Solved Windows 8.1 RTM installation fails on Dell XPS 1340

himi420

New Member
Messages
33
Hi folks,

I decided to install Win 8.1 RTM x64 yesterday but what I expected to be a breeze turned into a nightmare. Installation fails, I am even unable to get into Safe Mode.
I was running Win 7 Ultimate x64 before without any issues whatsoever.

I already described my issues here, with errors and logs:
Windows 8.1 RTM installation fails on Dell XPS 1340

Would anybody please help me?
Many thanks!!

Update: changed memory from 2x4GB to original 2x2GB but completely same issue :(
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    ME, XP,Vista,Win7,Win8,Win8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Other Info
    Notebooks x 3

    Desktops x 5

    Towers x 4
Hello theog,

Thanks for the advice. I followed the steps, even changed the HDD for a different one, 120GB.
But I am still getting the same error as described in my post above.

UEFI is not applicable in my case.

Connected the drive to other PC to get the new logs from this install try:
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/p013tr5bnwp3jh8/cbs.log
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/ewuy7zsgno4l5xt/setupact.log
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/75le4pycsgnk3sy/SrtTrail.txt
- https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dy0rub7xn0vtqb/bcdinfo.txt

There are some errors described in cbs.log and setupact.log but I can't say what is the root cause.
SrtTrail.txt does not state any cause.

Any help with this, please? Much appreciated! Thx!
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
Is there a file called "setuperr.log" on the machine? It might be worth posting that file as well, if it exists.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Yes, there is but file size is 0 :-(
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
This is a complete guess... but when I first installed Windows 8 on my (much older) PC, I had a problem with a bad driver that Windows was retrieving during Setup. This was giving me Blue Screens of Death similar to yours, although I can't remember whether the error message in my case was the same.

The fix in my case was to Clean Install it again and change the setting during the Setup to switch off the setting to "automatically get device drivers, apps and info for new devices". This is step 13 in this tutorial; you'll need to avoid Express Settings in step 11:
http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html

This may be fatal and stop it working altogether, but if you're lucky, Windows should have enough drivers to start, probably at some horrible blurry graphics resolution.

Then I went to the manufacturer's website(s) for all the missing drivers where Device Manager showed something was wrong, and gradually added them, or used Windows Update (but when it tripped over the bad one I had to start again from a Clean Install).

Also worth checking if Dell have a BIOS update for your computer, but you may need to go back to Windows 7 to have a working system to update it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
Hello DavidY,

Thanks a lot for your suggestions but my problem is that I will not get further than step 9 from the http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2299-clean-install-windows-8-a.html.
After all is done in step 9 laptop restarts.

On the first restart I get this error: https://www.dropbox.com/s/l8ith0xljhq7xsu/2013-09-11 20.34.11.jpg
On any other restart I get this one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/cln6w154s7smwc4/2013-09-11 20.53.00.jpg

I can't get any further :( No idea what could be the problem. Same with my original 500GB drive (with logical partition) or 120GB single partition drive.

My BIOS is the latest available for this laptop, version A15.
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
It's beyond my knowledge then, I'm afraid. One last suggestion from me is to remove any extra hardware before starting the install, because it might remove the thing which is causing the driver error message.

If you can get it going on a basic set of hardware, it will be easier to add stuff later from a running Windows system.

Incidentally have you tried installing Windows 8 on that computer?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
The only different component in my laptop was memory. I have 2x4GB but originally came with 2x2GB. Tried with the original memory too but still same problem. Nothing else I think I could remove.

Not tried Win 8 on this laptop. But I saw many tests and posts over internet showing same model (Dell Studio XPS 1340) running Win 8.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
I am no expert on this, but I am seeing some things I do not understand. Could you tell us exactly how you are installing? For instance, what type of media are you using to install? How are you handling the previous partitions?

I saw a message in your log about the "BCD Store is still not present", which leads me to believe you are installing in some manner different from a normal Hard drive install. Maybe a Virtual device in involved?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
The only different component in my laptop was memory. I have 2x4GB but originally came with 2x2GB. Tried with the original memory too but still same problem. Nothing else I think I could remove.

Not tried Win 8 on this laptop. But I saw many tests and posts over internet showing same model (Dell Studio XPS 1340) running Win 8.
I don't know then.

I was hoping you might have a keyboard or webcam or some other device that you could unplug or remove.

You might be able to try windows 8 using something like the Technet Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation. This will expire in 90 days, and but it might indicate whether there's a problem in the 8.1 installer that wasn't there in 8.0
Download Windows 8 Enterprise Evaluation
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1, 10
No, nothing else is attached.

Yes, I might try that too. Thanks for suggestion.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
I am no expert on this, but I am seeing some things I do not understand. Could you tell us exactly how you are installing? For instance, what type of media are you using to install? How are you handling the previous partitions?

I saw a message in your log about the "BCD Store is still not present", which leads me to believe you are installing in some manner different from a normal Hard drive install. Maybe a Virtual device in involved?
At first I used USB (8GB) for installation. I used MS Win 7 USB DVD tool to get ISO on the USB.
When this failed, I burned DVD and tried installation with that.

Regarding partitions. I was running Win 7 Ultimate on primary partition + logical partition with data (500GB drive).
I removed the Win 7 parition during Win 8.1 installation, so there was unallocated space which I used for installation.
I also tried changing memory, as mentioned above.

When all this failed I removed the hard drive and used 120GB one. First I used diskpart to clean it, as suggested above. Then I tried installing on the single partition there was. Again, same error. Afterwards I ran the installation again removing the partition by Win 8.1 setup and selecting it for installation. The same error.

I don't think I do something unusual. I believe I have experience with installations and stuff but this one is a pickle. I researched a lot before I posted here as I did not find any solution that would work.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
Sorry to hear about all your hassles... this may sound very basic, but did you check that the iso is not corrupted (hash check)?


Just wondering as "Win 7 USB DVD tool failed..." and I have had sad smileys with bad ISO's before.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    PC-DOS v1.0
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    IBM
    CPU
    Intel 8088, 4.77MHz
    Memory
    16K, 640K max
    Graphics Card(s)
    What's that?
    Sound Card
    Not quite
    Screen Resolution
    80 X 24 text
    Hard Drives
    dual 160KB 5.25-inch disk drives
Yes, I verified SHA1 and it was ok. Could it be still corrupted?
To be sure I am now downloading it again.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
[DEL]I have been going through your log. It refers to rdisk(1), which is normally the second hard drive. Does your system have some type of mSATA drive, or another hard drive?

You have many messages like the one below. Maybe just a coincidence it is related to Windows\Boot entries

IBSLIB SetNamedSecurityInfo failed! Error code = 0x2

And, of course the one I mentioned before.

IBSLIB System BCD store does not exist.
[/DEL]

And finally, your log shows Phase 2 as being completed. Mine log continues and shows the start of phase 4, which seems to be the Out of the Box Experience phase. I am guessing this is where it would normally reboot, but because the BCD Store has not been set up, it cannot reboot into the install.

I will suggest, for now, you boot back into the install media. Then use the Shift +F10 to open the command prompt. From there, start Diskpart and use the list volumes command to verify the Windows partition. Assuming it is showing as C: use the command below to try to replace the boot files. Then reboot to see if it helps. If you get an error message and the command will not complete, it might give us a clue.

bcdboot c:\windows

If you get a chance, while you are in diskpart, you might run a lis dis command and then select your Windows drive with sel dis 0 if that number happens to be your Windows drive. Then a List Partitions command and let us know what it says.[DEL][/DEL]
 
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My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
I have looked at an install on a Dell laptop to compare. Some of the things I mentioned earlier are the same on my laptop log as yours. The system seems to have installed fine, just seems to have a problem rebooting.

So, maybe you could try removing the install media to see if it will boot normally. You can do this during the first reboot of an install, so if you end up reinstalling, do that.

Are you using an SD card for your Install Media?

Edit: I did see this in the log also, maybe you understand what it might mean... It does seem to continue and find a good key..

pid_GetProductKeyFromSources:product key found in pid.txt/ei.cfg is malformed
Digital marker product key not detected. hr = 0xc004f057
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
Nope, no mSATA or anything. Just HDD, USB (install media) and DVD drive.

I did following: Took Win 8.1 installation USB and started over. Deleted all partitions in setup so I had one unallocated space:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/l3lnoj0see1t5vr/2013-09-13 21.24.30.jpg
Selected Next, entered product key and left it copy the files.
After restart I was the blue screen with error, this is the same.

Then I booted from install media again, and went to diskpart. This is what I saw:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/f643addu8f2kq0d/2013-09-13 21.35.43.jpg
(D is 8GB USB install media)

I swapped volumes letters C <=> E. The result is C for Windows and E for system reserved:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/npjrtyih575s4hc/2013-09-13 21.42.52.jpg

Then I did bcdboot c:\windows

Restarted but the same error with OK button.

New logs:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wrlt02ndv42km1b/bcdinfo.txt
https://www.dropbox.com/s/nssa7oz37tcnk0l/cbs.log
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1sssbtg2f821bi8/disklayout.txt
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ep9rjpaarfqu24k/setupact.log
https://www.dropbox.com/s/p87027tsvv231qu/SrtTrail.txt
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Win 8.1 Pro x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Studio XPS 1340
Sorry I edited late. You might check my previous post to see if it might be relevant.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Grown
    CPU
    i7 3770K
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77 -v Pro, Z87-Expert
    Memory
    16 G
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GTX 680 Classified (2)
    Hard Drives
    Kingston SSD 240 GB
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