Microsoft Cuts off Windows 10 Support Early for Some PCs

Megalith

Megalith

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If you own a device powered by an Intel Clover Trail processor (Atom Z2760, Z2520, Z2560, or Z2580) and wish to upgrade to the Windows 10 Creators Update, too bad: all you will get is an error message claiming that W10 is not supported on your system and that you should “uninstall this app.” While the compatibility checker in the Windows Setup program will reportedly give Clover Trail systems a clean bill of health, the upgrade will inevitably fail.

I've received multiple reports of this problem, which affects devices built around Intel's Atom Clover Trail series CPUs. Those chips first appeared in entry-level Windows 8 PCs, especially 2-in-1 devices, between four and five years ago. I was able to confirm that this hard block exists by attempting to install the Creators Update on an HP Envy X2, which uses a Clover Trail CPU, the Atom Z2760. HP shipped me the device in early 2015 and I've used it in lab tests as a benchmark for low-spec CPUs.
 
Why would you install a newer windows to an ancient computer like that?
 
B00nie said:
Why would you install a newer windows to an ancient computer like that?
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What might not be clear is that these devices worked on the initial release of Windows 10 as well as the 1607 one; it's only the 1703 release that refuses to support them. There's some suggestions this is due to the non-Intel embedded GPU.
 
Reading the article and its sources, it sounds like the manufacturers of these devices just need to release updated drivers that are compatible with 1703. Mobile hardware makers are notorious for not keeping the drivers for their proprietary configurations up to date. Also remember that they have already introduced a second WDDM version with 1703 since the release of W10.
 
1_rick said:
What might not be clear is that these devices worked on the initial release of Windows 10 as well as the 1607 one; it's only the 1703 release that refuses to support them. There's some suggestions this is due to the non-Intel embedded GPU.
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I believe that is correct, these Clover Trail Atoms used PowerVR iGPUs. I still have one of these devices, a Samsung 500T that launched with Windows 8. Pretty slow devices, I updated mine up to Windows 10 AU but haven't used it in months, the Surface 3 Cherry Trail Atom is much faster though it's still nowhere near fast.
 
Yeah, these are the previous-gen (2007-era) in-order Atom, hacked-together to fit 3.5w TDP in a tablet. The PowerVR GPU was half as powerful as phones/tablets of the era and required custom drivers.

So yeah, these had short-lived written all over them. If you dropped cash on these dinosaurs, you deserve to be dropped on your ass.

Bay Trail was twice as powerful, uses Intel HD graphics, and will be supported for many years.
 
Issues.jpg
 
Maybe now I can tell the manager here that we need to get these on eBay now before they're not just junk to us, they're worthless junk to everyone else. I know we have a half dozen tablets just sitting in the warehouse that we replaced with laptops or Surface devices if they actually needed tablets that are running on those old Zseries Atoms.
 
At least my Z3735D based tablet is good for one more release.
 
I don't own one of these, so it doesn't affect me, but I think MS needs a set policy on if/when they're dropping support and it needs to be announced well in advance of it happening. If these are 5 year old machines, I'd expect them to have support for at least 5 years and really it should probably get support until Windows 8 support ends.
It concerns me that MS may start dropping support for desktop systems. I don't think I've ever upgraded a system to run a new OS.
 
They should at least run the current versions of Windows 10, so as long as they still have updates for the older version of 10, it shouldn't be a problem.

It is troublesome that they are starting to drop support for systems that are currently able to run Windows 10.

I upgraded some 10 year old laptops that where no longer usable at the office to Windows 10 (core 2, 2Ghz, 4GB ram) and handed them out to some of the employees. The laptops ran faster on 10 than they did on 7, and the employees have been happy with their free laptops. :)
 
I'm going to reserve my knee jerk for if they do this to a real CPU. I can't say them dropping support for those pieces of crap is a warning sign for anything.
 
1_rick said:
What might not be clear is that these devices worked on the initial release of Windows 10 as well as the 1607 one; it's only the 1703 release that refuses to support them. There's some suggestions this is due to the non-Intel embedded GPU.
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Yeah, iirc this was hashed out on /. and it was about the 3rd-party gpu, and Intel's poor support for it.
 
Trimlock said:
People making mountains out of mole hills.
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The trouble is, it's part of a pattern with MS. Enough molehills, and it's a mountain of failed promises, removed features, reneged support, and generally just souring customers to their brand.
 
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bobdabilder said:
To linux
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At lot of these devices are tablets or 2 in 1s and the driver support isn't all that great so upgrade options on this kind of hardware are iffy. I have one, a Samsung 500T which I've not touched in well over a year. I might give a Linux distro a go to see how it would work out.
 
From what I've read, the PowerVR driver support on Linux is even worse than Windows.

This was an intentionally-abandoned platform by Intel. They never signed an agreement for PowerVR for them to provide drivers, and the ones they made themselves were late and buggy. And now Intel can pretend they never made those chips.

I mean hell, Intel will rethink a cutoff decision if they get loud-enough feedback. Like Sandy Bridge graphics support for Windows 10, which was added after the initial release. But I doubt many people will make much noise with these. Anyone who knew anything waited for Bay Trail before buying a Windows tablet..
 
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defaultluser said:
Anyone who knew anything waited for Bay Trail before buying a Windows tablet..
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Clover Trail was a stop gap measure and Bay Trail was the first true Intel Atom SoC. I got the Samsung 500T just because I wanted one and it was ok but the performance is one the bad side. It's not a half bad write tablet though running OneNote which was the main reason I got it given the size, weight and batter life.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I'm going to reserve my knee jerk for if they do this to a real CPU. I can't say them dropping support for those pieces of crap is a warning sign for anything.
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real cpu? lol.. come on now Windows 10 can run on things slower than that...
 
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Armenius said:
Reading the article and its sources, it sounds like the manufacturers of these devices just need to release updated drivers that are compatible with 1703. Mobile hardware makers are notorious for not keeping the drivers for their proprietary configurations up to date. Also remember that they have already introduced a second WDDM version with 1703 since the release of W10.
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that could be. Microsoft dropped the DVD player app that Win 8.1 had so you either buy PowerDVD or similar or whatever else folks do to watch DVD movies. I use my Macbook Pro 17 through a large screen TV, works great and DVD player comes standard with OS X releases.
I use Windows 10 ONLY because of PC gaming but with PS4 Pro and what will come in the future I can easily switch to PlayStation and go Macbook Pro for everything else
 
Who is this and what have you done with heatlesssun?

heatlesssun said:
At lot of these devices are tablets or 2 in 1s and the driver support isn't all that great so upgrade options on this kind of hardware are iffy. I have one, a Samsung 500T which I've not touched in well over a year. I might give a Linux distro a go to see how it would work out.
Click to expand...
 
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