Anyone had success with Win10 on the Dell Venue 8 Pro?

[ddmartin]

I upgraded from 8.1 to build 10240, and then installed the final release.

I didn't have a problem with the microphone, but I did have a problem with the Bluetooth driver. I looked in t he device manager, and it showed that there was a driver problem. I uninstalled, and deleted the driver, and then scanned for changes. When the driver automatically reinstalled, it was fine.

I actually like the Win 10 UI better than 8.1. I use tablet mode with the taskbar hidden. If I want a software start button, I swipe up from the bottom to show the taskbar. For switching apps, I sometimes use the task switcher and sometimes use the taskbar. (I show apps on the taskbar in tablet mode.)

I've also installed the Office mobile apps.

 

[tpapictures]

I don't think its a BIOS problem.

Well, I've now got the Dell dongle to be charging whilst connected to devices so I shouldn't have any problem anymore... I hope.

 

[tpapictures]

Interesting, I never got that prompt on the pre-A11 and A11 BIOS

Ok, so...
Dongle plugged in and charging while connected to my hub for mouse, keyboard etc and the USB flash drive with the xandros recovery on it. Went through instantly and installed a proper Dell Venue 8 Pro to my tablet. Whew!! ...but... it says Windows isn't activated. So, I try my product key and it doesn't work. Says "that key can't be used to activate this edition of Windows". The product key I have is from when I sent the entire tablet back to Dell here in Europe to repare several things and they replaced the main board.

Any ideas why I can't apply that product key here?

 

[pankaj981]

Have you tried using phone activation? I had the same issue with my existing product key and the phone activation method worked.

 

[tpapictures]

Have you tried using phone activation? I had the same issue with my existing product key and the phone activation method worked.

You mean activating by calling MS? What about if I now use the USB recovery flash drive they sent me when I called them about not being able to roll back to 8.1 from the tech preview? They sent me a version of Windows 8.1 called "Windows 8.1 Home x86 RTM Dell Direct Key "

 

[ProfessorFrank]

Had same issue. Tried ever setting I could find and NO GO. Finally rolled back to win 8.1, surprising the roll back only took about 10 minutes

 

[ProfessorFrank]

Had same problem. Rolled back to WIN 8.1

 

[tpapictures]

Tiny update... tried the USB drive that Dell provided me with, it won't run without being plugged into power. Plugged it into power with Dell's own dongle, Dell's recovery won't see that you're plugged in. I think this recovery thinks you're on a computer not a tablet.
Anyway, all I need at this point is to get my version of Windows verified.

 

[jdballard]

Anyway, all I need at this point is to get my version of Windows verified.

Try the suggestion of others to call MS. Had to do it once and it was painless. Explained what happened and it was done with no issue.

 

[pankaj981]

You mean activating by calling MS?

Yes call their automated phone system, it will ask for the installation ID and eventually activate it. If it doesn't then call their support number.

 

[tpapictures]

I don't get the option to "activate by phone" so I have no idea what number to call. Does anyone know a number for activating?

 

[pankaj981]

Does it say your product code is invalid? If yes,, do this. Install KeyFinder from Magic Jelly Bean and check your Windows 10 key. Note it down and re-enter it again in the Enter new Product Key section. If it doesn't activate (try it) then it will give you an option to call MS. If not then check the MS support site in your country.

 

[tpapictures]

Does it say your product code is invalid?

"That key can't be used to activate this edition of Windows. Please try a different key."

So, then I try to use the one I got from Keyfinder and I get...
"The product key you have entered appears to be a default product key and cannot be used for activation." Never any option to call in.

 

[pankaj981]

You're still trying to activate 8.1 obtained from the recovery disk correct?

 

[tpapictures]

You're still trying to activate 8.1 obtained from the recovery disk correct?

Yes. From the xandros recovery.

 

[pankaj981]

Make sure your region and time settings are in sync to your original OS, also turn off encryption if possible and then try activating. If it still doesn't work then since his recovery restores the recovery partition as well try resetting device to factory.

 

[tpapictures]

Make sure your region and time settings are in sync to your original OS, also turn off encryption if possible and then try activating. If it still doesn't work then since his recovery restores the recovery partition as well try resetting device to factory.

This is absolutely shocking (well, to me, anyway), putting everything back to my original language and region settings (French keyboard, French language, French display, French etc etc etc) I reapplied the exact same product key and it activated in a few short moments.
I had been starting to try this long method but for some reason I feel like activating with the xandros image that came from the same tablet, just a different country, is more "accurate".

 

[pankaj981]

Lol glad it worked. I had the same issue and it wasn't activating because the time zone and date were wrong

 

[stocktiki]

Success! Thanks to the advice and tips from this forum - did an in-place upgrade - and it went very well.

The Microsoft engineers who build the upgrade routine for devices with small amounts of storage deserve kudos. It's amazing how well it works. It even gets rid of the recovery partition after the upgrade - and frees up tons of space! Brilliant! Do it! This is truly an upgrade!

Here's what I did.

1. Formatted a 16 GB micro SD card to NTFS
2. inserted the micro SD
3. Commenced the upgrade.
4. When said - not enough space- used the 16 GB SD card
5. The upgrade ran for quite some time.
6. Venue Pro 8 booted up to Windows 10 for the first time
7. This is important: Screen was sluggish (at first). System gradually automatically updated all its own drivers - most importantly - the Intel display driver. This made the screen work really smoothly.
8 Also important: There were 2 or 3 Windows Updates that fixed problems with the store not working. Again, done automatically.

The system took a few reboots to really start to work well. But now it's great.

 

[ankit_5036]

i tried to install windows 10 and after 70% process, it rolled back to windows 8.1. the error was 0x80070002.
please help...
from microsoft upgrade diagnostic tool it shows error "system registration is missing or corrupted".
couldn't solve this problem.....