10 replies to this topic

[PinballFan82]

Just in case anyone else wants to upgrade their Virtual Pinball Machine from Windows 7 to Windows 10, here’s what I ran into.

 

First – a little background:

 

I bought my used VPCabs Machine from the Seattle Pinball Museum.  If you haven’t been there, you should go.  I bought it in September 2016 and it was already wonky - probably built in 2014.

 

I then started the process of downloading and testing every possible machine (.vpt) I could download and test/play creating a spreadsheet of which machines worked, how well they worked, if they had a working back glass, etc.

 

After loading 500+ machines onto the Virtual Pinball – I played it intermittently.  When my grandson was born in November 2021 – I felt a hankering to get the machine back up and running and maybe add more machines to it.

 

Soon I learned that I should be uploading/trying .vpx machines, not .vpt.  There were a handful of machines created in .vpx format that I wanted to play that were not made in .vpt format.

 

When I ran them, the pin would crash. Sometimes it would play fine and THEN crash.  Sometimes it would just crash.

 

I queried the wonderful people on this forum to see if I could, in fact, upgrade to Windows 10 thinking that was my issue.  I got various responses back - most saying I could.  One suggesting that I clone the current hard drive and try to upgrade that to Windows 10.

 

On my birthday, I used some birthday money to buy a 1T SSD drive and I cloned the VPCabs Drive to the new one.  Figuring I could have one drive I could try to install Windows 10 while keeping the original drive “safe.”  If I was to completely f*ck this up, I’d keep my original drive intact.

 

When I went online to download the Windows Updater, I got an error message that read:  “We’re not sure what happened, but we’re unable to run this tool on your PC…Error Code 0x80072F8F – 0x20000

 

This was a “Media Creation Tool” error, and I was able to find a free download that fixed it nearly immediately.

 

Once I fixed that, I started the installation process.

 

It took quite a while but then, at the end, it reverted itself back to Windows 7 with this error:

 

0xC1900101 – 0x20017

The installation failed in the SAFE_OS phase with an error during BOOT operation

 

Clicking on the “troubleshoot” link – this came up:

 

Please visit: https://go.microsoft.../?LinkID=528892

 

A quick search informed me that some of the drivers my machine CURRENTLY has are not compatible with Windows 10 and thus, Windows 7 will not update to Windows 10.

 

Sadly, it doesn’t specify WHICH drivers are not compatible or which drives I need to update.

 

One option said that I should “Reset the BIOS from the BIOS Interface.”

 

I have no idea what that means and would probably seriously break my Virtual Pin so decided not to go that route – the next bet was to somehow update my drivers.

 

A quick search found a program called the “Outbyte Driver Updater.”  I quickly downloaded the program and it found MULTIPLE drivers that were out-of-date and, of course, wanted $50 to update them.  I’m always a little gun-shy on programs that purport to find issues on my hard drive and offer to fix them for fear that they’re a. bullsh*tting me, b. going to fix them but then say that I need to get the Super Updater and pay $$$ more or c. update the drivers but not the driver I need to install Windows 10.

 

Now what “Outbyte Driver Updater” DID do was provide me with a list of all the drivers I have that are out-of-date, including my NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti driver.  Sadly, it appears that NVIDIA doesn’t update that driver anymore and every driver package I would download, I would get an error message from NVIDIA that mine was not supported.

 

At this point, I tried a few other tweaks here and there, tried the Windows 10 install again only to get the original error message and it revert back to Windows 7.

 

If anyone has any ideas on how I can install Windows 10 and not have to go through this many hoops, I would appreciate it.  Hopefully people found this helpful.

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

[Mitchell]

Windows 10 came out July 15, 2015.

 

Your stuff is too old on your cabinet for Windows 10.

 

You may have to buy a new motherboard, Intel chip or AMD chip, memories, power suppy and a new graphics card (AMD or Nvidia). You don't have to pay $1000 or more on new computer. Grab a cheap one that is 4 years old or newer. Guys here can point out what you need to look for. Make sure it have Windows 10 with a Key.

 

Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 until Oct. 14, 2025.

 

Do not pay for drivers. Probably a scam. No telling what they are trying to give you. Beware of virus, malware and key logger.

Edited by Mitchell, 17 October 2023 - 07:05 AM.

[htamas]

If I'm not mistaken, it should still be possible to activate a Windows 10 installation using the legit Windows 7 product key for the same motherboard. In that case, you could perform a clean install of Windows 10 on the current hardware.

https://answers.micr...30-4ae32e85e645
There are tools available that can extract your current Windows 7 product key.

Connect the new SSD drive and try that. You could still transfer all your VP stuff from the old drive once the new installation is running.

You're better off with a clean Windows 10 installation instead of an in-place upgrade anyway.

Edited by htamas, 17 October 2023 - 09:07 AM.

[LoungeLizard]

You can try Windows "Tiny 11".  I have successfully installed it on two old laptops.  The only change needed was to use an SSD over HDD.

[sdivodul]

Yes, always better to do a fresh Windows install rather than an upgrade.

 

“Reset the BIOS from the BIOS Interface.” is probably not necessary, but look at your BIOS settings to see if anything needs changing. Need to press F1, Delete key, or something like that when PC starts rebooting. You should see a message telling you which key to press.

 

First thing I would do is get into BIOS, see what motherboard you have, and see if there is a set of Windows 10 drivers available for that motherboard.

[wiesshund]

If I'm not mistaken, it should still be possible to activate a Windows 10 installation using the legit Windows 7 product key for the same motherboard.

 

Yes, that is correct

[PinballFan82]

When I attempt to upgrade to Windows 10 - it appears to install just fine, goes through all the motions and then only hangs at the end and "resets the PC back to Windows 7" because of reasons.  Again, my searches have pointed at possible driver issues.

 

My ASSUMPTION, and I could be wrong of course, is that if I didn't have the driver issue Windows 10 would have installed just perfectly.

 

{{{shrug}}}

Yes, always better to do a fresh Windows install rather than an upgrade.

 

“Reset the BIOS from the BIOS Interface.” is probably not necessary, but look at your BIOS settings to see if anything needs changing. Need to press F1, Delete key, or something like that when PC starts rebooting. You should see a message telling you which key to press.

 

First thing I would do is get into BIOS, see what motherboard you have, and see if there is a set of Windows 10 drivers available for that motherboard.

 

 

Getting into the BIOS scares me a bit but I will take a looksee. Thanks!

You can try Windows "Tiny 11".  I have successfully installed it on two old laptops.  The only change needed was to use an SSD over HDD.

 

I've never heard of Windows "Tiny 11" but I'll do a Google search or two...

 

Thanks!

[wiesshund]

When I attempt to upgrade to Windows 10 - it appears to install just fine, goes through all the motions and then only hangs at the end and "resets the PC back to Windows 7" because of reasons.  Again, my searches have pointed at possible driver issues.

 

My ASSUMPTION, and I could be wrong of course, is that if I didn't have the driver issue Windows 10 would have installed just perfectly.

 

{{{shrug}}}

 

 

You have a situation, could be drivers, that can not properly just make a direct conversion to windows 10
it's resulting in an invalid OS setup hence it is rolling back.

A fresh install would work.

 

just back up all pinball related stuff 1st.

[PinballFan82]

Windows 10 came out July 15, 2015.

 

Your stuff is too old on your cabinet for Windows 10.

 

You may have to buy a new motherboard, Intel chip or AMD chip, memories, power suppy and a new graphics card (AMD or Nvidia). You don't have to pay $1000 or more on new computer. Grab a cheap one that is 4 years old or newer. Guys here can point out what you need to look for. Make sure it have Windows 10 with a Key.

 

Microsoft will continue to support Windows 10 until Oct. 14, 2025.

 

Do not pay for drivers. Probably a scam. No telling what they are trying to give you. Beware of virus, malware and key logger.

 

Yes, that was my fear in regards to the driver program - scam, virus, malware, etc.

 

I've figured for a while now that I'm probably too far out-of-date and should probably just be happy with my Virtual Pin as is.  I really don't want to take the entire thing apart and piss off the wife and really and totally f*ck it up.  Still - there are a lot of pins out there I'd like to try and download and I've heard good things about Future Pinball and other programs where the quality is better so it's tempting...

 

Thanks!

[wiesshund]

Windows 10 came out July 15, 2015.

 

Your stuff is too old on your cabinet for Windows 10.

 

 

 

No it isnt

He can run windows 10 on that.

 

 

 

I've figured for a while now that I'm probably too far out-of-date and should probably just be happy with my Virtual Pin as is.

 

 

You can install windows 10 on it
You just cannot do an in place upgrade, you have to do a clean install.

[Mitchell]

There might be some installers on that pc somewhere. If he find those. He should back those up onto a flash drive. First thing he should look for is the Nvidia driver installer.

 

For example. My AMD graphics driver installer is at C:\AMD

Edited by Mitchell, 18 October 2023 - 04:56 AM.