Questions about upgrading from Windows 8.1 to 10 [Aspire T180]

Hello

I am currently running Windows 8.1 Pro on my Acer T180. Working just fine, but did sign up for the free Windows 10 upgrade. Received my notice for the next step to download, but there was a message that the integrated Nvidia GeForce 6150SE nForce 430 GPU is incompatible to complete the download and install of Windows 10. Now as I understand it the Nvidia issue affected all video cards [add-ons and integrated] because of the Direct X 12 issue. From what I have read in other forums, I should be able to disable the integrated video card and install an acceptable add-on card and of course upgrade the OEM PSU to at least a 300 watt unit. Is this, in fact, an accurate assessment of a doable upgrade?

I had contacted Nvidia and I was told in their reply that I could not upgrade to Windows 10 as my motherboard would not be able to accept the upgrade. I took this to mean that they wanted me to buy one of their systems because the Windows 10 advisor should tell a user that their MB was incompatible, no?

Current Specs of Computer below:

NVIDIA System Information report created on:	08/06/2015 08:34:51
System name:	FCINTER
Operating System:	Windows 8.1 Pro, 32-bit
DirectX version:	11.0
GPU processor:	GeForce 6150SE nForce 430
Driver version:	309.08
DirectX support:	9.0c
Core clock:	425 MHz
Memory data rate:	1332 MHz
Memory interface:	32-bit
Total available graphics memory:	1663 MB
Dedicated video memory:	256 MB DDR1
System video memory:	0 MB
Shared system memory:	1407 MB
Video BIOS version:	5.61.32.25.04
IRQ:	22
Bus:	FPCI

Accepted answers

All comments

techy

windows 10 advisor was designed to look at processor speed and amount of ram on board as well programs you have installed, of which really your system may be able to perform windows 10 functions but not as fast as what windows 8,1 is doing for you, what nvidia probably was saying to you was there is no chipset driver for windows 10 for your motherboard, windows 7 or 8 driver may work but there is no gaurantee of that, as for upgrading the power supply to a 300 watt, you are still limited on graphics card available as most need 350 to 400 watts, then there is the cost of the graphics card to add on, plus how much ram you have, windows 10 will run on 1 gig but you do not have all the features available to you, effectively 4 gig would be the minimum, if your happy with your 8.1 pro then I would stay with that, if you want windows 10 then i would seriously consider a new computer to get around your limitations you are posed with now.

padgett

Blaming the video driver is a common Windows 10 fail. Same thing happened with the Intel GMA in a z2760 (W3 & W510).

The secret seems to be to go into Windows update and install every important and optional update that has "Windows" in the title. (From a base 8.1 install that is about 230 updates and 2GB of downloads).

Then use the Windows 10 installer tool. If it fails, check for updates and try again (on one machine it took three tries of about 4 hours each to take).

Finally check Device Manager for any device drivers that failed or have a yellow "i". I have to roll back some drivers to earier versions to work properly.