X201 won't install Windows 10

[Edward Mendelson]

Here's a puzzle: I have an X201 with an i7 CPU and Windows 7 (32-bit) installed. It won't upgrade to Windows 10 because it says the processor doesn't support NX. Oddly enough, my wife has an X201s (actually an X200s with an X201s system board in it), and that upgraded happily to Windows 10, which works very well.

Both machines have the patched BIOS that turns off the WiFi whitelist, if that matters.

I've tried all the tricks I've found on line for getting around this problem, but none seems to work. Any insight will be gratefully received.

[ajkula66]

I know this is not what you're looking to hear, but here's how I'd go about it:

Forget the upgrade for the time-being. Get out a spare drive and do a clean install of W10. Run it for a few days to see how you like it and how the machine behaves under it.

Modded BIOS shouldn't have anything to do with the W10 barking at it, since the laptop that I've tested W10 with had both an older CPU (T9300) and a modded BIOS but a clean install went right through with no complaints from the OS nevertheless.

I would also *strongly* suggest doing some serious research on privacy issues within the aforementioned OS before getting online with it.

My $0.02 only...

Good luck.

[Edward Mendelson]

Those privacy concerns are very relevant, and I've kept them in mind. I've been using Windows 10 on my wife's system, and while it's not my favorite, I need to have an up-to-date system for testing some software I work with.

Anyway, I solved the problem that got in the way of upgrading. The Windows 7 system in my X201 was copied from a system that used to be on an X61. Apparently Windows 10 detected the chipset drivers from the X61 system and thought they identified the chipset in the X201.

So I used ShadowProtect Desktop to make a backup of the system, then used ShadowProtect to restore the system using a "Hardware Independent Restore" that removes all the chipset and storage drivers when restoring. After doing this, Windows 10 installed itself with no trouble at all.

[Yandar]

Hmm.

First you can try setting the BIOS back to its defaults. If that does not work, you could try flashing your bios back to the same unmodded version and try upgrading then reflash to the modded one once the upgrade is done.

Good luck.

[Edward Mendelson]

First you can try setting the BIOS back to its defaults. If that does not work, you could try flashing your bios back to the same unmodded version and try upgrading then reflash to the modded one once the upgrade is done.

As I reported in the previous message, the problem had nothing to do with the BIOS. It was the effect of chipset drivers that were still present after I moved the system from an X61. With the chipset drivers removed, everything went smoothly.

[Billaboard]

I would also *strongly* suggest doing some serious research on privacy issues within the aforementioned OS before getting online with it.

My $0.02 only...

Good luck.

Just to say I've had it running on an X60 and two X201's, and not had any problems.

I'm more worried about the likelihood of W10, with its automatic change/updates, shifting beneath my keyboard than any security of data issues. I do audio and need to have a solid, reliable OS that doesn't upset any tweaks I've made.

But if worried about privacy, I'd suggest reading

http://1techlife.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08 ... metry.html

At least one of these telemetry updates to W7 has just changed from Optional to Important, and one other, KB2952664, seems to reappear even if removed and hidden.