Solved Windows 7 upgraded to 10, reverted to 7, now random reboots, locked up

[boss281]

I made the mistake of upgrading Windows 7 to Windows 10 on my Dell XPS 702X laptop before reading that Dell does NOT intend to upgrade drivers to support the laptop on the newer OS. I reverted back to 10 due to the fans running all the time and the laptop was always running hot.

The reversal process appeared to go fine without errors, but almost every day since August the system will suddenly stop and reboot. It always hangs on the welcome screen. After looking up the issue on various forums, I found that a temp fix that sometimes helps is to turn off the wireless lan card during hard shutdown and restart, or sometimes booting to safe mode with a command prompt and running chkdsk /f.

It did it again today, and I started digging deeper. I have turned off the automatic restart in properties and now it should BSOD me with a more specific error. The error log indicates a LONG list of the same error. I'm not savvy enough to begin to understand this! Thanks in advance:

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Date: 10/14/2016 1:27:25 PM
Event ID: 41
Task Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Keywords: (2)
User: SYSTEM
Computer: John-PCLaptop
Description:
The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power" Guid="{331C3B3A-2005-44C2-AC5E-77220C37D6B4}" />
<EventID>41</EventID>
<Version>2</Version>
<Level>1</Level>
<Task>63</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000002</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2016-10-14T17:27:25.390417300Z" />
<EventRecordID>554887</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="8" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>John-PCLaptop</Computer>
<Security UserID="S-1-5-18" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="BugcheckCode">126</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0xffffffffc0000005</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0xfffff8800f3ce822</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0xfffff880033c4328</Data>
<Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0xfffff880033c3b80</Data>
<Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data>
<Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>

 

[Megahertz07]

Whatever you do to fix will never make your laptop run as it should.
My suggestion:
- Backup all your data
- Do a clean install or use the Dell factory recover disk.

 

[boss281]

I've run the recovery disk a couple of times, but I see your point, the reversion back to 7 must have really hosed something up. I've run hardware diags out the ying ying and everything is fine. I'll have to figure out some of the licensing I have on some software packages before I do that so the reinstalls go clean.

Thanks for the feedback.

 

[Uniman]

Hi Boss281,
I too had random re- boots after reverting to w7 ,(W10 just did not suit my computer,a Toshiba C660D).I think W10 changes some motherboard settings.The only way i got my computer to run correctly again was to do a complete clean install of W7.
Backup any files you want to keep to an external drive;usb, disk or External HDD. You will have to re-install any programs you have installed.The clean install takes about an hour, after that you will need to re-update.You should then have a correctly working W7 system.
Good Luck-Uniman

 

[AddRAM]

Just reimage it back to 7 with the image you made beforehand

 

[Megahertz07]

This will save you much time
After the installation:
Go to Services - Windows Update - Disable.
- Reboot
Install this
KB3020369 is first
KB3125574 is second
KB3172605 is last. (this one is important)
Go to Services - Windows Update - Enable.

MS releases SP2 for Windows 7

 

[boss281]

Update: After I unchecked automatic reboot on system error, I got a BSOD in the file NVLDDMKM.SYS. This is the graphics driver for my NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M. Over time, I've updated the drivers from the NVIDIA website after Dell stopped updating it's drivers for the chipset. My guess: reverting out of Windows 10 back to Windows 7 screwed up a file or two. On a whim, I booted into safemode with networking, uninstalled the NVIDIA drivers, rebooted, and Windows automatically installed the verified base drivers for the system and it all works just fine (at least for now). Now I can reboot without it sticking at the Welcome screen with a spinning mouse pointer.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Indeed without a system image to undo the 10 upgrade you'll likely have many issues yet to be noticed yet
Best to clean install now instead of later
More details can be found here
windows update

If you need win-7 media you can use this if you have net framework 4.6.1 installed
Microsoft Windows and Office ISO Download Tool

 

[boss281]

ThrashZone, thanks for the links. I've been finding a lot on the forum. I'm looking for an app to make a list of all installed software (unless I can export it from the Control Panel), make sure I have license info where necessary, and made a complete data backup. I'm letting it run for a couple of days just to see if anything else comes up, then will probably go through this arduous task later in the week when I have a full day. It's a nice laptop, I have to give it up without a fight...

 

[DavidE]

I'm looking for an app to make a list of all installed software (unless I can export it from the Control Panel), make sure I have license info where necessary, and made a complete data backup.

With CCleaner you can save a list of installed programs to a text file.
The list is an option available in Tools/Uninstall.
I use the portable version available here:
CCleaner - Builds

Belarc Advisor is another program that can help get your current info:
Belarc Advisor - Free Personal PC Audit, for software, hardware and security configuration information on your computer. Software license management, IT asset management, cyber security audits, and more.