Windows 10 Upgrade Experiences

[BobH]

Yesterday, I upgraded this laptop to Windows 10 - as reported in another thread. The process went smoothly, much better than I expected, in fact. Yes, there are a few new things to learn and a lot of experience to gather which will take a little time, but the upgrade was far better than I had feared . . . until today.

Today, I tried to upgrade my desktop system. The installation took about a half hour. Then I ran into problems. I can use system tools but I cannot load apps because the Nvidia graphics card driver is incompatible with Windows 10. I get this error message on trying to load any app: NvTmru.exe - Bad Image. It goes on to say that the file, nvapi.dll, is either not compatible with Windows or it contains an error. It then instructs me to contact the vendor etc.

Using the laptop, I went to the Nvidia web site and entered in chat support and got the information and link I needed to download the driver update. I downloaded it and unzipped it to a thumb drive, but I cannot figure out how to load it. One of Nvidia's FAQ posts says that Win 10 will download and update GPU drivers in background mode . . . that I should just wait for this to happen and that it might take a quarter hour or more. So far that has not worked. When boot and leave it, I get the error message which then hangs the system.

After power failing the system and rebooting, I've tried using Device Manager (thank you, Carol, for telling me how to find CP) to update the driver but it checks the thumb drive and tells me that the driver is up to date.

Can anyone here suggest how to over come this conundrum? I have no idea which of the folders downloaded from Nvidia for the driver update contains the code to automatically start the update. So far, each one I've tried fails on the same error message.

[HansV]

When I downloaded the Windows 10-compatible driver from the NVidia website, it was a single .exe file. Installing it was a matter of double-clicking the .exe...

[BobH]

Thanks, Hans.

I must have downloaded the wrong driver files, although they were the ones suggested by chat support.

That's the bad news!

THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT I'M TYPING THIS ON MY DESKTOP!

After leaving this system alone for about a half hour, I came back to it and was able to load Firefox without errors.

[HansV]

Great - thanks for the update!

[BobH]

The problem has returned. I've been able to open Firefox and even got Thunderbird open once but the error message returned and the system froze. CP>Programs and Features shows TB installed but I cannot get it to open by any means including Run as Administrator.

[HansV]

You might try uninstalling and reinstalling Thunderbird.

[BobH]

Thanks, Hans!

I think I'm going to uninstall and download fresh copies of both Firefox and Thunderbird. I'm still getting errors and strange behavior. If I open Thunderbird, I can't get FF to open except in safe mode.

I went back and downloaded the Nvidia GeForce 9500GT Windows 10 driver and installed it, or tried to. When I go into Device Manager it still shows my driver version as 9.18.13.4174 which I think is the new driver as it is dated 29 June 2015.

Do you run the same card? What driver version do you have?

This driving me to . Pardon me while I run to the supermarket.

[HansV]

I have a Geforce 750 GTI card, and the driver is version 353.62 released on July 29, 2015 (the latest version is 355.60, released on August 13).

[HansV]

BTW, the Geforce 9500 GT isn't listed among the cards supported by these new drivers...
Have you rebooted your PC after installing the driver? I had to do so before it was recognized.

[BobH]

Thank you, Hans!

Yes. I have rebooted numerous times. My GPU is a bit dated but not all that old . . . maybe 3-4 years when I built this system. I have not seen the error message about the nvapi.dll file since I installed the new driver; so I think that issue is resolved but I continue to have others.

Neither of the Mozilla products will run, now. I uninstalled them then used Edge to download fresh copies and installed them without error; however, when trying to run them I immediately get a message screen saying that the app crashed. This happens with both Firefox and Thunderbird with the same crash report panel but with the correct app name. Neither will open now although I was able to run on or the other yesterday before giving up. I'm using Edge to type this.

I also experience system hangs frequently. Just a moment ago, I tried to submit this post and the system hung and I had to power fail and reboot.

[BobH]

Good news. I submitted the prior post without a system hang.

When I reboot the first thing I do now is to open Task Manager so I can get some insight into what's going on. In looking at the Performance tab, all seems normal with CPU usage and Memory usage - both numbers very low as would be expected running only Edge and Task Manager - but my system disk, an SSD, has been going to 100% utilization. Checking it just now, the usage is back down to minimal levels, hardly registering on the graph.

What can I do to troubleshoot the system disk problem? I think I can reproduce it by simply trying to run Thunderbirds or Firefox.

Are there Windows 10 installation diagnostics that I should look into?

Thanks for all your help. The with dinner last night helped my disposition if not the computer problem.

[HansV]

I'm sorry for you that you have so many problems; I'm afraid I don't know what causes them...

The update experience seems to vary enormously - some people have no problems at all, others complain about software vanishing during the upgrade, software not working any more etc...

[Jay Freedman]

BobH, seeing the disk activity go to 100% for an extended period just after a cold boot is not uncommon. It's usually an antivirus scan or the file indexer, or both.

To see exactly what's going on, run the Resource Monitor (either ask Cortana to start it, or click the link on the Performance tab of the Task Manager). In the Resource Monitor, click the Disk tab. Click the column heading of the Total column to sort the most active processes to the top of the list.

You can put a check in the box next to a process to limit the Disk Activity list to just the files being used by that process.

Once you know what's hammering the disk, you can decide whether you can and should do something about it.

[BobH]

Thanks for the information, Jay.

I have been running performance monitor trying to figure out what is pounding the disk. It seems that malwarebytesantimalware is one of the culprits but it is not a constant user. I cannot figure out what functions (processes/services) is eating up all the disk utilization. I am running essentially the same configuration that I was running under Win 7 HPE and never had the problem of the system drive going to total utilization.

I am working from the assumption that my system hangs are the result of the C: drive being fully utilized. That might be a bad assumption, but I can't seem to find anything else to nominate as the cause.

I realize that there is a rush of things that happen at start up then drop into an awaiting call state. I don't think that is the cause of my 100% utilization though because it never seems to drop back down before the system hangs. I can't get it to run long enough to see if the start up load is the problem.

I'm back on the laptop now. I'm going to post some questions on Microsoft to see if anyone there has any ideas. I'm back to the point where I cannot load either Thunderbird or Firefox on the other system.

[BobH]

After struggling to fix Win 10 since last Saturday and getting nowhere, I decided to revert to Windows 7 HPE using the Settings>Update and Security>Recovery process. I made this decision after reading many complaints from others on the Microsoft Community forums and after getting no suggestions from anyone about how to diagnose and solve my problem.

So far, the reversion process has been running more than an hour without completing. No other apps are open.

Rudi, remember what I told you about the bleeding edge?

[Rudi]

The cutting edge....right...it can become bloody!

I'll send you some bandaids and antiseptic
...and some whiskey to while away the waiting time...

[BobH]

Can I get next day delivery?

[aekyall]

If, having installed Windows 10, you revert back to Windows 7, do you still qualify for a free upgrade (back) to Windows 10 should you wish to do so at some point - or have you 'blown' your chance - anyone know?

[HansV]

Even if you downgrade from Windows 10 to your previous version of Windows (7 or 8.1), the offer to install Windows 10 for free remains valid through July 28, 2016.

[BobH]

the saga continues . . .

It finally got to where I could not even get Win 10 to run without all kinds of errors many of which were not reported but just system hangs. I never got the BSOD, though.

I finally decided to try to revert to Win 7 as I reported. After letting the restore/restart from within the Win 10 System options run for 24 hours (mol), I gave up and tried a reboot. I could not get a reboot out of it.

I found my Win 7 disks and tried to reload the os, but I could not get it to go past the SSD. I had to enter the UEFI/BIOS and disable my hard disks an leave only the CD/DVD drive active. I was then able to start loading Win 7 back on the machine. I suspect that this adventure is going to have several other unexpected and unpleasant twists and turns before I'm back to the status quo ante.