Announcement

**zirc99** · 05-09-2014, 01:28 PM

Re: WINDOWS 8.1 won't install/load on PC where WIN 8 runs Fine

Helpful response in already:

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. Running upgrade assistant (going to Store rejects CPU, but no details)

Results in:

X You can't install Windows 8.1 because your processor doesn't support LAHF/SAHF.
X You can't install Windows 8.1 because your processor doesn't support PrefetchW.

There are at least three Processor requirements that M'soft does not list for WIN 8.1
and it's fairly well documented, if you ask the right question, eg.:

New Windows 8.1 requirements strand some users on Windows 8 | PCWorld

So that's it, exclusion by 'stealth' - at least M'soft told you that processor required NX - Execute Disable Bit for Windows 8

For Intel units, look out for 'VT-x. Have a processor on the way, but will Motherboard pass CMPXCHG16b test?
AND PrefetchW AND LAHF/SAHF

Windows 8 support ends 2015, that means people who bought it will have had 2 years use
WIN 8.1 Upgrade/Update (sic) is free, but costly if it won't run on your machine

So, those many people who decried Windows 8 and stuck to WIN 7, were right after all
Early supporters of WIN 8, have been 'betrayed'

**zirc99** · 05-13-2014, 08:53 PM

**parsec** · 05-14-2014, 03:02 AM

Re: WINDOWS 8.1 won't install/load on PC where WIN 8 runs Fine

So it looks like an obscure instruction that is not supported by some earlier platforms, or those platforms without a BIOS update (sounds like an excuse, but might be true) have this problem with Win 8.1.

Since this is a very low level detail, but high on the technical level, expecting mainstream support personnel at MS and elsewhere to understand it (as well as explain and deal with it), even if they have the information available, is unlikely to happen.

Technology moves forward, and at some point the old will be left behind. If it doesn't happen naturally (public discarding old tech) the manufactures will eventually push things along. Personally, I can't blame them in most cases.

From the start Windows 8, and some of it contemporary hardware, is a transition point in the PC world IMO. The lack of some third party drivers was one clue, as well as some of the new third party drivers that support Win 8 were not compatible with the manufacture's (Intel) own earlier hardware.

MS did not provide the same type of compatibility checks for hardware that they did with Win 7, when Win 8 was being introduced. MS even had a forum like "database" where users of Win 8 previews could document what hardware worked or did not work with it.

So what is the best way for the source (or is that target?) of incompatibilities (as inevitable as they are) to announce them, with a bang or a whimper? "Best" from a general PR, or even political perspective for the perceived source? The answer is in what is happening now, not much and rather quietly.

**zirc99** · 05-14-2014, 09:01 AM

Re: WINDOWS 8.1 won't install/load on PC where WIN 8 runs Fine

@ Parsec (Cool Moniker)

Thanks for your considered response, but you may not have read the reply before yours...

In the case of Dimension 5150c/XPS200 - BIOS A07 1-16-2007
Just needed Processor with VT-x

You may be right in regard to Dimension 5000 - BIOS A07 12-7-2005

However, as options under Performance in the Bios only appear if processor has those
Advanced Technologies on board, the only way to find out is to insert a processor with VT-x
Intel Pentium 4 662 and 672 are two such processors valid for this model

Here's one prepared earlier (on MS site):
[In essence, M'soft buried (16th line) under Additional Requirements for 64-bit systems to comply
How many 32-bit PC's would be upgrading to WIN 8.1 ?
System Requirements has (4 lines)
Why not have a 5th line regarding 64-bit requirements - obfuscation at the very least, this world is complicated as it is]

Here's the t'upenny's worth:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The two PC's in question are unable to Install/Run Windows 8.1 (Should have been called WIN 9)
because of their processors: Intel Pentium 4 640, Pentium D 820, respectively, for lack of VT-x
Hoping that Pentium D 940 (with VT-x) will rescue one of the machines from exclusion of WIN 8.1
club and whatever other pre-conditions Microsoft introduce stealthily on their next Release/Update

This article says it all:
New Windows 8.1 requirements strand some users on Windows 8 | PCWorld

To answer your points:
1. System Requirements don't state/warn of lack of PrefetchW AND LAHF/SAHF
But Upgrade Assistant does...
2. Install DVD never gets to Windows Set Up screen
3. Not an option - Windows Store returns "Sorry, you can't install the update because it isn't
supported by your computer's CPU" More link, indeed, reveals:

System Requirements (4 lines) and Additional Requirements to use certain features (17 lines)
'buried' in line 16:
"To install a 64-bit O/S on a 64-bit PC, your processor needs to support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW
and LAHF/SAHF"

Talk about burying bad news (UK thing). MICROSOFT This is STRUCTURAL and should have
appeared in System Requirements (line 5) never mind the b******s and small print
If one has a 64-bit PC - there is no option to download 32-bit version for WIN 8/8.1 iso
No, M'soft are excluding a whole raft of 64-bit processors and Intel can't be unhappy about it

Slash and Burn Culture

Dump your fine working Technology? You may have the latest bells and whistles, addicted to the
'cutting edge' but there is a world out there, some kids in India, Africa or China working on a
'recycled' cast off PC who are part of the next generation of IT specialists and engineers

Message to Microsoft - "What ever you do, do it up front, we all value our time and investment"

Announcement

WINDOWS 8.1 won't install/load on PC where WIN 8 runs Fine

WINDOWS 8.1 won't install/load on PC where WIN 8 runs Fine

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