HP Compaq nw8240 - upgrading the ATI Radeon X700 graphics

[George1157]

P/N EB956EC#ABU

Currently running Win 7 Professional, 32-bit version, Service Pack 1.

Windows 10 upgrade fails because it states the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 graphics is incompatible with Windows 10. So I'd like to know;

1) Can the ATI Radeon X700 be upgraded with a Win 10 compatible graphics card/chip? If yes, which one(s)?

Alternatively,

2)  Is there a workaround to make the X700 compatible with Windows 10?

Not used for gaming so speed not required, but most reliable pc I've ever had/used so want to preserve it if possible.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The graphics adapter cannot be physically upgraded for one that will work with W10.

That's lousy that W10 won't even let you install because it detects an unsupported graphics adapter.

There are things you could have tried such as manually installing the Vista graphics driver which I have done on an nc6400 and 6910p notebook.  Both run W10 just fine, but I was allowed to proceed with the installation.

The only suggestion I can offer would be to uninstall the graphics driver, reboot and see if you can trick W10 into not knowing you have an AMD graphics card, let it install, and see if you can do the Vista driver manual install.

If for some reason the Vista driver won't work, you can easily roll back to W7 and reinstall the vista graphics driver manually.

If uninstalling the current graphics driver doesn't fool W10, then I doubt there is anything you can do to get W10 to install.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Shame about not being able to upgrade the graphics chip, that could have been relatively simple and resulted in better graphics capabilitiy at a small outlay. At least I know this can't be done.

Thanks for the tip about uninstalling the graphics driver and replacing it with a Vista one. I had thought about manually installing a compatible driver but thought only of newer drivers than the current Win 7 one, and couldn't see any appropriate Win 8 or Win 10 ones on AMD support site. It didn't occur to me to go backwards to a Vista one, so will give that a go tomorrow (it's dead late now in UK so time for zzzzzs before I fall over).

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome, George.

I used the AMD W7 driver on my 6910p's Radeon X2300.

Worked perfectly on W10.

Just browse to the driver folder that was created after you run the Vista driver file (will give an unsupported operating system error).  Close out of the error window, and browse from the graphics adapter to where the driver folder will be extracted to...C:\SWSetup\sp#####, where ##### is the file number of the Vista graphics driver.

I used the Vista driver on my nc6400 (which like your model has no support for W7).  Works great on W10.

Please post back and let me know if that trick works for you.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Spent the last 2 evenings trying every conceivable version of the X700 drivers (down to XP ones) and a few of the other ones like the X1600, X1300 etc to fool the Win 10 checker to no avail, still recognises the X700 and refuses to allow the Win 10 upgrade. Even tried the AMD Catalyst software and drivers with the same effect, so any other suggestions of how to fool the Win 10 checker would be gratefully received.

Tomorrow I'm going to try downloading the Win 10 media creation tool and see if that will allow me to install Win 10. Once installed I'm sure the X700 drivers will work or will be able to be made to work. Wish me luck.

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, George:

Did you just try it with no graphics driver installed?

In other words, uninstall the graphics adapter in the device manager, check the uninstall driver box, so the Radeon x700 is listed as a Standard VGA Adapter (no drivers installed).

With no driver installed, I was hoping in theory that the W10 checker would have no idea what graphics adapter was installed, since all it would see is a standard vga adapter, and the gatekeeper would let the install go through.

If it does let it go, then you install the Vista driver from your notebook's support page and hope it works.

If not, you roll back to W10 and reinstall the Radeon graphics driver.

[George1157]

Hi Paul,

Yes, tried with uninstalled driver first (and a few other times too), checker still saw the X700, then after reboot with standard VGA display same result, then dozens of the other ATI drivers of every description and version as stated yesterday.

Currently at work whilst the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool is doing its stuff on a spare pc, will try the manual Win 10 install this evening, so wish me luck.

Cheers.

George

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Good luck, George.

I haven't run into a PC that wouldn't let W10 install, so I was hoping something would have worked.

W10 must be checking the hardware ID's for the devices and there is no way of fooling that check that I know of.

And 2 of mine were old, but not as old as yours.  My nc6400 was the next generation Intel chipset after your model.

The thing I don't get is that any PC that can run Vista graphics-wise should be able to run W10 according to the system requirements, so I don't understand why W10 balks at letting you upgrade.

[George1157]

Indeed, I share your bafflement, it's been happily running Win 7 at full resolution ever since its installation, so Win 10 shouldn't have problems with the graphics. 

Do you think it's worth calling AMD? Their web support is too simplistic and doesn't go far enough, but don't feel like wasting their time (or mine).

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I doubt AMD would be of any help, but I wonder if you can post a question or search the Microsoft W10 forum to see if someone knows a way to bypass those kind of checks.

You can even post a question there. 

This is more of a Windows 10 issue than a HP issue, and perhaps someone who really knows their stuff about W10 will be able to help you out.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10?tab=Threads