A user's laptop (Lenovo W520) was having strange issues (could not open mspaint, among other things, other apps crashing a lot), and it is only 2 months old. After chkdsk and Lenovo diagnostics CD (a full run), nothing surfaced so I decided to re-image the machine since problems persisted and there was minimal data to backup.
I happened to have created a sysprep'd standard image from this exact laptop as a basis (sysprep /generalize /OOBE with an unattend file I created) – Windows 7 Professional 64-bit, so the hardware and drivers are an exact match. I re-imaged the drive w/ the image, and during "Setup is applying system settings", it displays the message:
Windows Setup could not configure Windows to run on this computer's hardware
It then auto-reboots in a few seconds, and every boot from there on in it gets the error message:
The computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered and unexpected error. Windows
installation cannot proceed. To install Windows, click "OK" to restart the
computer, and then restart the installation.
My question is, what could cause this?
Several other identical W520 laptops had this sysprep'd image deployed to them without issues, and since this laptop was the original it's gone through this exact sysprep'd state before.
UPDATE: added unattend file
Below is my unattend.xml with passwords sanitized – it uses the KMS client key, so no need to sanitize that. It is very basic from following the guide here.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<unattend xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:unattend">
<settings pass="generalize">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<SkipRearm>1</SkipRearm>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="specialize">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Deployment" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<RunSynchronous>
<RunSynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>1</Order>
<Path>net user administrator /active:yes</Path>
</RunSynchronousCommand>
</RunSynchronous>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-SPP-UX" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<SkipAutoActivation>true</SkipAutoActivation>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<CopyProfile>true</CopyProfile>
<ShowWindowsLive>false</ShowWindowsLive>
<TimeZone>Eastern Standard Time</TimeZone>
</component>
</settings>
<settings pass="oobeSystem">
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-International-Core" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<InputLocale>en-us</InputLocale>
<SystemLocale>en-us</SystemLocale>
<UILanguage>en-us</UILanguage>
<UserLocale>en-us</UserLocale>
</component>
<component name="Microsoft-Windows-Shell-Setup" processorArchitecture="amd64" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" language="neutral" versionScope="nonSxS" xmlns:wcm="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WMIConfig/2002/State" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<AutoLogon>
<Password>
<Value>XXX</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</Password>
<Enabled>true</Enabled>
<LogonCount>5</LogonCount>
<Username>administrator</Username>
</AutoLogon>
<OOBE>
<HideEULAPage>true</HideEULAPage>
<NetworkLocation>Work</NetworkLocation>
<ProtectYourPC>1</ProtectYourPC>
</OOBE>
<UserAccounts>
<AdministratorPassword>
<Value>XXX</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</AdministratorPassword>
<LocalAccounts>
<LocalAccount wcm:action="add">
<Password>
<Value>XXX</Value>
<PlainText>false</PlainText>
</Password>
<Name>Administrator</Name>
</LocalAccount>
</LocalAccounts>
</UserAccounts>
<RegisteredOrganization>COMPANY</RegisteredOrganization>
<RegisteredOwner>Information Technology</RegisteredOwner>
<FirstLogonCommands>
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<CommandLine>cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ipk FJ82H-XT6CR-J8D7P-XQJJ2-GPDD4</CommandLine>
<Order>1</Order>
<RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
<SynchronousCommand wcm:action="add">
<Order>2</Order>
<CommandLine>cscript //b c:\windows\system32\slmgr.vbs /ato</CommandLine>
<RequiresUserInput>false</RequiresUserInput>
</SynchronousCommand>
</FirstLogonCommands>
</component>
</settings>
<cpi:offlineImage cpi:source="catalog:d:/download/isos/microsoft-vlk/win7_64_sp1/sources/install_windows 7 professional.clg" xmlns:cpi="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:cpi" />
</unattend>
Updated:
My original sysprep command was, with the unattend.xml file in c:\windows\system32\sysprep, and that as my current working directory:
sysprep /generalize /oobe /shutdown /unattend:unattend.xml
What I've tried:
- Run full Lenovo system diagnostics (full system, and full SMART test) each came back clean
- Verified SATA mode is correct (AHCI)
- Reset BIOS to defaults
- Re-imaging…verifying image is valid
Best Answer
Have you considered that the system itself may be faulty? Have you considered contacting Lenovo or at least running through the system diagnostics?