Upgrading ASUS CM6870 to Windows 10 Creators Edition or April 2018 release 1703, 1709, 1804 (RT3090 PCIe wireless card)

Anonymous
2017-04-29T19:14:40+00:00

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.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-03-13T19:46:48+00:00

    You are an absolute genius for figuring this out.  I've been unable to upgrade to Windows 10, Version 1709, for about a month and have tried numerous fixes, none of which worked until this one.  I even broke down and called Microsoft and ASUS, who told me my machine was not compatible with Windows 10.   I was thinking of buying a new machine until I found this post. 

    I also would have thought Microsoft Tech support (even spoke to a supervisor) would have found this, since answer is on their site.

    Who would have ever thought that removing the wireless card, installing update, and reinstalling it, would cure the problem - a very easy fix for me.

    Thanks for the good work and discovering a solution.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-03-17T13:53:09+00:00

    God bless you for posting this.

    I too have an ASUS CM6870 and have been going through the forced upgrade / lockup /  rollback loop *every* *single* *day* for weeks, literally hundreds of hours of downtime spent.

    After reading your post, I cracked the case, and removed the wireless card.

    For the first time, the upgrade got past 83% ,and completed.

    Again,THANK YOU so much for your post, indexed to Bing, with the CM6870 keyword.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-03-17T18:19:17+00:00

    After doing everything imaginable to get my computer to update to version 1709 fall creators update, I just got off the phone with customer service and they said Asus is not releasing the drivers that support this most recent update for the CM6870.  They said though I have windows 10 professional I’m 100% compatible with the new updates but my computer is not compatible. They recommend me buying a new computer. They said maybe one day Asus will release the drivers that will keep my computer compatible. For now , They manually went in and disabled all the windows updates and told me after April 15 I will no longer get the most recent security updates which puts me at risk.   Sad. I paid $1000 6 years ago for this version of the cm6870- 3 -US -AD computer and have updated many of the internal components.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-03-17T18:57:41+00:00

     After doing everything imaginable to get my computer to update to version 1709 fall creators update, I just got off the phone with customer service and they said Asus is not releasing the drivers that support this most recent update for the CM6870.  They said though I have windows 10 professional I’m 100% compatible with the new updates but my computer is not compatible. They recommend me buying a new computer. They said maybe one day Asus will release the drivers that will keep my computer compatible. For now , They manually went in and disabled all the windows updates and told me after April 15 I will no longer get the most recent security updates which puts me at risk.   Sad. I paid $1000 6 years ago for this version of the cm6870- 3 -US -AD computer and have updated many of the internal components. 

    That is same story I got from Microsoft and ASUS and it is simply not true.    I had same problems, but with Win 10 Home. 

    See my prior post of 3/13/18 or others posts about taking out wireless card, upgrading, and then inserting the card back.  It works, and is much less expensive than buying a new machine.

    I wish Microsoft would have suggested this fix since it is on their website.

    Also, does anyone know if I replace my existing wireless card with a new one if this type of problem would disappear?   This could be a cheap fix.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-03-17T20:01:18+00:00

    Just pull out the wireless card and the update will run.

    You can replace with a newer wireless card if you like, or move to a USB wireless card.

    Once the wireless card is removed, the update will complete.

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