"Couldn't update to Windows 8.1 - 0xC1900101 - 0x40017"

Finally got this issue sorted today courtesy of an excellent MS level two technician.

The culprit...an out of date graphics driver for NVIDIA GeForce GT640M

Seems this works for NVIDIA people, but lots of us (as noted here) are on ATI/AMD cards with the Windows 8.1 drivers already installed. It still causes the errors. Moreover, just using the plain Microsoft low-resolution drivers (with all traces of ATI removed) will still not be able to complete the installation.

I finally got this accomplished on both my desktop (NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS) and my laptop (NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS).  And this was after multiple failures.

For the desktop, I disconnected all peripherals (except monitor, mouse and keyboard).  I already knew that I couldn't run any NVIDIA driver update past 306.97 (Oct 2012), or it would freeze and crash the computer and constantly cycle on the BSOD.  So, I tried unplugging the Ethernet cable after the first restart, but the 8.1 installer had already downloaded the updated driver, so I was stuck with a machine that not only wouldn't roll back to Win 8, but that would freeze and have to be hard restarted. 

So, I did what I've learned to do when an updated NVIDIA driver gets downloaded from Win 8:  I work as fast as possible to remove the updated driver before it freezes and crashes.  In the past, I only had to roll back to the previous driver, but after Win 8.1 installed, it removed the driver that actually worked (306.97).  After MANY attempted failures, I was finally able to navigate to the device manager before it froze, removed the problem NVIDIA driver, and then was able to use the computer with the generic video driver, and very quickly download the specific driver I needed (306.97), and it worked. 

Then, I had to disable ALL automatic updates from downloading the more current NVIDIA drivers, because it did this several times, and crashed my computer every time.  I just had to work extremely fast to get to the driver and roll back to previous driver and uninstall the newer one.  It's been working now for several days.

On the laptop, which has never had a problem with NVIDIA drivers, I figured it would be easier.  But I had another problem.  My charging port had an error, which I already knew about, and the install would roll back to Win 8.  So, I removed the hard drive, put it in a laptop I already own and was running Win XP on.

I ran Win 8, and installed 8.1 with no issues.  Put the hard drive back into the original laptop, and only needed to call Microsoft to verify the license number (which only took a few minutes).  Everything is now running fine.  NO regrets.  It only took several days of my life to do this, and the contemplation to throw both computers off my roof.

Speaking of easy... If you all have read my post on everything I've tried, you can add these to the list:

1.  Removing even more programs (even silverlight!)
2.  Updating my faulty mouse - thanks for the tip!
3.  Rebuilding the boot manager from a recovery DOS prompt.
4.  Showing all the hidden device drivers and removing every single device that has ever touched the machine in the past 5 years.

Let's face it... I'm licked.  Kicked down and beaten good.  On a good note, my gaming computer has now had the most extensive PC enema known to man.

From an install perspective, this is the worst thing I've ever heard of Microsoft releasing EVER.  Some things are a pain in the backside, but this is literally impossible.  For such minor upgrades, how downright ridiculous is this?

Anyhow, on top of trying everything ever mentioned in every forum, I have also been researching this issue.  While usually this is a memory based issue (0xc0000017), in this case, I'd throw that out given the shear numbers and reported fixes.  This error has existed since XP days, it just hasn't been this widespread (and actually used to mean what it said).

Will Microsoft fix it?  My question to that would be: How?  This seems like an epic failure, as the people reporting the fixes have absolutely no consistency as to what fixed it... A bad software program, a problematic driver, an update that didn't quite take, USB devices, magic beans...

Do you all want to know what the error code means, apparently?  "SOMETHING'S BROKE."  Yep, that's about the extent of it.  Based on this particular update, I'm kind of amazed that W8 ever came to be, but see, among these minor changes, a few architectural ones came too, one such change being:

PAE Requirement.  (Why?  My Pentium D wanted some love too!

Well, whatever... I should have quit this nonsense about 20 pages back.  I'll keep an eye on it in case MS does come back with a response, but at this point, it is looking pretty darn grim....  Maybe you have to uninstall Steam or Chrome?  Those seems to be the only things left on my computer.

I do have a bios setting for accessing above 3.25 GB on boot or something.  I've never quite understood what that's for, but I've always maxxed it out.  I'm guessing this is for accessing above the 3.25GB limit in DOS?  Probably has nothing to do with this anyhow...

Windows 8 Pro with Media Center installed...

Tell me about it.  My gaming rig hasn't had this kind of attention since I've build her.

I may try to contact Microsoft's support team and see what they can find.  Perhaps I'm missing something dumb that they can spot.  If that fails, guess I have no choice but wait for an official update on 8.1.

Hi

I've got the same problème on my XPS 15: the screen becomes black and nothing occurs later.

Thus i try to restart the computer and the system tries to "restore" the installation of the 8.1 update and the same problem occurs again... then, i restart the computer and it restores 8.0 and gives me this error code.

Can the support team give us the way to succed for the XPS15?

Thanks a lot!

I got mine done by

1. Download the latest drivers for 8.1 for both graphics cards so you can install them after the upgrade.
2. Go to Device Manager and uninstall both graphics cards, ticking the box that deletes the drivers.

That's pretty much it.

If it does stall, force power off and let t try again, and then it should push through (did for me).

Make sure you have Secure Boot enabled in BIOS (so you don't get a warning on the desktop background about it) and it should all happen.

Finally got this issue sorted today courtesy of an excellent MS level two technician.

The culprit...an out of date graphics driver for NVIDIA GeForce GT640M