Hey Y’all,
I just ran across an interesting situation while trying to update a HP Laptop with Windows 10 Home.
Windows Status:
Item Value
------ -----
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Home
Version 10.0.18363.1556
Release ID 1909
--- Windows Upgrades --- Vers.
Vers Branch Build Product Name Installed Time
---- ------- ----- ------------- ---------- -----
1803 rs4_release 17134 Windows 10 ... 2018/09/03 14:56
1607 rs1_release 14393 Windows 10 ... 2017/02/20 16:46
Hardware Info:
Item Value
---- -----
Manufacturer HP
Model HP Notebook
System Type x64-based PC
Enclosure Notebook
BIOS Serial No xxxxxxxxxx
Name F.21
Version F.21
Date 10/26/2016 20:00
Manufacturer Insyde
Creator INSYDE Corp.
Firmware Type UEFI
Secure Boot UEFI Enabled
Boot Keys Compromised False
Trusted Platform Module Present
Processor Name AMD A9-9410 RADEON R5, 5 COMPUTE CORES 2C+3G
Market Seg. Ryzen 5
Architecture 64 Bit
Info AMD64 Family 21 Model 112 Stepping 0
Maker AuthenticAMD
Memory Information:
Bank Data Size
MB Slot Pos Type Speed Width / GB Manufacturer Serial No.
--------------- ---- ---- ----- ----- ------ ------------ ----------
Bottom-slot ... DDR4 1866 64 4.00 Samsung 179EA7DD
--- Storage ---
Physical Disk Information:
Disk Disk Size Parti GPT
No. Name SSD / GB tions MBR Boot Data Bus
----- ----- --- --------- ----- --- ----- ---------
0 WDC WD10JPVX-60JC3T0 No 931.51 5 GPT Yes
As you can see this was out of date and under powered.
My plan was to upgrade memory (8/16 depending) and an SSD.
However, I wanted to make sure things would work first.
The user could not remember passwords as it hadn’t been used for quite a while nor had it been updated as is evident from the information above.
Here are the steps I took:
- I used Offline NT Password & Registry Editor to clear the password for the Administrator Account (it wouldn’t work on the MS Account!)
- I tried to setup a new User Account but it would not let me do that!
- Tried to run Windows Update but that wouldn’t work either.
- Tried an Over-the-Top install…failed again. Booted into Windows.
- Tried a RUFUS disk w/Win 10 ISO…Failed. Booted into Windows.
- Tried a straight Windows 10 Install USB key…Failed.
- Running out options I opened the machine up and installed a matching pair of 4 GB DDR4 SODIMMS I had on hand. Rebooted to make sure they would work…OK. Rebooted into the Windows 10 Install USB key…Success.
Seems that you better have 8GB if you want to boot into a Windows 10 USB key. Even though Win 10 Home “ran” with 4GB I guess it takes more to install it.
