HP prodesk 400 g3 mini CPU upgrade questions

[Francesco_65]

I have a hp ProDesk 400 g3, include:

• Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7500T CPU @ 2.70GHz 2.71 GHz;
• RAM 16,0 GB
• TPM 2.0
• DirectX 12
• SDD 500 GB

Presenly i5-7500T CPU is not listed as CPU supported for Wimdows 11 (but I did a clean installation and worked fine).

If it were necessary in future, Can I replace i5-7500T CPU with i5-8500T CPU ?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions !!!

Francesco

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Francesco:

Unfortunately, the model series only supports up to the Intel 7th generation core processors.

HP ProDesk 400 G3 Desktop Mini Business PC Product Specifications | HP® Support

Now that you have W11 installed, see this discussion for how to do an in-place upgrade each year when the new release of W11 is available to download from the Microsoft website each Fall.   The next would be W11 24H2.

You have to use the version of the Rufus utility that I zipped up and attached in the discussion (v3.18).

Re: Issues upgrading to windows 11 - HP Support Community - 8517912

If the in-place upgrade fails, you should be able to clean install W11 using the bootable W11 installation flash drive you made with Rufus.

I've done this on my HP Elitedesk 800 G3 DM for the last couple of years.

I actually used this method to do an in-place upgrade from W10>W11 originally.

[Francesco_65]

Dear Paul,

thank you for your help.

About i5-7500T vs i5_i5-8500T look like that could be equivalent / compatible:

https://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/590/Intel_Core_i5_i5-7500T_vs_Intel_Core_i5_i5-8500T.html#google_v...

I am very interested to know your opinion. Thanks.

Anyway I would like clarify that I have installed Windows 11 (clean installation using MediaCreationTool_Win11_23H2) on one of my HP ProDesk 400 G3 with i5-7500T without any problem. Presently I have any daily update and including Version 23H2 dated release May 14, 2024.

I contacted Windows technical support and they told me (via chat) that: "We cannot yet see the effect of compatibility issues on your device since you just reinstalled Windows 11. If your device is not fully compatible, you may experience some issues with the driver or computer performance." Please, note that they used "may", not "surely" word.

Please, keep in mind that I have two identical PCs HP ProDesk 400 G3 with the same processor, one with Windows 10 and the other with Windows 11. I use the two PCs with the same applications and I see no difference.

If I understand correctly your warning I might find problems for the next 24H2 update. Correct?

Let me know. Any suggestion and question is welcomed. Thanks.

Regards,

Francesco

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Francesco.

You need a 400 G4 DM to run any of the Intel 8th generation core processors.

If you were to install the i5-8500T in the G3, there is a 0% chance of it working, despite the processor having the same characteristics as the i5-7500T.

Probably a BIOS or chipset restriction.

W11:

I've run W11 since it came out in 2021.

Yes, the PC's get every cumulative and security update Microsoft releases just like a PC that is fully qualified to run W11 does.

But no unsupported PC gets the automatic update to the next version of W11.

I have a PC that fully supports W11 and that is how I check the updates my unsupported PCs get, so I know it is equal all the other times.

But when my W11 PC got the 23H2 feature update from Microsoft, none of my 12 unsupported PC's got it.

Now of course, you can clean install W11 every year on your PC's after the new release comes out, but by using the Rufus tool and selecting the options in the menu in the screenshot in the discussion link I posted, you can do an in-place upgrade from W11 23H2 to the new W11 24H2 after the ISO file is released to the public by Microsoft.

That way you can keep your files, programs and settings without having to do a clean install.

Of all the 12 PC's I have, only two would not do the in-place upgrade and I had to clean install W11 on those.

No error codes, no nothing.  They got to 80-something %, and then the installation just magically disappeared and the PCs were back on the W11 22H2 desktop, like as if nothing happened.

So, that the problem.

No doubt W11 24H2 will work fine, but you won't get it as an automatic update from Microsoft like you are getting all the other updates.

You'll either have to clean install W11 24H2 or use the Rufus tool with the special settings to do an in-place upgrade.

Cheers,

Paul

[Francesco_65]

HI Paul,

thanks for all infos.

Probaly is not good solution BIOS update because could be not easy or possible to upgrade 400 G3 to (like) 400 G4 and also expencive due to be consider a new 8th generation CPU. I dont know how many differencies have G3 vs G4 at maniborad level.

My prodesk 400 g3 mini running with W11 is updated constantly and automatically until 23H2, also if ONLY the CPU i5-7500T is not supported (al least until now) by Microsoft.

So if I understood correctly I could have problems for update W11 with new 24H2 next October and you suggestion is to reinstall with Rufus after the ISO file is released to the public by Microsoft. Anyway I need to wait October or late for check it.

I hope in a expansion of the CPU 7th generation list supported for Windows 11. Windows technical support told me (via chat) that this could happen (not sure), and they told me also that I could only have stability and driver problems with 7th CPU generation and Windows 11. Mah!

See you on October!

Ciao.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That is correct.

In October your PC will not get the W11 24H2 update automatically like it is getting all of the others.

Unless Microsoft does something to stop what I have been doing the last two times, you make a bootable USB flash drive with Rufus v3.18 using the setup illustration in my first screenshot in that discussion, and the W11 24H2 ISO file.

After the USB flash drive has been successfully created, all you need to do is to click on the drive in Windows Explorer, double click to run the setup file and do the in-place upgrade to W11 24 H2, making sure to follow the guidance in my second screenshot in that discussion to not download updates.

Ciao e buona fortuna.

[Francesco_65]

Dear Paul,

I would like inform you about a new test on my PC HP ProDesk 400 G3.

There are those who have developed a free tool like Windows 11 Version 24H2 Tester (https : // bit (dot) ly/3wkMqQu) note: remove spaces.

So after creating a (self-bootable) pendrive with rufus and loading the ISO ofWindows 11 Version 24H2 Tester, I booted my PC from USB with the boot manager and I detected the following report:

So this confirm what you said (and I had already experiment by me) that an PC with 7th CPU generation can work with Windows 11 24H2 also.

The Windows technical support had not confirmed and not denied me a possible expansion of the CPUs functioning with Windows 11.

Can we now assume that the updates will also be able to occur automatically (perhaps thanks to some revision of Microsoft's policy)?

I am very interested to know your opinion.

Thanks.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

That's very interesting.

It's too early to say whether or not a PC would automatically get the update to 24H2 since it isn't out yet.

I was hoping that my PC's would get the automatic update to 23H2 because Microsoft made 23H2 a smaller feature update like they had done with W10 22H2.

But unfortunately, none of my PC's ever got the 23H2 update and I had to use Rufus to create the W11 hardware check bypass USB drive and run the setup application within Windows.

So, I still think that if a PC does not meet Microsoft's minimum W11 hardware requirements, it won't get the automatic W11 24H2 feature update.

There is another version of W11 called Tiny 11 and I installed that on my HP t630 Thin Client PC and that worked fine.

Tiny 11 is a slimmed down version of Windows, and it works really good on a PC that has weak hardware such as the t630, which was not designed to run a full version of Windows.  Those come with W10 IoT.

Tiny 11 doesn't even require you to use any tricks to install W11 and it gets all of the updates as well.

But I will have to wait until the developer releases Tiny 11 24H2 so I can update my PC with the updated file.

The only app I installed that wasn't included in Tiny 11 was Microsoft Edge.

So, you can customize Tiny 11 to include any apps you want or need.

Tiny 11 uses your PC's product key to activate.

Tiny11 Download | TechSpot

[Francesco_65]

Paul,

look like that also on 2021 Windows  had hypothesized expanding the list of processors compatible with Windows 11 until the 7th CPU generation.

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2021/06/28/update-on-windows-11-minimum-system-requirement...

Comments?

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Yes, I had been hoping that Microsoft would relent, but they never did.

At this point in time, it is highly unlikely that Microsoft will add the Intel 7th gen core processors to the list of W11 supported processors.