Windows 10 Upgrade problems

Which model Dell PC?

Sorry for not giving the detail and thanks for taking an interest

The machine in question is an Inspiron 3847 - ok it's an old PC but it was working fine until this upgrade

Ive ran the dell hardware diagnostics which suggest physically its fine

My thoughts (and I'm no expert) were it must dislike 1803 for some reason so if I could get an earlier ISO and install then disable auto updates I might get a little more us out of it?  

What model of Dell? What is the BIOS version and SMBIOS?

You can download older builds of Windows 10 using the Windows iso Download Tool, although install Windows 10 Offline so it doesn't automatically update to the latest build. On the older build you can try to update your BIOS to the latest version which make help resolve your issue with Version 1803:

https://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/67-microsoft-windows-and-office-iso-download-tool

Also Windows 10 Version 1809 should be out sometime towards the end of this month, so you can try directly clean installing Windows 10 with that new .iso once it is released.

Thanks Philip I'll get back with BIOS details - spoke to tech people at Dell who were very helpful even though my PC is way out of warranty.  Theyve sent me a link to restore back to Win8 which is how the machine shipped, i'm not hopeful after all the problems I've had, Im also downloading win10 1709 now thought I'd give that a go as I have little to lose, if i manage to get a working PC I may look at updating BIOS but may just switch off updates and stick.

Dell tech support are adamant my PC can run 1803 -  the nice people at Dell are offering me 15% off a new PC so I think I may go down that route if the Win8 restoration is unsuccessful.  Might do it anyway as i didnt realise the PC was 4 yrs old.  

I run Windows 10 on laptops that are 10 years old such as Dell's Latitude E6400 and Lenovo's SL510.

They run perfectly fun.

Success!!!!!!!!!   Ive got 1709 installed and running, so happy - Ive now (hopefully) killed off windows updates, I went into control panel/services and disabled updates, do I need to do anything else??

Thanks to people who responded to my pleas for help - think I will get a new PC but so happy that the old one is now functioning 

Make an image backup.

Thanks Philip for your continuing interest - here are those details

BIOS = Dell A10 10/05/18

SMBIOS = 2.7

After my struggles of the last few weeks I would be a little reluctant to try and upgrade,  Dell's tech people say that machine is capable of runnning 1803 but as a complete novice I'm a little sceptical after the upgrade has failed twice.  Might try 1809 eventually - but I'm keeping my 1709 USB in case of disaster.

I'm not very up on different bios versions . In my case this refurbished OptiPlex 780 mini tower I got on the 29th of Aug 2018 is running windows 10 Pro 1803 just fine . Yet as far as bios versions I see A09 which appears to be the latest version for this PC tower . If I try to see if A9 and A09 are the same thing by doing a search only by the version not the PC type only A09 comes up. The latest update was Nov 3 2011 which seems to be what I must have.

 My question is do bios versions only apply to the actual PC model or mother board and GPU and is version A9 and A09 the same thing? 

The OptiPlex is an older model and the latest BIOS update for it is A15:

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/optiplex-780.html

A01 is just revision 1, A02 revision 2, etc etc. The updates are motherboard specific. 

When you say mother board specific , what do I need to know about the mother board in this PC? All I know is the manufacturer date is 07/22/2011 and the CPU is E8400@3.00 GHz. It seems to work fine . This info was found hitting F12 then choosing F2 or bios settings .

Hey there, we seemed to have had the same problem, there is a dell tool online that will fix your update problem, just let me find it.  It took me a little while the first time, but I think I may have bookmarked it this time.  https://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/sln297954/dell-computers-tested-for-windows-10-april-2018-update-and-previous-versions-of-windows-10?lang=en 

You should be able to enter your service tag, find the tool and fix the updater, I used it earlier today.  If this does not do it please reply and I will  

sorry for the extra reply but I just found this page, seems to have ALL the toold you might need https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows.aspx

I meant system model specific. The BIOS Update A15 is the latest update applicable to all OptiPlex 780 systems:

http://downloads.dell.com/published/pages/optiplex-780.html