Question CPU Upgrade Problem

[NigelJ]

I’m confused (nothing new there!). A couple of weeks ago I acquired a three year old Dell Optiplex 7050 micro PC. It is a refurbished (by Stone) model, with a COA Windows 10 for refurbished PCs. It has an Intel i5 processor (6500T) running at 2.5GHz, and it is quad core.

I assumed that once I had updated Windows 10 it would offer me the free Windows 11 upgrade, but no. It says the CPU does not meet the requirements (everything else does). Last year my brother had a Geobook with a Celeron CPU running at 1.1GHz, dual core, which did the upgrade.

My question therefore is, why is my CPU considered not capable when a far inferior CPU is?

 

[Roland Of Gilead]

Hey there,

It mostly comes down to the gen if the CPU, and if it supports the security features.

I'm in a similar boat with Dell Latitude 7280. It has an I5 7500u, pretty capable for standard laptop stuff. The laptop even supports fTPM. But the processor is not supported. Same with your CPU.

 

[NigelJ]

Ok, thanks for that. As a matter of interest (I'm not going to do it) if I was to buy a new copy of Windows 11, and do a fresh install, would it work?

 

[punkncat]

If it isn't here:

Windows processor requirements Windows 11 supported Intel processors | Microsoft Learn

then not by standard channels.

 

[DSzymborski]

Basically, it's newness, not power, that essentially determines compatibility. Unless your brother did some workarounds, it's most likely he has a Gemini Lake Celeron, which would be slower than your CPU but a lot newer. Better information from you could provide a more detailed answer in this respect; there are more than a dozen Celerons clocked at 1.1 GHz, spread out over more than a decade.

 

[geofelt]

As above, it is the gen of the processor, not the power.

May I ask what benefit do you expect to get by changing to windows 11?

 

[DSzymborski]

In any case, by the time Windows 10 goes full end-of-life, you'll have a decade-old, budget low-power CPU which will probably be screaming replacement. This refurbished PC is unlikely to be just three years old unless it was sitting in a warehouse for another three or four years before it was purchased.

 

[NigelJ]

Basically, it's newness, not power, that essentially determines compatibility. Unless your brother did some workarounds, it's most likely he has a Gemini Lake Celeron, which would be slower than your CPU but a lot newer. Better information from you could provide a more detailed answer in this respect; there are more than a dozen Celerons clocked at 1.1 GHz, spread out over more than a decade.

As above, it is the gen of the processor, not the power.

May I ask what benefit do you expect to get by changing to windows 11?

No reason other than I think it looks nice.

 

[NigelJ]

In any case, by the time Windows 10 goes full end-of-life, you'll have a decade-old, budget low-power CPU which will probably be screaming replacement. This refurbished PC is unlikely to be just three years old unless it was sitting in a warehouse for another three or four years before it was purchased.

According to Dell's website it was January 2020, but you could be right.

 

[NigelJ]

Basically, it's newness, not power, that essentially determines compatibility. Unless your brother did some workarounds, it's most likely he has a Gemini Lake Celeron, which would be slower than your CPU but a lot newer. Better information from you could provide a more detailed answer in this respect; there are more than a dozen Celerons clocked at 1.1 GHz, spread out over more than a decade.

My brother no longer has that laptop, he got another (new one) last year, which has Windows 11 on it.

 

[geofelt]

End of life for windows 10 does not mean that it will no longer run.
It means that new features may not be incorporated into w10.
Normal security updates will continue likely for longer.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

A good detailed thread on licenses and activation.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...e-b399-2820fda32227#WindowsVersion=Windows_10