Windows 10 update, Nvidia Update, Automatic Repair loop

when you reinstalled windows 7 I assume you did not enter a product key.....I thought it would work for a while, then keep nagging for activation.....that's what I assume should happen.....it's a pity you didn't extract the product key using one of the key grabber software first.....but too late now......don't suppose the windows sticker was put on the underside of the machine....don't know what to suggest now.....without an activated windows 7 you will not be able to upgrade to 10 .....just wondered if the windows 7 product key is still buried in your machine somewhere....enchanted key finder or magical jellybean may come up with your key, then you can go to computer properties and at the bottom enter your product key.......just hope I haven't violated the forum rules

just to be certain you are still working with windows 7 ???

ah carrumba!

See if this helps

Activate Windows 7 Online (SevenForums.com)

There's also phone activation if that fails, see the list of related tutorials at the bottom of post#1

•How to Activate Windows 7 by Phone
•How to Do a Upgrade Installation with Windows 7
•How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
•How to Change the Product Key Number in Windows 7
•How to Find and See the Windows 7 Product Key Number

reddwarf4ever said:

.....without an activated windows 7 you will not be able to upgrade to 10 .....just wondered if the windows 7 product key is still buried in your machine somewhere....enchanted key finder or magical jellybean may come up with your key, then you can go to computer properties and at the bottom enter your product key.......just hope I haven't violated the forum rules

just to be certain you are still working with windows 7 ???

If Win10 was activated the first time currumba upgraded, then Win10 can be Clean installed - the original OS key was hashed with hardware ID(s), encrypted, and stored in firmware.

Windows 10 - Clean Install (TenForums.com)

That being said, it doesn't help with the Win7 activation. A TF member wrote a small pgm to find keys
See: Showkey (TenForums.com)

carrumba said:

Argh! Need help!

Windows 10 installed and have an Nvidia grfx card which caused a problem with the driver which I managed to get round. Been using Windows 10 quite happily, until today.

PC crashed not long after boot. Last thing I remember seeing was a notification from NVidia control panel saying new optimized settings had been downloaded for a game... a short time later the computer, which was sitting idle, encountered a critical error and rebooted.

I am now stuck in a perpetual diagnosis/automatic repair loop. None of the safe boot options work and can't reset (keeping files) either.

I am not a technical person and am at a loss as to what to do :-(

slartybart just pointed out that if your windows 10 install was activated, then you can now do a clean install of windows 10 and therefore will not need to worry about windows 7 anymore......if you are unsure if windows 10 was activated, I am unsure how you can check.....hopefully you will know.....good luck

The installed drive doesn't matter - HDD or SSD, what matters is that the upgrade was activated - that's the only way a Clean install will succeed. If it wasn't, you'll have to start from scratch with your base OS and then upgrade to get Win10 activated. Not difficult if you have backups, but it is time consuming.

Here's how you can get the best Clean install - read the tutorial I linked ... including all of the colored boxes - they are very important and people tend to skip over them - don't know why

If you skim you'll miss the part that says : disconnect all drives except the install drive.

Here's How:

1. If you have not already, you will need to create a bootable Windows 10 installation USB.

2. Temporarily disconnect all non OS hard drives until Windows installation has finished. This is to avoid Windows Setup from installing files on other hard drives by mistake

Heck that's not even in a box!

You will need the ISO, so get that first. (step 1 in the tut)
The tutorial really covers all of the bases - please read through it and ask questions that are not answered or about steps that are unclear to you. Thanks - members will be here to help if you need it.

Note: programs will have to be re-installed, even if they are on the D: drive. Disconnecting the drive prevents the install from doing anything with the drive, so yes, your data will be safe.

so good when there is a happy ending....I actually prefer 10 to 7, just hate the datamining and compulsory updates, even if you just had the choice on drivers it would help enormously.....MS far too big like Google Apple etc. all think they own the world and do with us as they please.....oh well as Esther Rantzen used to say " that's life"

carrumba said:

Thanks to everyone for their help.
I finally managed to clean install Win 10 from USB and thankfully only had to format 1 partition of my SSD so no data loss. In fact, cleaned up the boot sector...hheehehe.
The installation found my key no problems and was a happy end to stressful experience.
.....
All helpers here were excellent and helped focus the mind when i felt like giving up! Cheers

You're welcome and I'm glad you got it sorted.

Everything always works out in the end, if it hasn't worked out yet ... it cannot be the end

Bill