AOD257: Windows 10 upgrade reports cpu wouldn't support NX

MikeTNT

I can't upgrade from Win7 Starter to Win10 home 32bit because the installation routine reports a missing NX.

So far I know the Atom N570 should be able to handle the no execution bit

I use the latest Bios 1.15 and there is no option to enable NX (respective XD bit)

I also tested a patched 1.15 Bios which offers more setup options, but there is also no way to enable NX.

Can someone confirm that he could install Win10 on his Aspire One D257 without problems?

If yes:

- Which Windows 10 edition?

- 32 bit or 64 bit

- Fresh install or upgrade from an older windows version?

@Acer team

Please offer a new BIOS update where you can enable and disable the no execution bit.

Additionally please enable more of the hidden BIOS funktions (e.g. HT on/off)

Accepted answers

MikeTNT

Problem solved so far.

To avoid data loss, I have installed a new SSD with Win7pro 32bit.

With this fresh system, the Win10pro 32bit upgrade could install without problems.

It will take a while, but as soon as I installed my old SSD with a fresh win7starter, I will report if this also solve the NX cpu incompatibility error.

By the way: With 2 GB Ram and SSD drive there is no speed difference between Win7 and Win10. Both systems are fast with this hardware upgrade. (=The original 1 GB RAM and hdd have been very slowly.)

All comments

MikeTNT

In Youtube I could find a user who could upgrade his D257 from Win8.1pro32bit to Win10pro32bit without problems. He gaves the following instructions:

1. Load and save the default BIOS settings

2. Create a bootable usb stick from the windows10 iso file

3. Upgrade your old Windows by starting the setup from usb stick.

I did it already this way, but I always get the NX compatibility error, before I can start with the installation.

Also the Windows 8.1 compatibility check tool reports me that my system doesn't allow secure boot due to missing cpu features, but it would be possible to install Win8.1 without this function. Why the hell Win10 insist on this NX-feature? :-(

When I find the time to backup (respective to clone) my multiboot system, I will test a clean installation of Win10pro32bit.

Edit: It is possible to enable "secure boot"?

In my unlocked 1.15 BIOS I could find the item "Use XD Capability - enable", but i can't change anything because it is greyed out. I have already set a Supervisor Password in the hope that after that I can change the setting, but unfortunately it didn't changed anything (and I have also tested with the original BIOS 1.15).

Is it possible that hardware changes caused a disabled XD flag? I have replace the hdd with a SSD and I have upgraded to 2GB RAM.

MikeTNT

Problem solved so far.

To avoid data loss, I have installed a new SSD with Win7pro 32bit.

With this fresh system, the Win10pro 32bit upgrade could install without problems.

It will take a while, but as soon as I installed my old SSD with a fresh win7starter, I will report if this also solve the NX cpu incompatibility error.

By the way: With 2 GB Ram and SSD drive there is no speed difference between Win7 and Win10. Both systems are fast with this hardware upgrade. (=The original 1 GB RAM and hdd have been very slowly.)

logicisme

I had the same problem as everyone else running Win7 Starter. What I did that finally made the upgrade stop giving the NX compatibility error was simply to:

Right click on my computer, go to properties
Click on Advanced System Settings
Click on Performance button
Click on Data Execution Prevention tab
Click on the radio button that says "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select"
Click ok to close
Retry the Win 10 Installer
Profit.

Basically just do this windows tutorial:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Change-Data-Execution-Prevention-settings?SignedIn=1

And then re-run the setup through the Windows Update.

IMG_0391m.jpg

MikeTNT

Thanks for the hint.

In my case it didn't worked but the following step has been successful:

Open the Command Prompt with administrator rights and enter:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn

After that the Win10 installer was happy with NX.

oberon567

That's interesting... I upgraded my AOD257 from Win 7 Start 32 bit to Win 10 Home 32 bit without any problems and without doing any extra or prepatory steps...

Since then I have upgraded a number of other machines, and having encountered a few problems, now always start by doing a disk clean up of system files, uninstalling anti virus software, uninstalling various drivers and softwares that have given others problems, and going from there... But in this case, it being the first machine I upgraded, I did nothing and it worked fine.

Glad you were able to get it to work, eventually!

I am planning on upgrading this machine to Windows 10 Home 64 bit with a clean install, since the hardware will support it. Windows Activation and upgrade allows for switching from 32 to 64 if you maintain the same version. Right now the hard drive is MBR and the system is a Legacy option. I know Windows 10 prefers UEFI, and it seems this hardware will also support UEFI... anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this?

MikeTNT

The AOD257 is able to handle 64bit, but it doesn't make sense to use the 64bit version, because the CPU can't handle more than 2 GB RAM. Due to this limitation I would always prefer 32bit on this hardware.

Note:

If you want to change your Win7start32bit to Win10-64bit home anyway, chose this way:

Upgrade Win7starter to Win10-32bit home.

When Win10 is running, login with a Microsoft account (perhaps it makes sense to play arround after that a view minutes).

Now you can make a fresh install of WIn10-64bit home. If Windows10 should report that you system isn't activated, login with your Mircrosoft account. After that the acivation should work.

I tested this method successfully on another computer (and before that I tried it without to use a M$-account and I couldn't activate Win10-64bit).

Regarding "Legacy option" and "UEFI support" I can't help you, because of too much ignorance. (Till know I tought the D0257 doesn't have UEFI Bios...)

oberon567

I have already done the upgrade to Windows 10 Home 32 bit, and it is running fine, activated and happy.

However I thought a fresh install might help the speed out a little bit, and just get rid of any miscellaneous junk that's accumulated over the last few years.

Plus, I thought the upgrade to 64 bit might be of benefit. I had upgraded to 2 gb of RAM a while ago, and at the time I thought the 2 gb cap was a consequence of it being Windows 7 Starter 32 bit, not of the chipset... Windows 10 64 bit will run on 2 gb of RAM, that is its minimum, so I was figuring to install it now with 2 and then upgrade to 4 later when I can get it on sale or something like this... But if the 2gb cap is hardware based, not software based, it might make me reconsider... Are you sure it is hardware based? If so, darn.

I am pretty sure the AOD257 does support a UEFI environment, and in general Windows 10 supposedly prefers UEFI more than BIO/Legacy, but I do not know how nitceable the difference would be between the two systems on a fresh install if Windows 10... if the difference would not noticeable then it wouldn't be worth it...

Edit: While a few places online suggest it can take 4gb, including here: http://www.techspot.com/news/42641-intel-officially-launches-dual-core-atom-n570-processor.html, the intel page for the processor itself says only 2gb max. So, that pretty much solves that.... even using a modded BIOS can't work around a limitation of the CPU. Oh well. There are a few people who said they installed 4gb RAM and it worked fine, but it looks like more evidence is against them...

MikeTNT

I couldn't find any trustful D257 owners all over the world wide web who could confirm that 4 GB module would work.

I could only find idiots that confirmed well running 4 GB in d257 and Atom n570 threads, but when you read the complete thread you could find out, that this people spoke about other hardware.

Additionally I could find users that have tested several 4GB modules on the d257 without success.

Therefore I'm pretty sure that 2 GB is the maximum due to a hardware limit, like it is confirmed by Intel.

So I would say: We have to live with the poor performance of the D257, although we have upgraded to 2 GB RAM and SSD.

Note: Under win7 I used a unlocked BIOS where I could disable hyperthreading. Without the virtual cores the performance was a little bit better. (-> just my personal feeling) Perhaps one day I will test the unlocked BIOS again under Win10 to find out, if a disabled hyperthreading also feels better.

oberon567

Yeah, my impression of users saying they dd a 4gb update was generally the same. I had read elseqhere about someone disabling Hyperthreading and finding the performance improved, so I am considering it.

I mean, in the end, the AOD257 is what it is, a small, low powered Netbook that is good at certain tasks but not design to really do what even a regular, mid-entry laptop does. So I have my laptop to do hose things and the AOD257as a backup and when I travel, and ultimately just need to accept its limitations...

MikeTNT

Yes, all in all the performance of the D257 is ok for a netbook, when you upgrade from 1 to 2 GB RAM.

I use my D257 for home banking, playing online poker, web browsing, Kodi (video streaming and audio streaming) and sometimes I use android 4.2.2 (but a lot of apps are incompatible with x86 architecture).

Unfortuantely Youtube videos have a very low performance. I have already disabled hardware acceleration for videos and the full-screen message in firefox (about :config -> full-screen-api.approval-required -> false). It is much better now, but far away from perfection. :-)

BryanMC35

I was able to run win10 without any modifications to the bios and right after a clean fresh install of of win7, I made a win2go set up on a portable 240gb SSD, And settup from there. After I got the files transferred safely using Acronis True image, I unplugged and was good to go, no real issue with it at all, I guess cause I'm virtually running it, with virtual everything's, but my actual system has a 250gb SSD and 2gig ram / memory. But those I just put in this week, I've been running win10 for over 2 months now. Good luck to you!

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