Cannot upgrade to Windows 11

[Ceag]

Hello!

I have to upgrade my laptop to Windows 11, but it says that some Organization Policy issues are preventing me to do so. (There are no such restrictions.)

I started installation from Microsoft website, it lasted one hour or so, started to install it, made a couple of restarts, and reported some problem, immediately started reverting to W10.

ChatGPT found a problem with Synaptics TouchPad drivers.

Anyone?

[Ceag]

Addition:

Dear HP Technical Support,

I am requesting technical assistance with a repeated Windows 11 24H2 upgrade failure on my HP EliteBook 840 G5.

Laptop specifications:

• Model: HP EliteBook 840 G5

• Product number: 2FA66AV

• Processor: Intel Core i5-8350U

• RAM: 8 GB

• Current OS: Windows 10 Enterprise 22H2

• Target OS: Windows 11 24H2

Problem description:

I have attempted to upgrade to Windows 11 twice using Microsoft's Windows 11 Installation Assistant. Both attempts failed during the first Windows 11 boot, and the system automatically rolled back to Windows 10.

I analyzed both crash dumps using WinDbg. Both consistently identify the Synaptics touchpad driver as the cause:

• Driver: SynTP.sys

• Version: 19.5.9.50 (January 14, 2021)

• Bugcheck: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (0x7E)

• Exception: 0xC0000005 (Access Violation)

• Failure bucket: AV_SynTP!unknown_function

• Faulting offset: 0x578b0

I installed the HP Pointing Device Driver package SP113523 (version 18.0.34.0, Rev.A), but this did not resolve the issue.

Both upgrade attempts produced the same crash.

My request:

Could you please advise:

1. Is there a newer Synaptics touchpad driver compatible with this laptop and Windows 11 24H2?

2. Is this a known compatibility issue with the Synaptics driver on this model?

3. Can HP provide a corrected driver or another recommended solution that would allow me to upgrade without losing my installed applications, files, and existing configuration?

I have also contacted Synaptics regarding this issue.

I would appreciate assistance from a technical specialist rather than a recommendation to reinstall the same driver package.

Thank you for your time and support.

Kind regards

[NonSequitur777]

@Ceag,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Thank you for providing the detailed system specifications and, particularly, the WinDbg analysis. That information is considerably more useful than simply reporting that the Windows 11 upgrade failed.

Based on your findings, I agree that the Synaptics driver deserves further investigation.

Both upgrade attempts produced the same SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED (0x7E) bugcheck, with an access violation in SynTP.sys version 19.5.9.50. The repeated failure bucket, AV_SynTP!unknown_function, strongly suggests that the currently installed Synaptics driver is involved in the rollback.

I checked HP's documentation for the EliteBook 840 G5.

The HP Pointing Device Driver package SP113523 (version 18.0.34.0 Rev.A) does list your notebook as a supported model. However, its published operating system support includes Windows 11 21H2 and 22H2, not 24H2.

Consequently, reinstalling SP113523 is unlikely to resolve a compatibility problem specific to Windows 11 24H2.

I would suggest the following next steps:

1. Identify the exact Synaptics touchpad hardware.

Open Device Manager and locate the Synaptics device under either:

• Mice and other pointing devices

• Human Interface Devices

Right-click the device, select Properties, open the Details tab, and select Hardware Ids from the Property dropdown.

Please post the complete hardware ID strings.

This is important because newer Synaptics driver packages are available through the Microsoft Update Catalog, but we need to establish whether they actually support your particular touchpad before attempting an installation.

2. Consider a controlled upgrade test without the existing Synaptics driver.

Before proceeding, make a complete backup of your important files and have an external USB mouse available.

You could temporarily uninstall the Synaptics touchpad device and, where offered, select the option to remove its driver software as well.

If necessary, an administrator can use pnputil /enum-drivers to identify the corresponding Synaptics driver package and remove the correct published INF package. Care must be taken not to remove unrelated Synaptics components.

Restart the notebook and verify that the problematic Synaptics driver is no longer loading.

This would help establish whether Windows Setup can complete the upgrade without migrating the existing driver.

3. Use the correct Windows Enterprise installation media.

Since your existing operating system is Windows 10 Enterprise, make sure the installation media is appropriate for Windows 11 Enterprise and the applicable licensing arrangement.

For an in-place upgrade that retains applications, files and settings, run setup.exe from the mounted installation media whilst Windows 10 is running. Do not boot from the installation USB.

Before proceeding, confirm that the installation offers the option to keep personal files and applications.

Also, since you mentioned an organization-policy warning, it would be useful to establish whether the notebook is enrolled in any organizational management or has applied Group Policy settings. This may be a separate issue from the Synaptics crash.

4. If the upgrade still fails:

Please share the resulting SetupDiag report, particularly SetupDiagResults.log, along with the relevant Windows Setup rollback logs.

That should help determine whether another compatibility problem is contributing to the failure.

I would also be interested in the exact wording or a screenshot of the organization-policy message.

At this stage, I would not recommend another installation of SP113523. We need to establish whether a newer Synaptics driver actually supports the installed touchpad hardware, or whether temporarily removing the legacy driver is a viable workaround.

Thank you again for providing such detailed diagnostic information. It gives us a much better starting point for investigating this issue.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777