Installing 25H2 (on unsupported hardware) has partially bricked laptop.


Mooly

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I clean installed 25H2 using Rufus on my old Dell Vostro 3750 laptop. It seemed to be going well until what was the final restart of the install when it froze on the Dell splash screen forcing me to use the power button to regain control. After that it booted into Windows and Winver showed 26200.9457

At this point I discovered a major problem. The Vostro has four USB ports, a USB2, two USB3 and one of those USB/other ports. The USB3 ports seemed dead although they do supply power to a drive. Nothing recognised. The other two work normally. Nothing obvious broken in device manager, however it seems much deeper than that...

It gets worse, those two ports are not now recognised in the BIOS. A reboot with a bootable flash drive in place simply produces a flashing cursor, no splash screen.

I took the laptop battery out and left it all overnight. First boot up actually failed as soon as it went from splash screen to Windows with the display freezing at a low contrast level. Again power button used to regain control. This time it booted to Windows and a drive was recognised audibly when plugged into the USB3 port (I got the Windows chimes a drive had been connected) but then nothing. All as before.

I can only guess that the USB 3 controller has been latched into some indeterminate state by that first install freeze.

I am contemplating removing the CMOS battery but its a major strip down to pretty much the last nut and bolt to reach it. Or as its an old machine just used for trying stuff on I could leave it as is.

The BIOS can be accessed on boot and all looks OK. I have repeatedly tried loading the defaults in the BIOS but nothing works.

So it seems Windows or I guess even an update that goes wrong really can brick hardware.
 

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At a glance

W11 Pro Future Platform 29600 branch latest b...Intel i58GbIntel HD Graphics
OS
W11 Pro Future Platform 29600 branch latest build
Computer type
Laptop
Manufacturer/Model
Dell 7760 Mobile Precision 17"
CPU
Intel i5
Motherboard
Unknown
Memory
8Gb
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD Graphics
Sound Card
Realtek
Monitor(s) Displays
Internal
Hard Drives
2 x 256Gb SSD
PSU
Dell 240 watt
Mouse
Dell Premier Bluetooth
Internet Speed
50Mbps
Browser
Edge
Antivirus
Default Microsoft Security
Sorry to hear your troubles installing Windows 11 25H2. By the way, where did you download Windows 11 from ? Microsoft website or through Rufus app or someplace else ?

Was your laptop connected to internet during Windows installation ?
 

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  • At a glance

    Windows 11 Pro build 26200.8524Intel i7-4790Teams DDR3-1600 4x4 GBMSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti
    OS
    Windows 11 Pro build 26200.8524
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    Intel i7-4790
    Motherboard
    Asus H97 Pro Gamer with add-on TPM1.2 module
    Memory
    Teams DDR3-1600 4x4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti
    Sound Card
    Realtek ALC1150
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell P2425D
    Screen Resolution
    2560 by 1440 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Corsair NVMe M.2 Core XT 1000 GB (Windows 11 v.25H2); Samsung SATA Evo 870 500 GB (Windows 11 v.25H2);
    PSU
    Corsair HX850
    Case
    Gigabyte Solo 210
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    Zalman CNPS7X Tower
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    Microsoft AIO Wireless (includes touchpad)
    Mouse
    HP S1000 Plus Wireless
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    500 Mb fiber optic
    Browser
    Chrome; MS Edge
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    Windows Defender
  • At a glance

    MacOS 12 MontereyIntel Core i58 GBIntel integrated
    Operating System
    MacOS 12 Monterey
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Apple Macbook Air
    CPU
    Intel Core i5
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel integrated
    Screen Resolution
    1440 by 900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    128 GB
    Keyboard
    Built-in
    Mouse
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    Internet Speed
    802.11 ac
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    Chrome; Safari
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    N/A

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