Windows 10 Upgrade failure from windows 8.1

I have been attempting to upgrade Windows from 8.1 to 10 and so far it failed at various stages, with the screen becoming unresponsive and black.

After reading various comments I have attempted the below:

• Uninstalled & Removed Avast antivirus
• Disabled Firewall
• Removed Nvidia Graphic card (asus) and uninstalled any software associated with it
• Updated Intel Graphic drivers (they were outdated)
• Run the Microsoft Windows update troubleshooter. This apparently fixed problem 0x80070057, 'service registration missing or corrupt' and 'problems installing recent updates'.
• Uninstalled all unnecessary programs
• Disabled all startup programs
• Removed all unnecessary USB connections

The maximum percentage of upgrade completion that I saw before the PC froze was 88% after possibly more than a dozen attempts. The PC has been left in the 'black screen' frozen status for more than 8 hours, just to be sure that the update was not interrupted.

When the PC freezes there is zero disc activity and no device (mouse, keyboard) is recognized.

A force restart results in 3, 4 restarts where initially the system tries to restore the update and then - thankfully - reverts to the previous installed version (8.1) with no issue.

Now the PC is from Zoostorm, but the automatic test carried out from the Microsoft Windows 10 confirm that Windows 10 App should work on the machine with no issue.

Any suggestion to resolve this?

So far it's been a disappointing experience, especially as the error messages provided are completely vague in truly Microsoft style.

Happy to provide more information if needed.

I have used the installation via media creation tool with DVD but again the result was the infamous black screen with the arrow pointer in the middle and system frozen.

After speaking with the PC manufacturer, I have performed the PC 'Refresh'. This uninstall ALL user installed software and revert the machine to factory settings. Note that data (documents, photos etc. )is untouched by this process.

The Refresh meant that the operating system was reverted to Windows 8. I had to upgrade to Windows 8.1. In addition I had to reinstall ALL the Windows updates to date.

After all updates were installed - note that it can take quite a few restart/check for updates - it was eventually possible to complete the upgrade successfully.

This seems to validate what error 0xC1900101 - 0x40017 is commonly associated with - non Microsoft software - causing the failure to upgrade.

Nonetheless, quite a painful process for an upgrade. Hope this will help some of the many users affected.