Windows 10 Creator Update 1709 fails On my Dell XPS L501X laptop

The problem generally wasn't with Dell but with the companies that made the chips and cards inside the computers like the Audio, Video, WiFi, etc.  Those companies are constantly updating and improving their products and if they won't update their drivers for older products and newer operating systems, the OEM's like Dell are unable to support those models.  Update 1709 seems to be creating a new cut off line even for computers that were ok to update to Windows 10 initially so you are not alone in that respect at all.  From what I remember the cutoff was about 3 years from model introduction for Windows 10.

I suppose the definition of "useful" is open to interpretation, but even taking into account the fact that PCs are being kept for longer stretches of time these days, expecting more than 10 years of useful life out of any PC is pretty unrealistic, even if the PC was top of the line when you bought it.

Out of curiosity, what isn't working on Win10 1709 with that system, and do those things remain broken even if you perform a clean install rather than updating from a previous version?  Also, Win10 1709 is the Fall Creators Update; the Creators Update is Win10 1703.

Thanks for the comment, not sure what you mean about the 3 years. Are you saying a new computer only has a 3 year life expectancy?

Thanks for the comments, 1703 was working fine. When 1709 arrived the system hangs during the update at the third restart at 33% with no indication of what it was trying to do. I would have expected a more graceful exit with some record of what Windows was trying to do when it failed but apparently that is not in the thinking of the update design.

Microsoft support attempted to do a clean install remotely but I'm not sure they really know what they were doing. I my try again myself when I get the time and do a little more research.

I can restore to a version of 1703 but nothing I can do can stop the 1709 from forcing its way onto my computer. Again Microsoft attempted to stop all updates and leave 1703 but that effort lead to my CPU being consumed by something at 90% at all times.

If you have a Pro version of Win10, you can switch to the “Current Branch for Business” track, which will delay your updates to new releases for about 6 months after the general public release, by which time more bugs will have been fixed. I think the 3 years comment meant that if your PC was made more than 3 years before the initial release of Win10, it may not be supported in Win10 1709. I can’t independently confirm that, but if Windows 10 is just going to keep getting updated rather than replaced, obviously at some point older hardware will have to stop working with some new version of Win10.

I would try a clean install if it’s the upgrade process that’s hanging.

That's very strange because Microsoft's own Win10 release information page indicates that 1703 is Current Branch for Business, so you should under no circumstances be getting 1709 pushed to you.  If some critical security update somehow required 1709, Microsoft would have updated 1709 to CBB.  Link here: technet.microsoft.com/.../release-info.aspx

Note: As of 1709, Current Branch for Business has been renamed Semi-Annual Channel, whereas Current Branch is now Semi-Annual (Targeted), i.e. "you should be running this as a pilot program".

Well if you somehow can't update to 1709 nor can you escape doing so, after adequately cursing out Microsoft, I would resort to a clean install.  if you Google "Download Windows 10 ISO", the top hit will be a Microsoft page that allows you to download a tool that in turn download the files necessary to create disc or USB-based installation media directly from them, and you should have little to no work to do with respect to installing drivers on that system since support for pretty much everything internal to that system should be built in.

I have been able to restore my system to 1703 and used the group policy editor to set Configure Automatic Updates to Disable. Microsoft updates has not forced the 1709 update for 3 days now. I'm not sure what bad thing this does but my Laptop is useable again. Thanks for all advice!