week reloading another 8.1 laptop from scratch that crashed and wouldn't boot anymore (thanks to Windows Update) I'm ready to throw in the Windows towel and convert to Linux once and for all.

StevenGen

TwelveTone yes I know that you want to upgrade the systems and keep your applications, folders, and files all in the same place but, the upgrading process is always accompanied by problems like you are having! I recommend that you do a "Clean Install" and backup all your needed files that  are important to you from the Win-8.1 OS before. I've also had a windows 8.1 with my old laptop a V3-571G and an upgrade didn't work. Make a WIM on a USB on your laptop then make sure that the BIOS is up to date and then do a clean install of Win-10 on your Aspire R7-371T as it will work 100%.

In my case and after I did a "Clean Install" I never ever had a problem and/or a BSOD ever on my V3-571G laptop. Also, make sure that your R7-371T has the max capacity 16GB memory (2x DDR3-1866MHz) and do the clean install on an M.2 SSD drive of at least 512GB capacity as the boot drive as your laptop has provisions for 2x M.2 SSD B&M end key type M.2 type drives and after install, activate the TRIM command within windows for your SSD's to work at their peak performance, as all these upgrades will make your laptop function much faster and at its peak performance. 


OEM Acer fitted 512GB M.2 drives 

TwelveTone

Thanks for the reply, @StevenGen.   You're right, a clean install is always better, and I've read about instability and complications of an upgraded system.  I thought I would clean install after I upgraded, because from what I understand an upgrade needs to be done first, then a clean install afterwards, in order to preserve the Windows 8.1 License (or properly convert it to a Win10 key).  Otherwise, if you just clean install you need to have a new Win10 Product Key.  Is that true in your experience?  Not that buying a new Win10 license is totally out of the question, but I would like to avoid handing over more money to M$ if I could.

I had not considered upgrading any hardware, but doubling my RAM and having an SSD would be nice.  Here again I was concerned about the upgrade license because I read that Windows uses a "hardware profile" of sorts to validate a license key, but maybe that's mostly the motherboard...I forget exactly.  Thanks for the info on the Trim command, I had not heard about that before.

StevenGen

TwelveTone said:

Thanks for the reply, @StevenGen.   You're right, a clean install is always better, and I've read about instability and complications of an upgraded system.  I thought I would clean install after I upgraded, because from what I understand an upgrade needs to be done first, then a clean install afterwards, in order to preserve the Windows 8.1 License (or properly convert it to a Win10 key).  Otherwise, if you just clean install you need to have a new Win10 Product Key.  Is that true in your experience?  Not that buying a new Win10 license is totally out of the question, but I would like to avoid handing over more money to M$ if I could.

I had not considered upgrading any hardware, but doubling my RAM and having an SSD would be nice.  Here again I was concerned about the upgrade license because I read that Windows uses a "hardware profile" of sorts to validate a license key, but maybe that's mostly the motherboard...I forget exactly.  Thanks for the info on the Trim command, I had not heard about that before.

The key is electronically updated from Win-8.1 to Win-10 Pro that is what happened in my case when I did a clean install, as I had a Microsoft account, as there is still a free update from Win-8.1 to Win-10 pro which is the update process conversion and I got a "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to your Microsoft account" see this Activate Windows.

TwelveTone

Excellent, thanks!   I don't know how I missed that Activate Windows page before but it explains a lot.  I've done my backups and disk imaging so I'm ready to give it a try.   However I'm stuck with the 8GB in my machine as it seems my mobo won't support any more than that.  Oh well..no biggy.

StevenGen

TwelveTone said:

Excellent, thanks!   I don't know how I missed that Activate Windows page before but it explains a lot.  I've done my backups and disk imaging so I'm ready to give it a try.   However I'm stuck with the 8GB in my machine as it seems my mobo won't support any more than that.  Oh well..no biggy.

The best and most current advise on upgrading is to do a "Crucial System Scanner" as I know that 8GB is the max memory total for your Aspire R7-371T but and it could be that and as Crucial states with their memory suggestions you might be able to have a total of 16GB (2x 8GB memory modules) like the old Aspire V3-571G that I have and I've upgraded it to and this 9 years old laptop works unbelievably and perfectly with Win-10 Pro, this is what Crucial states:

"You may have noticed that when you check the maximum amount of supported memory for your system, that we recommend more than your system or motherboard manufacturer has listed on their technical specification. 

The good news is that this is not a mistake! On occasion you will find that due to system updates and technological advances, some hardware may be able to support more memory compared to when it was originally manufactured. At Crucial®, we ensure that the higher amount of RAM is rigorously tested and is backed by our compatibility guarantee" 

TwelveTone

StevenGen said:

The best and most current advise on upgrading is to do a "Crucial System Scanner" as I know that 8GB is the max memory total for your Aspire R7-371T but and it could be that and as Crucial states with their memory suggestions you might be able to have a total of 16GB (2x 8GB memory modules) like the old Aspire V3-571G that I have and I've upgraded it to and this 9 years old laptop works unbelievably and perfectly with Win-10 Pro, this is what Crucial states:

I guess you're one of the lucky ones.  I ran the scanner but for whatever reason it doesn't like my system: