Windows 10 installation keeps on failing

J

JurgenLahey

I installed Windows 10 Pro 64-bit in January 2020. Up until that point I was on Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Windows 10 has been very stable so far, especially taking into account my computer's specifications. All that changed Sunday night.


My system's specifications are as follows.

MB: AsRock 775DUAL-VSTA

BIOS: latest version (L3.19) installed

UEFI is not available on this motherboard

Details of the motherboard: ASRock > 775Dual-VSTA

2 SATA ports on the motherboard. One port connects to a Kingston 126GB SATA disk (which served as my Windows drive), the other port connects to a DVD drive

CPU: QX6700 (64-bit, quadcore, 2.66Ghz, unlocked multiplier)

RAM: 4GB DDR2 installed, about 3.25GB usable

GPU: AMD Radeon HD5750 512MB

1 SATA RAID to PCI card with 4 SATA ports: this card connects to 1 Bluray drive and 3 extra regular hard drives


I was testing a videogame called SOMA Sunday night when I suddenly remembered about the unlocked multiplier on my cpu. I figured it might improve my experience in videogames, so I rebooted, went into the BIOS and increased the multiplier to 11 (it was at 10). When I was still on Windows 7, I had the multiplier at 11 for a long time. So I know this works (in theory). When I first installed Windows 10 in January, I reset the multiplier to its default value (10) and left it like that. Until the moment I changed it Sunday night.


After I had set the multiplier to 11 and rebooted, the PC crashed on loading Windows. So I went back into the BIOS and set the multiplier at 10 again. I rebooted again. Windows loaded, but the CPU and RAM usage were very high. So much that it was nearly impossible to use the system. It was the first time this happened on Windows 10. It never happened on 7 either. I rebooted several times, which did nothing to solve the issue.


I booted the system with a repair disk. "Reset your PC" was not available.


I did a clean installation of Windows 10 Pro several times, each time with the same result. The installation would complete, but then, after rebooting, a blue screen of death would be displayed. After rebooting once more, the following error would be displayed: "Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation."


To install Windows 10 Pro, I first used a DVD with version 1903. I burnt the disk about a year ago, and it may have been the one I installed the OS with in January. After the installation failed with that version, I downloaded the ISO for version 20H2 and burnt it to an 8GB USB thumb drive. This installation failed with a blue screen too and the same error message was displayed after rebooting.


I ended up installing Windows 7 Professional (yes, 7). It loads up just fine and it's entirely usable. Which means the PC is basically... in good working condition?


I figured maybe the Windows 10 installation routine doesn't play nice with my SATA RAID card. So I removed it. I then tried to perform the upgrade to Windows 10 from within 7. To this end, I used the same USB thumb drive with version 20H2. The installation completed, and after rebooting a screen was displayed that said something like "Working on updates 0%". A few moments into this screen (it was still at 0%), the installation failed with a blue screen. After rebooting a screen was displayed that mentioned the following error code: "0xC1900101 – 0x2000c". The description for the error was as follows: "The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation."


A page on the Microsoft website recommended me to open Device Manager and look for any device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it. Indeed, such was the case for my soundcard (X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI). So I removed that card too. I also installed the driver for my Radeon HD5750, for good measure. I tried to install Windows 10 from within 7 once more, resulting in another blue screen when the message "Working on updates 0%" was displayed. After rebooting, the error code "0xC1900101 – 0x2000c" was again displayed. I think at one point, I burnt the iso for version 1909 to another thumb drive and installed that one. With the same result. (Honestly, I lost track of exactly everything I tried to get Windows 10 installed.)


I rebooted into Windows 7 again. I downloaded the Media Creation tool, and opted for "Upgrade this PC". This time the installation process failed at 8%. The system rebooted to Windows 7, and I got the same error code as before: "0xC1900101 – 0x2000c. The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during APPLY_IMAGE operation."


After reading around, it occurred to me that it is possible that the installation routines for recent versions of Windows 10 (like 2004, 20H2) don't play nice with old systems.


Is there a possibility that an old version of Windows 10 would install without crashing? Version 1703 for instance? Where can I (legally) download such an old version?


I'm really out of ideas. I want to get Windows 10 back to work. Thanks for your assistance.


Please note. Windows 10 worked without any major issue on my system for almost a year. I know this system is ancient and its specifications would be far from sufficient for many people. But it did a very decent job for all this time. I could even play certain more or less modern, not too demanding computer games. For instance Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Stranger's Wrath, New 'n' Tasty, the Penumbra games, Amnesia, and Layers of Fear. The game I was testing Sunday night, SOMA, ran quite well.

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