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This was a pain for me, so I hope this helps someone.
I made 15 attempts to update my ASUS CM6870 from the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition to the Creators Edition (Creators Update), I *always* hung hard around 40 or 42% after the first system reboot, with the 'rolling' animation ground to a halt. This almost always points to a hardware problem.
I did everything to find the bad hardware! I disconnected all of the USB, ripped out all of the superfluous drivers, did a clean reboot, did a driver uninstall on my NVIDIA drivers using DDU, and uninstalled every program that had a funky driver like the VMWare standalone converter and my Cisco Anyconnect VPN. Nothing worked.
Each reboot reported "0xc1900101 - 0x30018 the installation failed in the FIRST_BOOT phase with an error during SYSPREP operation"
Digging into the clues from files left behind in C:$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther, I saw that the last thing before failure was a bunch of SPPNP messages which seems to be the SYSPREP driver loading phase. There were also a bunch of <NUL> characters at the end of the file. Some piece of hardware was refusing to play nice. I had painstakingly removed everything I could without opening the case.
Finally, based on various hints on forums, I cracked open the PC and pulled out my PCIe wireless card. Boom. Fully installed.
The Wireless card was a PCIe x1 in a PCI x16 slot if that matters, and it was the ASUS branded MediaTek Railink technologies RT3090 wireless card.
(PCI\VEN_1814&DEV_3090&SUBSYS_760111AD&REV_00)
Once the Creators Update was installed, I was able to reinstall the card without incident. Go figure.
Edit: This problem probably applies to any system using a P8H61 or P8H77 motherboard. According to this thread, the P8H77-M PRO (CM6870) is affected, as are other ASUS desktops like the ASUS CM6730 with a P8H61‑M PRO with that RT3090 wireless card.
Other commenters report that the ROG CG6480 / TYTAN CG8480 and CM1855 are also affected, presumably also with the errant RT3090 card.
I also observed the problem with an Ascend Ascendtech WN7601R-H1 PCI card in HP desktops. This is also an RT3090 PCIe card.
Commenter Chris Deer reports that he also had the problem with the Acer L4610, L4620, and L480, possible other Acer "L" models.
The Fall Creators Edition and April 2018 update also have this problem, so the installer is not yet fixed to place nice with the RT3090 wireless card.
One commenter noted that moving the card from a PCIx16 slot to a PCIx4 slot also fixed the problem, so it may be an interaction between the card and the northbridge (motherboard chipset) in certain slots.
EDIT: WARNING: Be careful removing and re-inserting the wireless card; make sure the power cord is removed from the power supply. The sound card chip is right at that slot and I damaged it, so now my system no longer recognizes when speakers are attached. Looks like I scratched a trace on the motherboard. I know it is a hardware problem because booting a Linux Live USB showed the same problem.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Uninstalling or disabling the card in Device Manager makes no difference; I tried everything before opening the computer case.
The wireless card has to be physically removed for the installation of the Creators Update to complete. This is presumably because the low level install process somehow interacts with the hardware regardless of how the high level parameters are set in the previous version of the OS.
Thank you very much, Kevin. I am going to try this tomorrow when I have time and I will be indebted to you for solving this.
Asus was no help. I have been trying to get a Windows 10 Bios update from them (which is what Microsoft says we need) but their rep seemed massively unconcerned today. I may have to re-think my next pc purchase as far as manufacturer is concerned.
Hi David,
Forum member 'Remaker' is the one to thank. :)
-Kevin N.
I want to thank you for your cure of this problem. I followed your information and, after weeks of frustration, I finally installed Windows 10 1703 Creators Edition.
David
Had the exact same problem and solution with my ASUS CM6870 and upgrading to Windows 10 Creator. Upgrade would fail at 88% and then reinstall previous operating system. Tried multiple times with same result then found a thread about removing the wireless card. Removed the card and Creator update completed successfully with no hang ups. Re-installed the wireless card and it's working fine.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!! after 2 long weekends trying to get the windows creators update working and multiple sessions on the phone with MS. your post lead me in the right directions. thank for sharing much appreciated. It would be great if the help lines would take down make and model info at the beginning and they could offer this tip out right from the start. Cheers.
