Windows 10 setup not starting on old configuration

[Randy_Marsh]

Hi guys,

I am facing a weird problem while trying to install windows 10 64bit (for the first time) on my dad's old system. The configuration is as follows:

1. Intel Pentium E5200 2.50GHz
2. Gigabyte P31-S3G Mobo (no dedicated video port at all)
3. Kingston DDR2 4GB RAM
4. Palit Geforce 9800 GT
5. WD Green 128GB SSD and WD 500GB HDD (tried plugging both seperately, one by one)

The hardware do support 64bit OS's, and there is no overclocking done whatsoever. The setup do boot and windows 10 logo comes up, but nothing happens after that. I did try unplugging every peripheral from the system (except monitor) and tried running RAM on single channel, but no use. Can anyone help?

 

[whitestar_999]

Stop trying to install latest win 10(aka RS5) on such old hardware as chances of failure are much higher compared to older win 10 versions. Even if somehow it is able to install then I seriously doubt you will be able to get win 10 compatible drivers for such old system(& yes you do need them). Better stick with win 7 on such old systems or try linux(ubuntu or mint).

 

[patkim]

While I second whitestar_999, however just to know, did you try checking the Num & CAPs lock keys to know if they lit up the respective LEDs? This is just to check if Windows 10 is still trying to load (taking too much time to load drivers etc) or has gone into a hang. Stall at Starting Windows is many a times some sort of hardware or driver incompatibility issue.

How long did you wait before giving up?

Hiren Boot DVD with Windows 10 PE takes almost 15 minutes to exit circling dots on my old Athlon X2 PC!

First install Windows 7 64 on that PC. Then download Windows 8.1 Upgrade assistant app from internet. It's s standalone exe generally named as OSGS14-WindowsUpgradeAssistant-32bitand64bit-ClientSKU-nnnnn.exe or something similar (Do a Virus scan after download to be safe, some viruses come disguised as known exe's over the internet) You should get it on most download sites, and run that to find out if your PC hardware in theory can handle 8.1 first.

This is just in case you are still interested to try out a few things, else Windows 7 is recommended for such hardware.

 

[cute.bandar]

Simple google search suggests CPU is supported, but performance being really bad.

I suggest Windows 8.1

 

[Randy_Marsh]

Thank you for the replies!
Yes, I understand that using Win 10 on such hardware is not recommended, but I am still wanting it because there are people who actually uses this OS without any issues on hardware even older than mine.
I tried multiple things, and found that the problem is 64 bit version OS. Not sure why, but the 64 bit version of Windows 10 setup (or even Windows 8 or 8.1) doesn't start even when I waited for approx. 1 hour. It just stuck on the windows logo. I finally used Windows 10 32-bit and it worked. Later I realized that the earlier OS was also a 32 bit version, always (Windows 7).
Still couldn't figure out the root cause of this problem though, because this processor do support 64 bit processing, but its okay because Windows 10 32 bit seems to be working absolutely fine till now.

 

[whitestar_999]

Just because a processor supports 64bit doesn't mean all 64bit os will be supported by it.Most probably your old processor does not support some newer 64bit instructions which win 8/10 uses by default.

 

[ramussons]

There's something here that might be of help.
Pentium e5200 cpu not supported? Solved - Windows 10 Forums
Windows 10 Pro Support CPU ?

 

[chimera201]

It's probably the mobo chipset Intel® P31 Express not being compatible with 64-bit OS.

36-bit
Intel® 82P31 Memory Controller Product Specifications

 

[whitestar_999]

It's probably the mobo chipset Intel® P31 Express not being compatible with 64-bit OS.

36-bit
Intel® 82P31 Memory Controller Product Specifications

That is not true.

Physical Address Extensions (PAE) is a feature that allows 32-bit processors to access a physical address space larger than 4 gigabytes.

Intel introduced 64bit instructions set support with pentium 4 x86-64 - Wikipedia