Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs Forum

I downloaded the free Win 10 64-bit iso and installed it on an HP dc5700 microtower. When I tried installing a PCIe card, I got "This system only supports SDVD/ADD2 cards in the x16 slot". Google turned up nothing in the way of an answer. Anyone know it?

Also, when I tried using themes and such, it said I couldn't until Windows was activated. Since 10 is currently free where would I find this activation code and where would I put it?

http://www.engadget.com/products/hp/com ... 700/specs/

ADD2 cards are special passive video cards designed to add additional outputs to motherboards with certain chipsets featuring integrated video. If you put an active video card in that slot it appears that Windows 10 will not support it in conjunction with the integrated graphics.


Windows 10 is not free by itself, however MS is currently offering it as a "free" upgrade over Win7 or 8.1. The catch is that if you install the Windows 10 upgrade on top of a supported (and previously activated) OS then the Win10 upgrade will be activated. Unfortunately I recommend strongly against ever installing an OS as an upgrade so the Win10 "free" upgrade is useless to me. Maybe if you call Microsoft they will give you an activation code? Let me know what they tell you if you ask. Scott.

I got the same ADD2 error message when I ran Win7 on this machine. I see a bunch of used "Silicon Image Orion ADD-2N dual pad Sil1364 x16 DVI PCI-E Video Cards" on eBay. Would they work?

I agree with you that upgrades are not as good as clean installs. Just have to find a pre-activated copy of Win 10.

That's interesting, Windows 7 is supposed to be able to support heterogeneous display adapters (XP did, Vista did not), however I believe that support also depends on the drivers.


I think it is very likely they will, but I cannot be certain. Let me know what happens if you try one.


Here you go: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832588491

Scott.

What is the point of Pro? I know, you always point to Pro in the past but in Win10 Pro is $40 more for GP Editor, Remote Desktop Server and not much more that I see of use. Additionally it allows a slight delay in some updates. To be honest the Enterprise Edition is the only upgrade I would consider (or the "Education" license if anyone qualifies) and the price is too steep to bother ($$$ + four of the least expensive item in the MS Store). Win7 it is then.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Windows ... ss/Compare

Client Hyper-V?
Bitlocker?

Neither of which I would use or in the case of the latter trust.

The vast majority of most users will never use Group Policy Editor or RDS. Or care to.

Remote Desktop Server is a requirement for me, and for people I support directly.


Exactly, I currently do not recommend upgrading from Windows 7 to either 8 or 10. I don't think anybody should have to pay for Windows more than once on a given system. I would recommend that somebody spend that money on hardware (such as an SSD) instead. Scott.