Dell Venue 8 Pro -upgrade to Windows 10 failed more than 25 times

lvgandhi · 24 Sep 2015

I have tried upgrading my Dell venue 8 Pro many times from GWX, installation media and direct download in normal and also after reset of tablet with secure boot and also removing secure boot, removing fast boot and with fast boot using all permutations and combinations. Still I am unsuccessful. I am not finding any way to get support from Dell also. Any help will be appreciated. It goes to upgrade 91% always and then says going to reboot. But it reboots to windows 8.1.

Night Hawk · 25 Sep 2015

I think you won't want to hear the answer for this! The 8.1 pre-installed on the tablet is an "embedded OS" not something like what you would see on a Netbook or regular laptop but a permanent OS! That would like trying to replace RT on an MS Surface Pro model which simply can't be done if this is the case.

In other words the OS is flashed onto an eprom not simply written to the NAND type flash memory onboard and the only way to change OS is to buy one with 10 on it already. As for Dell support???????? Try the term "DELL MARE" for a start since that has been the rep that company has seen for a long, long time in a place far, far away removed! Over the years I have continued to hear about Dell mares!

lvgandhi · 25 Sep 2015

But in net, I saw few have upgraded DV8P to windows 10. Thanks for your response.

bobkn · 25 Sep 2015

Night Hawk said:

I think you won't want to hear the answer for this! The 8.1 pre-installed on the tablet is an "embedded OS" not something like what you would see on a Netbook or regular laptop but a permanent OS! That would like trying to replace RT on an MS Surface Pro model which simply can't be done if this is the case.

In other words the OS is flashed onto an eprom not simply written to the NAND type flash memory onboard and the only way to change OS is to buy one with 10 on it already. As for Dell support???????? Try the term "DELL MARE" for a start since that has been the rep that company has seen for a long, long time in a place far, far away removed! Over the years I have continued to hear about Dell mares!

I don't own a Venue 8 Pro, but this is apparently incorrect.

Dell has Win 10 drivers available for download. A little Web searching also shows that people have done the free upgrade on this model.

I don't know what lvgandhi's problem is. I suspect that it may be a little tricky to run the upgrade on a tablet with only 32 or 64 GB of flash storage, especially 32 GB. Are there work-arounds that can use an added SD card for temporary storage during the upgrade?

Kyhi · 25 Sep 2015

I have a dell venue 8 with 32Gb drive... It was upgraded to windows 10 from windows 8.1 (OEM OS)

I know OP has tried different firmware settings.... I ran the upgrade from USB using the Dell Mini-USB to USB Powered Adapter..

You need to have enough drive space available for Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 -
the encrypted drive (OEM Default) has to be decrypted first..

On my 32gb drive - I created factory recovery media via control panel / recovery / create a recovery drive..
then choose to delete the factory recovery partition...

Also another issue may be that the tablet is using Wimboot - which actually uses files that point to a compressed .wim
rather then the files in an expanded directory..

Night Hawk · 25 Sep 2015

I never owned a Dell or Packard Bell but once had an IBM 386 and actually bartered that for a 486 AST flat top to upgrade from the "boat anchor" the 36 size wise had been only allowing for 16gb of memory and 5.25" floppy drives to see the first optical go into the AST until simply abandoning pre-made entirely! Never once regretted that decision while having tended to others with laptops.

As for complaints about Dell those come from a good number of Dell owners over the years. That wasn't from personal experience or opinion as I have taken the time often to look up what Dell has available. But there a few pointers in the guides here that could well help you get 10 on. One such guide that may prove useful is how to bypass the need for an upgrade install first to see a clean install go on instead where you could simply back up what you have on the model you have there first and then simply wipe the drive in order to free up the necessary drive space. Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Windows 10 Forums[2]=Installation%20and%20Setup

Once you have the Genuine Ticket saved to removable media or another safe place you would review the guide for seeing a Clean Install take place.

lvgandhi · 25 Sep 2015

Thanks for all those who responded. My DV8P is 64GB with additional SDXC card 64gb. As Kyhi stated and mentioned by me, I tried all methods, but failed.
But thanks to Brink for his tutorial
Clean Install Windows 10 Directly without having to Upgrade First - Page 2 - Windows 10 Forums
I could clean install and activate windows 32bit home in my DV8P.

Night Hawk · 26 Sep 2015

I figured that would be the option for you knowing that you were getting too darn frustrated as I was when first trying to figure out why 10 upgrade attempts kept failing! Brink has written tons of guides over the last several years not only here but on the other forums as well(Vista Forums, Seven Forums, Eight Forums) and does a great job on each of them!

AlT · 26 Sep 2015

Upgraded venue 8 pro to windows 10 sucessfully. Reminder you MUST update BIOS and chipsets BEFORE upgrading. or things like audio and wifi will not work. Download all these from DELL suport. and the windows 10 driver pack.. Works great. On Screen Keyboard is still way too sensitive but you can turn it down in settings. Enjoy the upgrade.

AlT · 26 Sep 2015

Upgraded venue 8 pro to windows 10 sucessfully. Reminder you MUST update BIOS and chipsets BEFORE upgrading. or things like audio and wifi will not work. Download all these from DELL suport. and the windows 10 driver pack.. Works great. On Screen Keyboard is still way too sensitive but you can turn it down in settings. Enjoy the upgrade.