Windows 11 Pro activation issues, system corruption,
Hello,
I'm experiencing several problems with Windows 11 Pro on my Dell Latitude 7420, and I would like to understand whether they could be related
When I first received the laptop, Windows 11 Pro was installed and activated, and everything seemed to work normally.
After using it for some time, Windows stopped showing as activated. I tried opening Settings > System > Activation, but the page would not open. I decided to reset Windows to its factory settings, thinking that the installation might be corrupted.
After the reset, Windows showed as activated again. However, a few days later, the same activation problem returned, and the Activation page stopped opening once more.
I also started experiencing other Windows problems. Windows Update failed to install updates, Settings and other applications became unresponsive, and some system processes stopped working correctly.
I tried running SFC, which detected corrupted files that it could not repair. DISM repeatedly failed with error "0x80041032". I also attempted to repair Windows through Windows Update, but the process reached 99% and failed with error "0x80240069".
Next, I downloaded the official Windows 11 ISO and tried running "setup.exe" to repair the existing installation, but nothing happened, even when running it as administrator.
Since I could not repair Windows, I created a bootable USB to perform a clean installation. The USB boots correctly, but when I reach the drive selection screen, the internal NVMe SSD does not appear.
I checked the BIOS storage settings. It was initially configured as RAID On, so I changed it to AHCI/NVMe, but the SSD still does not appear in Windows Setup.
I also ran Dell ePSA diagnostics, which did not report any errors with the SSD, RAM, or processor. I attempted to load the Intel RST driver manually, but I only had the ".exe" package and could not load the required ".inf" files.
My questions are:
- What could cause Windows 11 Pro to lose its activation status after previously being activated?
- Could the activation issue, corrupted system files, and Windows Update errors be related?
- Why does Windows Setup fail to detect the NVMe SSD even after changing the BIOS setting to AHCI/NVMe?
- Does the Dell Latitude 7420 with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 require a specific Intel RST or storage controller driver?
- How can I determine whether the SSD is working correctly or whether there is a BIOS, driver, or hardware problem?
I would appreciate any guidance on how to diagnose these issues and perform a clean Windows 11 Pro installation.
Thank you.