Solved A costly lesson I just learned about W11 Upgrades

[Birk]

I wanted to rebuild a PC that was not updateable from Win10 to Win11 because it had an old motherboard and CPU that did not support the Win11 Secure Boot mode.. So I ordered a new motherboard, Intel i5 CPU, cooling fan, and power supply from Amazon. The CPU was one that included graphics support because I wanted to avoid a separate graphics card.

Amazon said it would take 2 weeks to ship the CPU, so I cancelled it and ordered one that did not include graphic support. I have a couple of old graphics cards and thought I could use one of those. I got everything installed and working OK, but the Windows app that checks for Win11 compatibility said the system was not compatible with Secure Boot. I expected this becuase I knew there were some BIOS tweaks that were required enabling Secure Boot.

I went through the BIOS tweaks required to make the BIOS compatible with Secure Boot, but when I rebooted I got BIOS messages I'd never seen before saying that the BIOS setup was not compatible with my VGA graphics card. So my BIOS settings had been changed to support the VGA card I had put in the system.

Rebooting got me back to the same place - not compatible with secure boot. THis same process repeated 3 times for the 3 graphics cards I have. So there is clearly a link between the Win11 Secure Boot requirement and the type of graphics card in the system. I ordered a new card and I'm hoping it will be OK for Win 11. I should find out later tonight.

 

[FreeBooter]

Do you have setting in BIOS for Secure Boot that you can enabled?

 

[Birk]

Yes, and I did that. Here's a short video that shows what I did:

 

[FreeBooter]

You have correctly configured your BIOS/UEFI for Windows 11 any more questions let us know.

 

[Birk]

Apparently you missed the real problem - when I configure the ASUS Bios for Win11 and then reboot, the BIOS configuration changes I made are undone by the bIOS itself because it senses that those changes are incompatible with a standard VGA video card.

 

[zbook]

Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link

BSOD - Posting Instructions

BSOD - Posting Instructions This will show you how to help provide needed information about your system and dump files. It will not contain any personal or sensitive information about you or your data. To get better help with your Windows BSOD issue, please read these instructions and follow...

www.elevenforum.com

Run: https://aka.ms/GetPCHealthCheckApp > post a share link

Check if a device meets Windows 11 system requirements after changing device hardware | Microsoft Support

If hardware was changed on a Windows device in order to upgrade to Windows 11 and the system is not recognizing the change in a timely manner, this article explains how to initiate the assessment manually.

support.microsoft.com

 

[NormanF]

Apparently you missed the real problem - when I configure the ASUS Bios for Win11 and then reboot, the BIOS configuration changes I made are undone by the bIOS itself because it senses that those changes are incompatible with a standard VGA video card.

If the video card is the culprit, replace it with one compatible with your BIOS and Windows 11.

 

[Birk]

I did order a new card that is supposed to me compatible with Win11. It should arrive sometime this evening.

Amazon.com

 

[Megahertz]

To install Win 11 you need to have a BIOS option to set secure boot but if it has (an option) it doesn't need to be enabled.

 

[zbook]

These are the Microsoft Windows 11 supported GPU requirements:

Graphics Card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver.

Display: High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per color channel. 
If your screen size is less than 9”, the intended user interface of Windows may not be fully visible.

Windows 11 System Requirements | Microsoft Support

Learn about Windows 11 minimum system requirements and how to assess your upgrade eligibility.

support.microsoft.com

 

[Birk]

Unfortunately the log collector does not work. This is the link it sets up:

%SystemRoot%\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoExit -Command "&'.\resources\main.ps1'"

But that failed because the %SystemRoot% was invalid. So I opened Powershell myself and got this result:


-NoProfile : The term '-NoProfile' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable
program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
At line:1 char:1
+ -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -NoExit -Command "&'.\resources\ma ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (-NoProfile:String) [], CommandNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException

 

[zbook]

Please uninstall any non-Microsoft antivirus software using the applicable uninstall tool:

[KB146] Uninstallers (removal tools) for common Windows antivirus software

support.eset.com

Make sure Microsoft defender is on.


And make sure extract all is clicked before launching V2.

 

[Birk]

Don't have any foreign anti-virus and Defender is on.

I've used the same Zip unzipper for years and it has always extracted everything.

 

[zbook]

Please post images or share links.

Reboot the computer then run V2 without any other software.

 

[Birk]

 

[Marcus Vinicus]

I've looked at the video @Birk posted.
Do you have CSM (Compatibility Support Mode) enabled or disabled in your bios?

Don't take this as gospel for your Asus motherboard because I use a different Asus board (z790).
I checked my bios settings just now which are:
• Secure Boot enabled
• CSM (Compatibility Support Mode) is disabled.

I had an issue which my PC last year where it wouldn't boot into Windows 11. It turned out that CSM was enabled and had to be turned off before Windows would boot.

 

[Megahertz]

Is the computer specs the one on your "My computer"?
CSM must be set to disabled

 

[MisterEd]

These are the Microsoft Windows 11 supported GPU requirements:

Graphics Card: Compatible with DirectX 12 or later with WDDM 2.0 driver.

Display: High definition (720p) display that is greater than 9” diagonally, 8 bits per color channel.
If your screen size is less than 9”, the intended user interface of Windows may not be fully visible.

Windows 11 System Requirements | Microsoft Support

Learn about Windows 11 minimum system requirements and how to assess your upgrade eligibility.

support.microsoft.com

The problem with the GPU specs for Windows 11 is that most people don't know how to determine whether their GPU is compatible or not. The easiest way to find out is to run the dxdiag command. You can search for it in the Windows search box and select to run it. The relevant information is in the Display tab, Here are some examples:

 

[Birk]

Regrettably this is what dxdiag shows me:

And I tried with my BIOS CSM setting as both Enabled and Disabled - it made no difference.

No, my config settings here are for my system - this one is wife's machine that has a Intel I5 12600 KF CPU and an old GT630 video card.

 

[steveg]

What is the make/model of the GPU you are trying to use? Guessing it is pretty old, no?