Trying to upgrade Windows 10

lx07 said:

How did you try to do this? To do an upgrade you must run the setup.exe when you are already running Windows.

You don't boot from a USB as that would end up being a clean install.

If you have a black screen then retry 3 times or so (power on, power off before Windows starts) and it will eventually push you into safe mode. The black screen is almost certainly a problem with your display driver (which will be replaced by the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter when in Safe mode). Once you are there in Safe Mode, uninstall your normal display driver, reboot and try again.

EDIT: Also unplug everything else - any USB Printers, Storage Devices, Phones, Scanners, Cameras, etc. Unplug the lot - they may not be causing this but it would save time to remove them from the equation.

I was going to continue from where I left off earlier this morning from the steps Ztruker gave me above.

Do I hold the power button till I hear the beeping, or just when I see the button light? The laptop is a Dell Inspiron 15R M5501R

lx07 said:

How did you try to do this? To do an upgrade you must run the setup.exe when you are already running Windows.

You don't boot from a USB as that would end up being a clean install.

If you have a black screen then retry 3 times or so (power on, power off before Windows starts) and it will eventually push you into safe mode. The black screen is almost certainly a problem with your display driver (which will be replaced by the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter when in Safe mode). Once you are there in Safe Mode, uninstall your normal display driver, reboot and try again.

EDIT: Also unplug everything else - any USB Printers, Storage Devices, Phones, Scanners, Cameras, etc. Unplug the lot - they may not be causing this but it would save time to remove them from the equation.

I ran setup.exe from the USB. It failed. But, it reverted back to the previous Windows and all was normal. After I followed Ztruker post. I shut-down the laptop (it was getting to late to continue) so, now I am at this point.

Could doing the Elevated Command Prompt (above) be the cause of this?

EQueens123 said:

Could doing the Elevated Command Prompt (above) be the cause of this?

No.

Running an upgrade is easy. There is nothing complicated about it at all.

All you do is mount the ISO (easy you just double click on it) and then click on "setup.exe". Again you just double click on it. It is almost impossible (even theoretically) to click the wrong button as it says "Install".

You don't need to run anything elevated and I can't imagine even theoretically how you cloud make it fail. You would have to really try hard to balls it up.

lx07 said:

How did you try to do this? To do an upgrade you must run the setup.exe when you are already running Windows.

You don't boot from a USB as that would end up being a clean install.

If you have a black screen then retry 3 times or so (power on, power off before Windows starts) and it will eventually push you into safe mode. The black screen is almost certainly a problem with your display driver (which will be replaced by the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter when in Safe mode). Once you are there in Safe Mode, uninstall your normal display driver, reboot and try again.

EDIT: Also unplug everything else - any USB Printers, Storage Devices, Phones, Scanners, Cameras, etc. Unplug the lot - they may not be causing this but it would save time to remove them from the equation.

I'm getting 7 beeps>pause>7beeps and continues untill press the power button. According to the Dell site it's the Central Processing Unit and it says run the Dell Diagnostics. I hold the power button & the Fn key but nothing happens, the screen remains black. When I hold in the power button while pressing the Fn key, the power button light goes off.

EQueens123 said:

I'm getting 7 beeps>pause>7beeps and continues untill press the power button. According to the Dell site it's the Central Processing Unit and it says run the Dell Diagnostics. I hold the power button & the Fn key but nothing happens, the screen remains black. When I hold in the power button while pressing the Fn key, the power button light goes off.

Sorry but doesn't that tell you your CPU is (I don't know the polite way to put this) broken.

I can tell you (perhaps not useful) I had a laptop that stopped working and I put it in a drawer for 8 years. Then it suddenly started working.

I don't think you can rely on that but if you have a spare 8 years you could give it a go.

The aim is to either upgrade or generate error messages and codes so that they can be troubleshooted..
There are problems that you reported with:
orange screen
black screen
beep codes
etc.
If you are able to boot to windows then run the BETA log collector:
BSOD - Posting Instructions - Windows 10 Forums
(see bottom of the web page for the link)
Use the text and images in this thread in case there are any problems running the beta log collector: (post #5)
DM Log tool problem Solved - Windows 10 Forums

Then run the Dell diagnostics:
Resolve Hardware Issues With Built-in and Online Diagnostics (ePSA or PSA Error Codes) | Dell US

If you are not able to boot to windows then run the on board Dell diagnostics.

I am unable to boot into Safe Mode. If the CPU is shot, does that mean very expensive fix or replacement (new unit)?

1) Turn off the computer.
2) Remove the power cord.
3) Remove the battery
4) Hold down the power button for 15 to 30 seconds
5) insert the battery
6) connect the power cable
7) power on the computer
8) report into the thread what you see and hear

This is a HP link for how to perform a power reset which you can apply to the Dell computer:
HP Notebook PCs - How to Power Reset your Laptop​ | HP® Customer Support

Run the Dell diagnostics > report the results into the thread

zbook said:

1) Turn off the computer.
2) Remove the power cord.
3) Remove the battery
4) Hold down the power button for 15 to 30 seconds
5) insert the battery
6) connect the power cable
7) power on the computer
8) report into the thread what you see and hear

This is a HP link for how to perform a power reset which you can apply to the Dell computer:
HP Notebook PCs - How to Power Reset your Laptop​ | HP® Customer Support

Run the Dell diagnostics > report the results into the thread

Followed all the steps - no difference, still get the 7 beeps with a black screen. I also tried connecting my Dell monitor but the same thing still happens

1) run the dell diagnostics and post the results into this thread
2) find several flash drives that you can format ( > or = 8 GB)
3) Create a bootable windows 10 iso:
Download Windows 10
4) Are the files backed up?
5) Had you made a backup image?
6) If you had to make a clean install would you be able to?