[SOLVED] Dell XPS-2720 upgrade from win 8.1 to Windows 10 woes

[JoeIBM]

Phew. I'm just about outta ideas on how to upgrade this new-to-me machine.
The HD had failed, so I replaced with an SSD, and downloaded 8.1 (never had the original dell disks to recover).
All is good with 8.1 - managed to install the newer (a16) bios, and all the drivers for 8.1.
Did all the windows updates as of today (5 Nov 2021)
I've run through the Windows 10 media creation tool, set to "upgrade this PC now", and when that failed a couple times - I created a DVD from the assistance, and ran from there. That failed also.
I've not installed any other hardware - only things plugged in are a microsoft keyboard and logitech mouse.
Running the activation verification shows "this PC is permanently activated".
I haven't changed or removed the internal 32gb caching SSD (can't remember what that's called).
I've removed the AVG antivirus.
I ran through several times where setupdiag didn't show any "matching" issues, but the last 2 or 3 times - it's been giving the errors shown below.
I do NOT have Dell support (obviously out of warranty since this was purchased in 2013), and don't wanna pay for the out-of-warranty support just yet if y'all can help me out of this morass.
The last error I get from setupdiag is:
Matching Profile found: FindAbruptDownlevelFailure - 55882B1A-DA3E-408A-9076-23B22A0472BD
SetupDiag version: 1.6.2107.27002
System Information:
Machine Name = XPS27
Manufacturer = Dell Inc.
Model = XPS 2720
HostOSArchitecture = 1033
FirmwareType = PCAT
BiosReleaseDate = 20190523000000.000000+000
BiosVendor = BIOS Date: 05/23/19 03:49:11 Ver: 04.06.05
BiosVersion = A16
HostOSVersion = 6.3.9600
HostOSBuildString = 9600.20144.amd64fre.winblue_ltsb_escrow.211004-1908
TargetOSBuildString = 10.0.19041.1253 (vb_release_svc_prod2.210811-1921)
HostOSLanguageId =
HostOSEdition = Core
RegisteredAV = Windows Defender
FilterDrivers = FileInfo
UpgradeStartTime = 11/5/2021 9:49:46 AM
UpgradeEndTime = 11/5/2021 11:32:31 AM
UpgradeElapsedTime = 01:42:45
CV = doYtxc2vf0CSJ4gb
ReportId = 36c35cc7-8aa1-45f5-80dd-acd8cec5f08d

Error: SetupDiag reports abrupt down-level failure.
Last Operation: Finalize
Error: 0x80004005 - 0x50015
LogEntry: 2021-11-05 10:08:41, Error DISM DISM Provider Store: PID=5864 TID=5888 Failed to get the provider DISM Package Manager from the remote provider store. - CProxyProviderStore::GetProvider(hr:0x80004005)
Refer to "https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/desktop/Debug/system-error-codes" for error information.
Last Setup Phase:
Phase Name: Pre-Finalize
Phase Started: 11/5/2021 10:08:32 AM
Phase Ended: 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
Phase Time Delta: 00:00:00
Completed Successfully? False

Last Setup Operation:
Operation Name: Add [1] package C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\DUImageSandbox\SSU-19041.1220-x64.cab
Operation Started: 11/5/2021 10:08:40 AM
Operation Ended: 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
Operation Time Delta: 0:00:00:00.0000000
Completed Successfully? False

 

[Darkbreeze]

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