HP prodesk 400 g3 mini CPU upgrade questions

[Francesco_65]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the sharing of all infos and experiancies. Congrats for the nice job/s!

If I understand correctly it seems that 24H2 (Insider program - TBD channel) can be installed and updated automatically on PCs that meet all requirements with the exception of 7th generation CPUs but also with 6th generation CPUs, without bypassing anything. To PCs that not meet hardware requirements like CPUs and TPM 2.0 need to do bypassing solutions.

I want to remind you that the purpose of this discussion began with my HP 400 G3 mini with the 7th generation processor which with the 23H2 version did not meet the requirements (only) for the CPU but now with the 24H2 version (Insider Program - Release Preview Channel) everything works fine and all requirements are met. This means that next September/October the 24H2 version will certainly allow installation and automatic updates for PCs with 6th and 7th generation CPUs also for normal distribution.

About the video "How to install Windows 11 24H2 on Unsupported PC" I see that the test accurred on a PC very similar to mine but starting from version 23H2 Build 22631.3296 (released probaly March) updated to version 24H2 with Insider Program - Canary Channel, and then requesting bypassing solutions. Instead in my case I updated 24H2 version Build 26100.863 from 23H2 Build 22635.3646 both from Insider Program - Release Preview Channel. Probably the different releases and channels could request bypassing solutions or none bypassing solutions as in my case. I don't know.

Any Comments? Anyway let see what happen in October.

Ciao

Francesco

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Francesco:

Yes, your first paragraph sums up my experiences too.

I am right now in the process of trying to update my oldest HP notebook, a 6910p with an Intel Pentium T7500 Core 2 Duo, no UEFI BIOS, no secure boot, TPM 1.2, and of course an unsupported processor by using the video workaround.

It will be interesting if I can get this old relic from 2008 to update to 24H2.

I am currently downloading and installing Windows 11 insider preview 10.0.22635.3930 (ni_release).

That is the enablement package to allow for future automatic updates after W11 24H2 is installed.

I am currently running the latest stable build of W11 24H2 on all of my PC's after installing the following update which came to me automatically via Windows Update.

July 9, 2024—KB5040435 (OS Build 26100.1150) - Microsoft Support

The one thing I disagree with what the person in the video said was that his workaround only works on PCs with quad core processors.

The HP 350 G1 notebook I have only has an Intel i3-4005U dual core processor and it upgraded fine.

All the other PC's I have upgraded were quad cores.

Buona notte, Francesco.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Francesco:

Unfortunately, W11 24H2 would not do an in-place upgrade in my old HP 6910p notebook.

I don't want to try clean installing it on that notebook because my son uses it to tune cars with.

He has tuning software and files on there and since that is all he uses the notebook for, I don't want to bother with it.

I will try upgrading one of my old HP towers such as the 8000 Elite CMT which has a Pentium E8400, no UEFI BIOS, no secure boot, and a TPM 1.2 security device, in the future.

If it fails, I will try the clean install since there isn't anything I use the PC for.

My interest is to find out if Microsoft has now prevented these relics from running W11 24H2 and beyond.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, Francesco:

Final report...I have come to the conclusion that you can't upgrade to W11 24H2 on a PC that has no UEFI BIOS and only a dual core processor. 

I don't have any old HP PC"s to test with no UEFI BIOS' that also have quad core processors, such as a Q9500, for example.

The video workaround failed exactly like it did on the HP 6910p, and even the clean install attempt failed using the latest Rufus utility with the hardware check bypasses enabled and the MBR partition scheme selected.

The PC booted from the USB flash drive with no problem.  Got the blue Windows icon, as the flash drive light was blinking.

It just hung there, and the PC restarted and booted back into Windows on the C: drive.

I tried it a second time with the same result.

I guess the good news is it didn't go beyond that where I lost the current 23H2 installation, and then fail somewhere during the installation process, so the PC works just fine, but will be stuck permanently on W11 23H2.

I found this article which confirms that older PC's with Intel Core 2 Duo processors will not support the upgrade.

Windows 11 24H2 goes from “unsupported” to “unbootable” on some older PCs | Ars Technica

We'll see if some wizard develops a workaround for that roadblock.

Ciao,

Paul

[Francesco_65]

Paul,

thanks again!

I think you agree as I do that we have shared some interesting experiences that have brought to light some important news.

Considering that you have worked a lot on several old PCs, I think you could write a technical article in some magazine also distributed online.

I say this and wil not write nothing because I only have two HP ProDesk 400 G3s that are working one with W10 (General Availability Channel version 22H2 build 19045.4651) and one with W11 (distribution Insider Preview channel version 24H2 build 26100.1150). Scenario very limited.

We meet again in October to discover what will happen with the 24H2 version from the General Availability Channel.

Ciao.

Francesco.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, Francesco.

Meanwhile, I'll be keeping a lookout to see if some genius figures out a workaround to let old PC's with processors that don't support population count (POPCNT) to upgrade to W11 24H2.

Ciao,

Paul