Windows 10 Repair with Free Update From W8.1 Pro?

[RollingThunder]

I updated to Windows 10 with the free online MS update offered from a couple years from a retail Windows 8.1 Pro and I think I need to do a repair for W10. It appears one of the W10 updates borked a chipset leaving a '40' MB error code on bootup. What is the procedure to do a W10 repair under the update condition from W8.1?

 

[torin3]

You should be able use Windows 10 in my experience. The only problem I ever had was if I was using a Dell that wanted a UEFI install image instead of the BIOS based install image. But if you made restore media, you should be fine using it for your repair.

 

[Alaric]

If Windows 10 doesn't boot it should go in to a repair screen. Last time I had an issue with a W10 boot problem I started in safe mode and ran EasyBCD from a flash drive.

 

[EarthDog]

It appears one of the W10 updates borked a chipset leaving a '40' MB error code on bootup.

What does this mean?

 

[RollingThunder]

What does this mean?

The Asrock board's LED error code is #40 which comes back to "Chipset error." The machine boots OK and a reboot removes the error code but there are OS errors which need to be corrected. If I don't reboot to remove the 40 chipset error code it can do a hard lock sometimes after a day and sometimes after a week.

 

[Robert17]

Have you checked for the latest BIOS/chipset updates for that board?

 

[RollingThunder]

Have you checked for the latest BIOS/chipset updates for that board?

Robert,

Yes. I have V1.0 never updated but there are so many BIOS updates available I'm not sure which one to get. I probably don't need the very latest. There is supposed to be an online firmware update thru the motherboard but I can't make the correct network connection settings. It's been 10 years since I updated a BIOS!

I do have a W10 recovery USB I made on first install after the new build.

 

[trents]

Motherboard LED error codes at boot would not be driven by chip set driver problems. They aren't even loaded until you are booting into Windows.

The first thing I would do is check the system drive for physical problems using CrystaldiskInfo. If you get any color but blue and any report other than "Good" I would replace the drive.

If the physical health of the drive checks out, the second thing I would do is check for system file integrity: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker

The third thing I would do is run chkdsk /f /r from Powershell with admin priviledges.

If you have Windows 10 install media then you can initiate an install from within windows and it will give you the opportunity to choose the option of keeping your programs and data in place rather than doing a destructive clean install. This "in place" install often corrects system file brokenness that sfc /scannow can't.

If none of the above works, do a destructive clean install. Since you already have Windows 10 on the machine it will automatically activate if you do a clean install.

 

[Robert17]

I seem to remember having a Z170 board that didn't play nice with WinTen until I updated the BIOS. I don't think it was strictly a UEFI issue either. I had updated to WinTen from Win8 (my wife's PC). Maybe I'm misremembering but there was a hitch in the giddy up.

 

[RollingThunder]

Motherboard LED error codes at boot would not be driven by chip set driver problems. They aren't even loaded until you are booting into Windows.

The first thing I would do is check the system drive for physical problems using CrystaldiskInfo. If you get any color but blue and any report other than "Good" I would replace the drive.

If the physical health of the drive checks out, the second thing I would do is check for system file integrity: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker

The third thing I would do is run chkdsk /f /r from Powershell with admin priviledges.

If you have Windows 10 install media then you can initiate an install from within windows and it will give you the opportunity to choose the option of keeping your programs and data in place rather than doing a destructive clean install. This "in place" install often corrects system file brokenness that sfc /scannow can't.

If none of the above works, do a destructive clean install. Since you already have Windows 10 on the machine it will automatically activate if you do a clean install.

Trents,

The LED error code '40' appears AFTER bootup (Instead of the proper 'AA' LED code) and on Windows10 desktop. If I ignore it and leave machine idle for a day or week I get a HARD restart, like 'pull the plug! A 'restart' clears it to the correct 'AA.'

I get a Windows popup saying something about a 'missing/corrupt Windows file(s)' on a hard restart. No malware or viruses are present. The conflicting messages versus Crystal Disk and chkdsk /scan are really confusing the issue.

Admin run Crystal Disk shows100%. I also ran chkdsk /scan > no errors. I'll try your other suggestions tomorrow.

Robert,

I'll work on a BIOS update later when I can figure which one I need. The machine ran nicely for the first year, no error codes. This all started after a Windows update and I'm seeing LED error code '40' and am wondering WTF is this? A BIOS update may be all I need.

Otherwise the machine runs great, quick and cool.

 

[EarthDog]

BIOS update or repair install. It's odd that it changes codes though when in windows. The BIOS has nothing to do with anything once the OS starts to load AFAIK.

 

[trents]

You don't need to run CrystaldiskInfo as admin; just the two Powershell commands I mentioned need admin privileges.