I am not a techy so know nothing about what I am asking.

It seems my computer a Samsung RV711 cannot update to W10. According to t’internet it is a long known problem associated with the Broadcom wlan (?). Samsung have in their wisdom done nothing about this – probably off killing whales for no particular reason.

Anyway again according to t’internet all I have to do is replace the wlan card with any other make and everything will be wonderful. What card? It takes six minutes I saw it on YT. Given that things are never straight forward what other problems will I encounter? How do I solve them?
Does W10 over write W7? will all my pictures and saved stuff still be there?
Has anyone else done this and lived?

For WLAN, get an Intel one, dead cheap on ebay, very compatible!

Does W10 over write W7

No, all your apps files etc will still be there!

You can even roll back to Win7 if it all goes wrong!

Obviously take backups just in case as things do go wrong from time to time.

Wot he said ^ with the priviso that you should be selecting the upgrade option of the Win 10 installer, not the clean installation. Might be obvious, but the obvious needs pointing out when it comes to IT & again take back ups first!

Work around, avoid needing to replace the hardware & then don’t ever restart 😀

Hmm my brothers old laptop does the restart thing but upgraded without issue, might be a similar issue…

What they mean is that you can get a USB wlan (aka wifi) adapter and plug that in, which will work, even if the internal one does not.

You can often replace the internal wireless card in laptops – like a postage stamp plugs in and has connectors for antenna.

Before you start whipping internal cards out ensure you have the new driver to hand (on a usb stick) or you can plug into a wired network, otherwise you can find that the machine needs a driver for the hardware to work, which you can’t get cos you cant connect to any network…

‘Tas happened. Apparently.

If you’re not using Wi-Fi you could just remove / disable the card (but I’m assuming you are).

You can often replace the internal wireless card in laptops

Some manufacturers lock out the usage of Wi-Fi cards other than the ones shipped with that model. I don’t know about Samsung, but Lenovo for sure do this (I’ve had to get a hacked firmware to replace a card in a T420 with the superior one out of a T410).

will all my pictures and saved stuff still be there?

This would be the point I lecture you about backups, I suppose?

Thanks for the help and advise.
The card is replaceable cos I saw it done on YT although they never mentioned about the driver.
That will save a doah moment now I know.
Even after the replacement and W10 upgrade will the start glitch still occur?

What glitch are you referring to, sorry?

I have a Windows 10 laptop. Last night I got a message it was updating “this may take several minutes, don’t turn off”. I left it at 10pm. This morning it was still giving the same message so I turned it off. When I turned it back on, everything was fine.

will all my pictures and saved stuff still be there?

In the backup you created, yes.
If you don’t have a back up, toss a dice. Do you feel lucky?

Even after the replacement and W10 upgrade will the start glitch still occur?

By the sound of theing the wifi card is causing the issue with W10, so by replacing it, the glitch will go away.. or as per the video , you can ignore the glitch by just not using the ‘restart’ option (just shutdown)

It was the restart glitch where you have go through BIOS(????????????) that I may or may not have been referring to as I basically really don’t know what it all means.
It was unclear if this remains or goes away once the card has been changed.
z1ppy does that mean I can never use restart again once the upgrade has been done?
I just want to use my laptop and not have to buy another.

The bios thing, is purely to allow you to run the W10 updates, if you don’t replace the wifi card.

So yes, if you don’t replace the wifi card (which I’m assuming from your comments is the cause of the issue), then yes you will never be able to use the restart function, or if you do, it won’t boot. All this means is you have to use “shutdown” from the power options, and then manually press the laptop power button on it to start it back up again… it’s hardly a world ending issue for most ppl. If it is, replace the wifi card…

or as per the video , you can ignore the glitch by just not using the ‘restart’ option (just shutdown)

This is not a good idea. The first system update would ruin it.

You can often replace the internal wireless card in laptops – like a postage stamp plugs in and has connectors for antenna.

You don’t need to do this, you can just get a USB plug-in one.

This is not a good idea. The first system update would ruin it.

Assuming this the same issue my brother laptop has, it just doesn’t boot on a restart, so it’s doesnt load into windows, so no harm is/can done. You just have to manually turn it off & back on.
The external WiFi card option doesn’t fix his issue, as he still has the internal one, that causes the issue.

Just a thought. Whilst you’ve got it in bits, get an SSD stuck in there.

You’ll need to do a clean install of W10 and feed it the W7 OEM key from the sticker on your laptop. If it goes horribly wrong you can just put the old drive back in.

It seems my computer a Samsung RV711 cannot update to W10. According to t’internet it is a long known problem associated with the Broadcom wlan (?). Samsung have in their wisdom done nothing about this

Sometimes computer manufacturers produce their own drivers but it’s often possible to remove these and install reference drivers from the hardware (chip) manufacturer (although you might need to do this via Device Manager and point it to the new drivers). Broadcom do seem to be offering Windows 10 drivers but if this was a viable approach I’d suspect that it would be mentioned on the ‘net.

The latest Windows 10 installer my refuse to install W10 if it detects known problem hardware on the target machine (the Spring 2019 update wouldn’t install on my machine due to a known issue with my Creative sound card); you might need to disable the dodgy card to install W10 (it could be re-enabled after the install it you wanted to try some workarounds).

get an external drive and backup all your stuff if you haven’t already. you should do so anyway.
what exactly is wrong with win7? don’t get me wrong, i like 10, and i’m all in favour of updating, but it sounds like you’re almost doing it for the hell of it. you’ve got a year to save up until it stops being supported.

what exactly is wrong with win7?
…
you’ve got a year to save up until it stops being supported.

You’ve answered your own question there.

Support aside, an older OS is inherently more susceptible to security issues (and will have fewer security features baked in). I spent about two weeks of my life recently scanning networks and patching / telling people to patch for a vulnerability which unchecked could be the next WannaCry. Windows 10 machines (and the equivalent server OSes) weren’t affected.

So it’s perfectly serviceable so long as you keep it up to date?
On the other hand the op’s machine won’t easily take 10 without some cocking about which ( apologies op ) he/she seems ill equipped to address.

BigJohn

Subscriber

I have a Windows 10 laptop. Last night I got a message it was updating “this may take several minutes, don’t turn off”. I left it at 10pm. This morning it was still giving the same message so I turned it off. When I turned it back on, everything was fine.

I was fighting with my laptop for about a month trying to get it to update W10, but it wouldn’t – it’d just get to the boot up screen and stall. I left it overnight and it was still stuck at boot up. Each time, turning it off and back on it was fine.

FWIW eventually I just did an in-place repair upgrade: downloading an ISO of the latest updated version from the Microsoft site, to a USB key, then hitting setup and letting it do its thing. Worked really well, saved all my programs and data in place.

( apologies op )

No apologies needed. After retirement I was no longer involved in techy things and the world has moved on from c:dos and VT100 terminals.

The plan is replace card with Intel card.
Up date to W10 because support is stopping for W7 after Jan next year.
The question now is will 2012 BIOS support W10?

the world has moved on from c:dos and VT100 terminals.

Yeah, VT220 has been a thing for a while now…

The question now is will 2012 BIOS support W10?

Yes or more to the point, it won’t matter to W10.

Might be worth running Samsung’s own updater first?

http://orcaservice.samsungmobile.com/SWUpdate.aspx