can't do a clean install, whea_uncorrectable_error??

Hey all,

I’ve got an issue with installing Windows 10 Pro 32bit on my computer where I try to clean install windows, and after the first restart when it’s doing the ‘getting devices ready’ part, I get a blue screen- WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR.

A little history on this issue… I started with a clean install of 10 Pro on this computer, installation went fine, computer ran without issue. After installing all available windows updates and Firefox, I plugged in a USB guitar interface device (M-Audio JamLab), and immediately got a blue screen, then the computer restarted… I didn’t catch the error on the blue screen. I unplugged the JamLab device, same issue (pretty sure this is when I first saw the WHEA error code)
I’ve been troubleshooting to the point that I gave up and now I’ve low level formatted the drive and I’m trying to clean install 10 Pro again- same WHEA error code… the most common reasons I’ve seen for this code are incorrect voltages (ex, CPU spike), hardware issues, driver issues or windows updates.

I’ve reset the BIOS back to defaults, I don’t think drivers or windows updates are the issue since I can’t even get Windows installed, and I’ve installed Windows 7 successfully since all this happened (and plugged in the JamLab device/installed drivers successfully), so if it’s a hardware issue then it must be Windows 10 that doesn’t like it.

What baffles me, is that I was able to install 10 and run the computer with no issues, then ever since I plugged in the USB JamLab device, I can’t reinstall it- is it possible that the USB device somehow caused a hardware issue that only Widows 10 is detecting/complaining about?

I’m lost… please help!

Thanks in advance for any help with this.

Hardware: AMD 4000+ CPU, Asus A8N SLI Premium motherboard, 4GB RAM, 160GBx3+120GB HD in JBOD

Looking at it logically, a clean install now should erase all traces of any previous devices because you will format the hard disk. Therefore the motherboard must have been affected in a way that only Windows 10 can detect. I wonder if there is a BIOS update that you can apply that is specifically for W10?

philc43 said:

Looking at it logically, a clean install now should erase all traces of any previous devices because you will format the hard disk. Therefore the motherboard must have been affected in a way that only Windows 10 can detect. I wonder if there is a BIOS update that you can apply that is specifically for W10?

i checked the Asus website, the board isn't listed.. i still don't get how the hardware could have been affected- i've been in IT for years and have never seen a USB device "damage" other hardware- not to say it's not possible of course, but what are the odds?? i'm not entirely convinced that's the case though- the fact that 7 installs leads me away from that conclusion- what exactly is it about 10 that would see something different with the hardware than 7?

I know, it's weird! Anyone else got some ideas?

so i tried installing windows 7 and then doing an upgrade to 10, just to see if that would work.

unfortunately it wasn't successful; see attached screenshot for error details..

one interesting bit about the upgrade- it took a really long time to go through the upgrade process, particularly the copying of files at the screen with the circle and percent complete- i think i started the process Sunday night and it finished sometime last night.. maybe this has some thing to do with the JBOD? problem is, i can't use a single drive attached to any of the sata connectors because the windows installation disc doesn't recognize them for some reason. i'm wondering if i should try an add-in sata card that windows will recognize and test with a single drive..

anyways, not sure what my next steps should be.. can an upgrade be started from an install disc or usb drive?