aspire 5733Z Upgrading 4 GB installed RAM to 8 GB by adding a second board

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Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    Something's wrong with the iso. Your BIOS should only boot properly from an MBR FAT32 stick. Can you post a phone photo of the Rufus screen that won't allow FAT32?

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    Unfortunately I can't get the PC to boot at all now.

    If I try to boot from the USB, I get

    "The upgrade option isn’t available if you start your computer using Windows installation media.

    If a copy of Windows is already installed on this computer and you want to upgrade, remove the installation media and restart your computer.  After Windows has started normally, insert the installation media and run Windows Setup."

    But if I take this advice by removing the USB and trying to boot from the hard drive, I get

    "RECOVERY

    Your PC/Device needs to be repaired.

    The Boot configuration data for your PC is missing or contains errors.

    File: \Boot\BCD

    Error code: 0xc000014c

    You’ll need to use recovery tools.  If you don’t have any installation media (like a disc or a USB device), contact your PC administrator or PC/Device manufacturer."

    Is there anywhere I can go from here?


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    If it still boots OK with 4GB, press WIN+R. Enter 'msconfig'. Click boot tab. Checkmark safe boot. Press OK. Shut down machine normally. Install 8GB again. See if it'll start up in safe boot mode.

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    Sorry.  My last post should have been clearer.  It is the 4 GB board which is in the Acer at the moment and it still won't boot, either via the hard drive or the USB drive.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    Can you still get into the BIOS with F2 on startup? If yes, press F9 to load BIOS defaults. Press F10 to save and settings and exit. If it now boots, the CMOS lithium coin cell may have gone below 3.1 volts.

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    I managed to use "Repair my computer" to get the PC to boot with the 4 GB board in it.  This took me back to your post of April 16.  I followed your instructions up to checking "Safe boot" with the default option "Minimal".  I then put the 8 GB board in and tried to boot from the USB.  It went into the switch off -> automatic restart cycle quoting "SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED" as the source of the problem.  Trying to boot from the hard drive had the same outcome but "DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL" was given as the source.  
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    >>>I then put the 8 GB board in and tried to boot from the USB.  >>>

    Aye! No!. Sorry I meant for you to first try booting from the hard drive in safe mode, not from the USB stick.

    Shut down machine again. Then turn it back and immediately tap F2 to enter BIOS menu. Press F9 to load BIOS defaults. Then F10 to save defaults and exit. If you get same "Driver" error, then shut machine off again. Then immediately turn it back on. No USB sticks.

    If you get the same driver error trying to boot Safe mode, then it is likely that the old chipset driver isn't fully Win10 compatible. In order to confirm it, we must somehow get it into a diagnostic troubleshooting mode with 8GB installed either from the HDD safe mode or the USB stick. 

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    With the 8 GB board in and the USB stick out, I got "Preparing Automatic Repair" then the Driver error with "DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL" as the nature of the problem.  I switched off and on again with the same result but "PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA" as the message.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    Then we've got to try to boot from the USB Win10 version you have right now with full 8GB installed and still in safe mode. If that doesn't work, then we're gonna have to try to make a much earlier Win10 version that's compatible with your chipset. The one I use most on older laptops is Win10 1511 home iso since its command prompt repair methods are less restrictive than latter versions.

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    I take it that I need to create a USB installation stick like I did before but using Win10 1511 home iso rather than the 21H2 home premium iso which I used previously.  I only have one 16 GB USB stick.  Should I empty this and start again or can I use an 8 GB stick (of which I have plenty) for the less recent version of Windows 10? 
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    1511 uses 5.9GB. So an 8GB stick should be OK.

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    I put the Acer back into "normal" mode (i.e. with the 4 GB board in, no USB stick and Windows not in safe boot mode).  It booted as normal from the hard drive.  My plan was to download the 1511 iso file to the hard drive and then move it to an empty 8 GB USB stick but I got the message that the iso file (which is 4.15 GB in size) "is too large for the destination file system".  Getmyos.com (which is where I was downloading the iso file from) doesn't seem to give the option of downloading directly to a USB, which is why I planned to go via the hard drive.  But if I can't get the 1511 iso onto the USB, I don't see how I can try your experiment.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    You cannot directly download the 1511 iso to a FAT32 formatted USB stick because the iso too big for FAT32.  You first must download the iso to your HDD. Then use Rufus freeware to prepare the iso for installation on the FAT USB stick.  Do you  need instructions on how to download and use Rufus? I vaguely recall that you've used it before. Maybe not?

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    I have downloaded Rufus but I don't think I used it to create the Win10 21H2 home premium iso on my 16 GB USB stick.  I used Windows Media Creation Tool for that but you can only use it for the most recent version of Windows 10.

    The Rufus settings page gives me these options.  Here, I use double angle brackets <<>> to denote my comments rather than what is on the page.

    Drive Properties
    Device - ESD-USB (E:) [8 GB]
    Boot selection - Desk or ISO image (Please select)   <<The other options are "Non bootable" and "FreeDOS">>
    SELECT <<The other option is "Download"
    Partition scheme - MBR <<greyed out>>
    Target system - BIOS (or UEFI-CMS) <<greyed out>>

    Format Options
    Volume label - ESD-USB <<greyed out>>
    File system - FAT32 (Default) <<greyed out>>
    Cluster size - 4096 bytes (Default) <<greyed out>>

    Status
    Ready

    1 device found

    Can you advise on what settings I have to enter to prepare the 8 GB USB for use as an installation medium for Win10 1511?  In particular, how do I tell Rufus where on my hard rive the 1511 iso file is stored?

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    What do you have on the 8GB thumbdrive? It must be erased, MBR repartitioned and FAT32 formatted with diskpart command. You tell Rufus where the 1511 iso is on the C ; \ drive by clicking on the Select button.

    (1) Insert the 8GB thumbdrive
    (2) Search 'cmd' in Windows start menu.
    (3) Right click command prompt near top of menu.
    (4) Click run as administrator.
    (5) At command prompt, enter diskpart
    (6) At the diskpart prompt, enter 'list disk'
    (7) Then enter 'select disk#' where # is the 8GB thumbdrive. Make sure you select the thumbdrive number, not the HDD number
    (8) Then enter 'clean'
    (9) Then enter 'convert mbr'
    (10) Then enter 'create partition primary'
    (11) Then enter 'select partition 1'
    (12) Then enter 'active'
    (13) Then enter 'format fs=FAT32 quick'

    Then it's ready for Rufus.


    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    OK, I followed your 13 steps and the 8 GB thumb drive now appears to be successfully formatted using MBR partition and FAT32 file system (though I think it had that before as per my post of yesterday).  No harm in doing it again though.

    But when I launched Rufus, it gave me GPT partition and FAT32 file system or MBR partition and NTFS file system but not MBR partition and FAT32 file system.  I ran Rufus using GPT and FAT32, changed to safe boot mode and installed the 8 GB card.  I got a message saying that I was trying to boot in BIOS/Legacy mode but the USB only boots in UEFI mode.  One of the ways of sorting the problem was to use Rufus to recreate the USB drive using the MBR partition scheme.

    So I started again with the 13 steps but when I got to Rufus, this time I used the MBR / NTFS option (NTFS is still the only option given when I select MBR).  I checked that BIOS can still see 8192 MB of installed RAM, which it can.  This time when I tried to launch Windows from the USB, I got the Windows logo but then it switched itself off and on again as though it has hit a fault but gave no message as to what the fault might be.  Launching from the hard drive just produces the DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL messages I have mentioned before.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    Uninstall Rufus. Then go to this link . Download and install version Rufus-3.1.exe. Then try it again.


    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    I downloaded Rufus-3.1.exe and deleted Rufus-3.18.exe.  But when I try to open Rufus-3.1.exe, I get "Other instance detected.  Another Rufus application is running.  Please close the first application before running another one".  How can another Rufus be running when I have deleted it?  Nothing called Rufus exists in the list of programmes which I get if I click "Start" so I can't use the standard methods of uninstalling redundant software.  
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,871 Trailblazer
    Rufus is probably still in RAM. Shut down Windows  normally. Then turn it  back on to clear RAM.

    Jack E/NJ

  • MorgantheBear
    MorgantheBear Member Posts: 53 Troubleshooter
    OK, I now have Rufus 3.1.1320 running.  But I still have the same choice - MBR / NTFS or GPT / FAT32 - that I had before.  Is it worth continuing or do I need an even earlier version of Rufus?