Repeated fail upgrade to 1903 => block functional upgrades

Hi, certainly with some older Thinkpads there are no drivers for fingerprint reader e.g. if yours has one, and one other device.

Diagnosing upgrade failures is uncertain, incredibly time consuming, requires detailed investigation of logs and installed software, and usually has no precise diagnostic outcome.

I suggest it's not worth the effort for such an old device- running it on Win 10 is, of course, in unspecified territory and at your own risk- as it is for millions.

You can easily disable Windows Updates and check manually using one of the free utilities.
E.g. Option 7:
Enable or Disable Windows Update Automatic Updates in Windows 10

or WUmgr (Windows Update Manager)
or Sledgehammer


Feel free to search the forum for threads attempting to diagnose upgrade failures: see the section after the table here
Upgrade to Windows 10
for links to pages with more links on resolving failures with reference to error messages and logs.

There's a MS utility setupdiag.exe (Google it) that attempts to provide some analysis of logs like setuperr.log, setupact.log

You can of course perform basic checks on
- your physical disk (e.g. HD Tune free)
- your file system (chkdsk)
- run SFC /SCANNOW

but it could be a driver issue or security software or...

jmf11 said:

Thanks Dalchina,

I will follow your advice and disable the WU, use W10 as is and as a backup OS, and try to use Ubuntu as much a s possible.

I would have appreciated to have an option to force the Update even if I had to solve the issue for faulty drivers afterward... but it is not an offered option.

JMF

You can always image the thinkpad with macrium reflect free and then clean install the 1903 to see if it will even install clean. Before you do any of it Install this Lenovo System Update for Windows 10 (32-bit, 64-bit), 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), 7 (32-bit, 64-bit) - Desktop, Notebook, Workstation - CA on your thinkpad if you do not already have it and see if it can find any drivers or see if you have the latest. If it can interface with your model then a clean install and just this app will give you all the relevant drivers that it thinks will work on 10 for the hardware. It is still hit or miss though hence the imaging first as a fallback.

I would have appreciated to have an option to force the Update even if I had to solve the issue for faulty drivers afterward... but it is not an offered option.

There is no such thing I'm afraid- when upgrading, either everything is compatible, from partitions and enough space to not having conflicting drivers or programs.

It's not quite clear if you've actually been offered 1903 via Windows Update. If not, then it would seem MS does not deem your device compatible.

Note the utilities allow you to scan for updates manually.

Build 1903 is the last 'good' build (my opinion) as in 1909, file explorer search has been messed up significantly by MS making a change.

To get a 1903 iso to create a bootable disk to clean install 1903 you can use
Heidoc iso downloader
(Google)- but from your reference to 'in-place upgrade' you probably have one.

Hi, I reiterate post #2 as the best advice given your very old laptop. Use one of those utilities to stay with 1803.

(I bought a 2nd hand Thinkpad t440s (specs in My computers below) with Win 10 Pro for £200... decent screen, fingerprint reader, option for SIM, small fixed internal battery and huge other battery - no problems updating).

You're welcome. Lenovo System Update is one of the few manufacturer supplied tools that seems really useful. Even makes BIOS update easy. Naturally the t440s is a bit older now, but ex-business laptops can be quite good value - I bought it for travelling as a smaller quite light laptop (without the huge battery), but it's been in regular use.

Not keen on the odd touchpad design - the whole thing moves, and no separate buttons.