Originally OEM Win 10 upgraded to Win 11 Pro -- swapping in new hardware

spapakons said:

I know the feeling. In 2021 I couldn't upgrade my perfectly working Windows 10 system to Windows 11 and I had to clean install. It took many days until I had installed all applications but still think I missed something. Also it is never exactly the same. It feels like using another computer and takes some time to get comfortable with it. That's why I insist on upgrading and reserve clean installation if upgrade is not possible at all.

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Right now it's still downloading updates. I'll go ahead and link it to my MS account -- reluctantly -- as I can see how to create a local account with MS instructions.

When something like this happens, it completely changes your sense of "wants and needs". For years, now, I've kept a backup "twin" system in the event that some problem interrupted my use of the daily-driver PC. I got used to it. So this is the way I go forward: reinstall all my software (that I can) and try not to look back.

At least it will be a little faster for some time compared to an aged installation and you have the chance to replace your old apps with newer versions, where possible. Also you can select which ones to install and skip the rest that you don't use anymore. There is always a bright side.

spapakons said:

At least it will be a little faster for some time compared to an aged installation and you have the chance to replace your old apps with newer versions, where possible. Also you can select which ones to install and skip the rest that you don't use anymore. There is always a bright side.

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Something else that has always plagued system builders, probably for the last two decades.

Our systems in their "Device Manager" windows are complex, with many drivers. There is ALWAYS SOMETHING initially that is misconfigured -- your "yellow bang nodes" or "exclamations" -- "Unknown . . . PCI device . . . Other device. With new hardware, loading and booting into Windows the first couple times, it seems you NEVER get the chipset and other drivers installed in the correct order.

Often you can find the drivers that need to be installed, or removed and then re-installed. But there's always something that raises a pile of thread exchanges on the various web-sites -- including "Eleven" and "Ten". This time, I had to resort to a "Driver Booster" utility.

You perhaps heard of it? It's listed among the top ten driver installation utilities. If you use it, you want its work to be done quickly -- NEVER disable your AV and malware barriers -- it brings along bloat that hooks into your desktop while its running. But I've used it on these two Z590 systems, and it ALWAYS resolves your driver problems. After it's finished -- go directly to Programs & Features and uninstall that darn thing! Using it is like going into a tropical swamp -- you come out of it with leeches!

The best thing, though -- since this system replaces the one I built in 2016/17, I've found that all of my software reinstalls with their old licenses -- so far without any trouble, especially my EXPENSIVE software and licenses . . . . so far . . . as I can tell!

For best compatibility and performance you have to take the time and download all the official drivers from manufacturer. Install the chipset drivers (aka platform drivers) first because all others depend on them. Then the graphics drivers and then everything else. It makes a huge difference in performance than relying on Windows Update or using a driver tool.

spapakons said:

For best compatibility and performance you have to take the time and download all the official drivers from manufacturer. Install the chipset drivers (aka platform drivers) first because all others depend on them. Then the graphics drivers and then everything else. It makes a huge difference in performance than relying on Windows Update or using a driver tool.

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I'm sure I did that, but I also suspect that there are BIOS and driver combinations in which something gets borked during installations for certain motherboards and chipsets -- basically chipsets. In the matter of this 2022 motherboard, it seems to be the ME and chipset driver installations.

It humbles me to rely on some utility like "Driver Booster", and it causes me to do a "look over my shoulder" because of all the "iTop" and other bloat that hooks into your system -- at least (hopefully) visible and removeable through Programs and Features. So far for two systems, this seems to be the case.

Device Manager gives me a "clean bill of health". You have reminded me to get my nVidia drivers installed, and now I see I'm using 2nd-tier graphics cards from 10 years prior.

But for what I do, should it freaking matter? I know people on my street who have two Mercedes sportsters in their garage. They don't spend $700 every couple years to upgrade their GPUs. My Bro and his wife keep about four vehicles and a travel-trailer, and another trailer for their two horses. They just use laptops.

So I'm making sound decisions this year. No . . . new . . . G-P-U.

If there is any BIOS (aka UEFI firmware) update, it should be done first because it might affect the hardware IDs of the motherboard components (chipset). So upgrade the BIOS first and then update the drivers.

spapakons said:

If there is any BIOS (aka UEFI firmware) update, it should be done first because it might affect the hardware IDs of the motherboard components (chipset). So upgrade the BIOS first and then update the drivers.

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Sure. Most of the time my BIOS upgrade attempts were successful. It was more like 20 years ago that one failed and I had to RMA the motherboard. It's tedious. I always check the BIOS release date on new boards, but if I have a 2024 BIOS on a 2021/2022 board, it's not likely to make a difference although some slight probability would remain -- that's just the statistical nature of things. Even so, that Bloat-ware that I mentioned did what it's supposed to do. My problem is the low volume of my computer-building efforts: I have no incentive to buy bloat-free versions of the software for making a couple configurations right in a given year.

Meanwhile,, it seems that it's time to buy a new graphics card, according to a "bottle-neck calculator' I've run against this system.

Why buy a new graphics card? Are you playing games? Do you edit videos or photos? What are your current specs and what do you so with your computer? Mine are 3rd generation Intel Core-i7 (upgraded second-hand from 3rd generation Core-i3), 16GB RAM (upgraded from 8GB, unfortunately my motherboard has only two slots), nVidia GeForce RTX 3050 (upgraded from nVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and that from nVidia GeForce GTS 610), 1TB SSD (upgraded from 480GB SSD, that from 250GB SSD and that from 500GB mechanical SATA disk). I don't play any current demanding games, only casual games and retro games using various emulators. However, I regularly do video editing, mostly in 1080p and I show great improvement in performance while I gradually upgraded my PC. Especially using hardware acceleration (NVEnc, aka nVidia CUDA) it made noticeable difference from 1050 Ti to 3050, although my PCIe slot is version 3.0 and the card doesn't work at its full potential. Latest improvement was replacing my PCIe to USB 3.0 card with a combo PCIe to SATA III and USB 3.0 and moving my SSD from the motherboard SATA II port to the SATA III port. Although the card doesn't work at maximum speed due to the PCIe 3.0 port, it is still faster than SATA II.