problem upgrading dell vostro 1000 laptop

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  1. Posts : 1,507
    windows 10 PRO
       #1

    problem upgrading dell vostro 1000 laptop


    Tried upgrading my vostro 1000 to Windows 10, but got an message window saying that Dell has an issue with ati Radeon xpress 1150 not sure if it's a driver issue or hardware..

    is is there anything I can do ?

    thanks
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 8
    7,8.1,10
       #2

    First, for older machines I highly recommend that you start with a 32bit version of Windows 7 or 8.x. Even if your system can run 64bit you will have many less problems going 32bit through all this. I had to fresh reinstall Windows 7/8 with the 32bit version before several of my machines would upgrade properly.


    Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and install Windows 10 32bit on a USB thumb drive.


    Windows 10


    Make sure you have validated Windows 7/10 before you start (Control Panel -> System)


    Then, insert the thumb drive and and run the setup program, you should be able to bypass the driver check and get Windows 10 installed.


    When asked for the Windows 10 product key, select skip. Since your machine already has a validated Windows 7/8, that validation will be carried over.


    After windows 10 is installed, if the default video driver does not work so good, try installing the latest driver you can find even if it's for Windows 7 or 8.


    Good luck and please report back to let us know how it went, it will be helpful for others.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #3

    StoweUser said:
    When asked for the Windows 10 product key, select skip. Since your machine already has a validated Windows 7/8, that validation will be carried over.
    Not if the Windows 10 upgrade/install is asking for a product key.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 8
    7,8.1,10
       #4

    NavyLCDR said:
    Not if the Windows 10 upgrade/install is asking for a product key.

    Respectfully disagree. You have a Windows 7/8 key not a 10 key. Before the November update Windows 7/8 keys would not work to activate 10. It is unclear at this point if the media creation tool has been updated.

    Anyway, there is always the skip option at the key entry screen, and Microsoft itself recommends using skip if you are upgrading from a validated 7/8. There's never a need to enter anything there, just skip it and if you have a validated 7/8, you'll find that 10 validates automatically. I have done many upgrades and then fresh installs and I've never had to enter a key if I was starting with a validated 7/8.

    You can always enter the key later so why risk messing up the install?
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  5. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #5

    StoweUser said:
    There's never a need to enter anything there, just skip it and if you have a validated 7/8, you'll find that 10 validates automatically.
    Not if that computer has never had Windows 10 on it and not if there is not a product key available for Windows 10 to use to activate with. Yes, Windows 10 version 1511 build 10586 is supposed to activate with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key (and by retrieving a previously stored Windows 10 digital entitlement from Microsoft activation servers if Windows 10 was activated before on that same computer). But it has to have the product key available to it in order to activate. It will retrieve a Windows 8 product key stored in bios automatically.

    But the fact is: Windows 10 clean installed on a computer that has never had Windows 10 on it before will not activate automatically based upon Windows 7/8/8.1 having been installed on it previously, without being provided a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key to activate with (either retrieved from bios or manually entered by the user). If the user is coming from Windows 7 for the first time and clean installs Windows 10 - they need to have their product key available to enter for activation (or the geniuneticket.xml file).
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 8
    7,8.1,10
       #6

    NavyLCDR said:
    Not if that computer has never had Windows 10 on it and not if there is not a product key available for Windows 10 to use to activate with. Yes, Windows 10 version 1511 build 10586 is supposed to activate with a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key (and by retrieving a previously stored Windows 10 digital entitlement from Microsoft activation servers if Windows 10 was activated before on that same computer). But it has to have the product key available to it in order to activate. It will retrieve a Windows 8 product key stored in bios automatically.

    But the fact is: Windows 10 clean installed on a computer that has never had Windows 10 on it before will not activate automatically based upon Windows 7/8/8.1 having been installed on it previously, without being provided a Windows 7/8/8.1 product key to activate with (either retrieved from bios or manually entered by the user). If the user is coming from Windows 7 for the first time and clean installs Windows 10 - they need to have their product key available to enter for activation (or the geniuneticket.xml file).
    True, but that is not the situation here. As my post clearly indicated that one should start with a validated 7/8, upgrade to 10 and be auto-validated, and then do a fresh install.

    Also, it is clear from the OP that he is trying to do the upgrade, not a fresh install since it's the upgrade tool which is balking at the upgrade. If he was doing a fresh install there would not be that problem.

    I have myself just completed an install of Windows 10 on a Dell Vostro 1000 identical to the OP's machine so I speak with specific experience. If he follows my instructions he will not have a problem.

    If he starts by trying a fresh install of 10, and tries to enter a 7/8 key he will fail.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,507
    windows 10 PRO
    Thread Starter
       #7

    StoweUser said:
    First, for older machines I highly recommend that you start with a 32bit version of Windows 7 or 8.x. Even if your system can run 64bit you will have many less problems going 32bit through all this. I had to fresh reinstall Windows 7/8 with the 32bit version before several of my machines would upgrade properly.


    Download the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool and install Windows 10 32bit on a USB thumb drive.


    Windows 10


    Make sure you have validated Windows 7/10 before you start (Control Panel -> System)


    Then, insert the thumb drive and and run the setup program, you should be able to bypass the driver check and get Windows 10 installed.


    When asked for the Windows 10 product key, select skip. Since your machine already has a validated Windows 7/8, that validation will be carried over.


    After windows 10 is installed, if the default video driver does not work so good, try installing the latest driver you can find even if it's for Windows 7 or 8.


    Good luck and please report back to let us know how it went, it will be helpful for others.
    Is it acceptable / possible to install Windows 10 32bit onto a Windows 7 64bit machine ? plus you say the best method is install from within Windows 7....is that correct ? also would this be a clean install or an upgrade ?

    thanks, If the above is correct I will certainly report back on success / failure
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 8
    7,8.1,10
       #8

    reddwarf4ever said:
    Is it acceptable / possible to install Windows 10 32bit onto a Windows 7 64bit machine ? plus you say the best method is install from within Windows 7....is that correct ? also would this be a clean install or an upgrade ?

    thanks, If the above is correct I will certainly report back on success / failure
    Well, clearly if you have a 7 64bit installation and you just do the "download and install" upgrade, 10 will install as 64bit. But you said that that would not work since the upgrade won't let you proceed with the xpress 1150 video, so let's leave that aside.

    As a first go, I would try downloading the 32bit version (pro or home, depending on which version of 7 you have - they have to match) and use the tool to put that on a USB flash drive. The drive has to be at least 4gb and I've found that some drives work better than others. I have a Adata Pro that works great, but my cheapo Adata uc510 never works right.

    When you put the drive in the computer to be upgraded, you can run the setup utility on the drive and see what happens. Either it will fail and say that the version is incorrect (32 vs 64) or it will proceed and you're good to go.

    If it fails you have two options. But let me say first, my goal is always to get to a nice, clean, fresh install at the end and that means wiping out any user data. It goes without saying that you should have everything backed up before you do any of this.

    So, if the 32 bit version does not load, you would want to go back and download the 64 bit version and try that.

    If that works than you can either stay there with an 'upgraded' install, or you can further proceed with option 2 which is to try a fresh install of 32 bit once you have successfully upgraded with the 64 bit and achieved a validated windows 10. By the way, once Windows 10 reports that its validated, you never need to enter any keys in no matter how many times you reinstall 10. Once it's validated as 10, it's for the life of the machine (really the motherboard.)

    Sounds confusing, but please feel free to ask any further questions you might have.

    By the way, if you have another computer with some space, I recommend downloading all the ISO's you can get and saving them so you don't need to download them again. In your case it would be handy to have both the 32 and 64 bit versions of both 7 and 10, so 4 different ISOs. Then you can just use the tool (or RUFUS which works really well) to create an install USB of whatever you need.

    Best of luck!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #9

    reddwarf4ever said:
    Is it acceptable / possible to install Windows 10 32bit onto a Windows 7 64bit machine ? plus you say the best method is install from within Windows 7....is that correct ? also would this be a clean install or an upgrade ?

    thanks, If the above is correct I will certainly report back on success / failure
    In order to move from 32-bit to 64-bit or 64-bit to 32-bit a clean install from scratch must be done - it is not possible to "upgrade" or "downgrade".

    Installing Windows 10 from inside WIndows 7 is an upgrade, not a clean install. Contrary to StoweUser's advice - if you are doing an upgrade from inside Windows 7 to Windows 10 and Windows 10 asks for a product key during that upgrade - STOP AND CANCEL! The very reason that Windows 10 will ask for a product key during an in place upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 is because it has not found a valid way to activate itself - more than likely the reason is that you are attempting to upgrade to the wrong version of Windows 10.

    There are dozens of posts on this forum asking why their Windows 10 is not activated because they skipped entering a product key during the upgrade. The answer both from here and Microsoft is - go back and do the upgrade again and this time use a version of Windows 10 that matches the version of Windows 7/8/8.1 that you are coming from.

    After you have Windows 10 activated on that computer - then you can clean install that same version of Windows 10 (32-bit/64bit does not matter because they use the same activation) on the same computer and skip entering a product key and it will activate based upon the previous Windows 10 activation that was stored on Microsoft servers the first time.

    Some definitions that will be helpful:

    Architecture: 32-bit or 64-bit.
    Version: Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education.
    Edition: N, Single Language, and just plain regular Windows 10 (not N, not Single Language).

    To achieve automatic activation, both the version and edition must match - architecture does not matter. To do an upgrade, the architecture must match - and for the upgrade to automatically activate based on the previous OS, the version and edition must also match. To change architectures, you must do a clean, starting from scratch install.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 8
    7,8.1,10
       #10

    NavyLCDR said:
    In order to move from 32-bit to 64-bit or 64-bit to 32-bit a clean install from scratch must be done.

    Installing Windows 10 from inside WIndows 7 is an upgrade, not a clean install. Contrary to StoweUser's advice - if you are doing an upgrade from inside Windows 7 to Windows 10 and Windows 10 asks for a product key during that upgrade - STOP AND CANCEL! The very reason that Windows 10 will ask for a product key during an in place upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 is because it has not found a valid way to activate itself - more than likely the reason is that you are attempting to upgrade to the wrong version of Windows 10.

    There are dozens of posts on this forum asking why their Windows 10 is not activated because they skipped entering a product key during the upgrade. The answer both from here and Microsoft is - go back and do the upgrade again and this time use a version of Windows 10 that matches the version of Windows 7/8/8.1 that you are coming from.
    You are clearly mixing up two different problems here. Someone installing the wrong version of 10 (pro vs home) has nothing to do with the case where someone has a validated install of 7 and is doing an upgrade with the appropriate version of 10. This is what we are talking about here, not some other scenario.

    Actually, up till recently the reason that people have problems with their installs is EXACTLY that they enter a windows 7 key in the windows 10 install screen. This may have been fixed with the recent November update but we will see.

    And by the way, your advice makes no sense. If someone is doing an upgrade from 'within' Windows 7 how could they possibly have the wrong version? Windows downloads the installer, and it doesn't download the wrong one. And secondly, if one has a valid 7 install, you say that it won't ask for a key, so how could someone skip entering a key if they are never asked for one?

    It is true that is someone does a fresh install with the wrong version of 10, they won't activate, but that has nothing to do with whether someone skips the key entry - it is simply that they do not have a valid license for the wrong version they are attempting to install whether they enter a key or not.

    What you are continuing to miss here is that 1. the OP has a valid windows 7 install. And 2. the upgrade will not work due to incompatible video hardware. Talking about an in-place upgrade is irrelevant and counter productive because the OP cannot go that route. Hence the need for the USB install.

    Finally, there has never been any issue reported by the OP regarding activation so why do you keep interjecting on that point? We are trying to work around some old hardware and you are unnecessarily complicating the situation and creating confusion.

    Like I said previously, I have just completed a successful upgrade and fresh install on a Dell Vostro 1000. Have you? Until then I suggest the OP follow my process, it will work fine.
      My Computer


 

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