Windows 11 Upgrade Fails

Question

Inspiron 7506 2-n-1 (slightly over a year old), Windows 10 Pro, 21H1   Before attempting the upgrade Windows PC Health Check app says my laptop meets the requirements to upgrade and the Dell Update app says there are no outstanding updates available. This model is listed in the supported Dell Windows 11 laptop models. Windows 10 prompts for the upgrade itself.   I've attempted the new upgrade a handful of times over the course of the last two months. During the upgrade process everything seems to download and install in Windows okay until the process goes to a screen with a Dell logo with a loading circle, somewhere around 40-50% on that screen the loading circle stops moving and the laptop blue screens like clock work. The error on the blue screen gives a stop code of DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION before rolling back to Windows 10.   Event Viewer lists two System errors around the time of the upgrade: #1. Volmgr - Crash dump initialization failed!  #2. WindowsUpdateClient - Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0xC1900101: Upgrade to Windows 11.   Looking up Driver Verifier DMA Violation stop code online had me checking a few things that didn't seem to be related - Opening Driver Verifier Manager in Windows and displaying/deleting existing settings indicates that no drivers are being verified. 500GB of available storage space. Device Manager doesn't show any drivers with a caution symbol, but there are a few that show a question mark that get automatically re-added after being uninstalled - they all seem to be mostly Bluetooth related. No peripherals, USBs, or anything plugged in other than the original charger is plugged in. Never used a docking station yet either, even though that seems to be a common issue with this stop code.   Receiving guidance on how to resolve this would be greatly appreciated. On a side note, if this can't be fixed easily what would the process be like for clean installing Windows in regards to getting prompted for a Windows key? (I believe factory resetting shouldn't require one, but I wasn't sure about a fresh install) Would the Dell apps be available afterwards? - Most importantly Dell Update and Mobile

mrfragz · Accepted Answer

Update Was able to remove the drivers showing the caution symbol in Device Manager by removing devices from Bluetooth settings screen. Tried update again and same blue screen/roll back. Factory reset the laptop and tried again hoping it would remove any driver issues I could of possibly caused. Tried update again and same blue screen/roll back. Tried clean installing Windows 11 from a flash drive, but was unable to proceed past the partition screen during the Windows installation due to no partitions/drives showing up as an option. Solution Ended up taking it in to our local computer shop and they were able to resolve the issues. They said the blue screen was happening due to a driver compatibility issue with Windows 11 (I believe they mentioned Intel Storage was the culprit). After that they must of ran into the same partition issues I saw that they were able to resolve by unlocking the partitions that must of been set that way by Dell.

JOcean · Answer

This web page may help. As for a clean install or update install try this page at MS. The first option (Installation Assistant) is basically the update version. The second option is the Media Creation Tool and works exactly like the Windows 10 version. And since you have the Windows 10 key already, activation would be automatic. Also on the support page for your system you can find Windows 11 drivers and Dell software.

matiushu · Answer

I get the exact same error on a Inspiron 14 7400 which is compatible for Windows 11 update as per WIndows Update and the Dell support page.

As a work around, I tried clean installing Windows 11 using Media Creation Tool creating a USB flash drive, but it doesn't find the drive 0 partitions. My hard drive is a SSD NVMe PC611 NVMe 5K hynix 1 TB

Please do you know how the local computer shop were able to unlock the partitions. I am actually surprised that Dell would lock the partitions ?

drumbunny · Answer

I have the exact same problem with my Inspiron 7506 2n1 which I also bought about 1 year ago.
The Windows 11 downloads and installs, but never gets past the bootup screen on restart (i.e. the Dell logo in white on a black background). It automatically uninstalls the upgrade and restarts Windows 10.

This laptop has been nothing but a headache. There were a lot of sudden BSOD problems that I resolved through this Board. I am not sure if that is part of the problem? Afriad to reset to factory default because I will loose the fix for the BSOD problems. Is there a way to save solutions in my account for this board?

The machine also has a very temperamental mouse that disappears and reappears at will and needs constant reawakening. Apparently that is a wiring problem.

Any suggestions from the wider world without bringing this machine to a tech?

Thanks!

WAVERJACK · Answer

Try removing the wifi card first, then try the update.

Windows General

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