M17x R3 Windows 10 and UEFI Question

Had a quick question related to the announced requirements for Windows 10.

I have an older M17x R3 that I'm running the Windows 10 technical preview on without issue, however the recent announcement from Microsoft is that Windows 10 will require UEFI.

From what I understand, the M17x R3 does not support UEFI. Is this correct? Is there any way around it so I can install the official release of Windows 10 on it when it becomes available?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-10-system-requirements,28798.html

 

Yup, with this brought in, the R3 won't be able to run the full Win 10 RTM when it's released... There might be some way around this (OS will need to be hacked) but who knows? Most likely (99.9%) it probably won't work!

 

Actually, I may have found the answer to my question. It seems that in order for hardware to be 'Windows 10 Logo Certified' they have to ship with SecureBoot enabled which requires UEFI support, however the manufacturers have the option to allow users to turn it off, so that seems to me that Windows 10 will still work without it, its just that to be Windows 10 certified, the hardware must not only support it, but be shipped with it enabled.

Link from Maximum PC:
http://www.maximumpc.com/report_pc_makers_will_have_power_lock_out_other_oses_windows_pcs_100

Also from Thurrott
https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/2257/windows-10-minimum-hardware-requirements-for-pc

 

Thanks for this workaround.
I'll go ahead and submit this info.
+Rep btw
Great Find!

 

Well I updated my m17x r3 on July 29, and it ruined my computer! I now have an unusable, completely black screen. There is no way to access device manager to uninstall the video card contrary to alienware tech support and windows publications. I've tried all the supposed methods of getting to device manager - many, many ways, but none work. I have gone to settings (very difficult to do, btw, and bios and even other keyboard key combinations that are supposed to work. Nothing works and there is no reverting back to w7. It would have been nice if Microsoft had warned me b4 having me just updating, bc now I have the fun of losing ALL data and reformatting the solid state drives with Windows 7 all over again. THANKS WINDOWS! Next time warn us b4 hand *%$#!!!

 

I had very few issues installing Windows 10 on mine. The first time around I shouldn't have kept Apps or Personal files as that seemed to lock up some menus. I also kept my original HDD intact so I just re-cloned it to my SSD. If you did the upgrade it should keep your Windows 7 install for up to 30 days so you can revert back. The only other issue I had was that running locked A12 BIOS meant that it wanted to use HD3000 graphics for everything for some reason. This is after I updated my drivers through device manager and had ATI drivers installed. I installed unlocked A12 and disabled internal graphics and it hasn't been an issue since. Are you able to get to the desktop in Win 10? If you can right click on the start menu icon and select device manager or control panel.

 

I wish Dell would enable UEFI for the R3 by way of BIOS update, as there really isn't reason why it can't support it. I am running a Intel Q67 motherboard and it is as simple as turn on and off the UEFI option when required.

Come on Dell just put the tiny bit of code need in the BIOS and let us have UEFI, as our M17x R3 are still relevant machines, and we all paid a lot of money for it. Don't need secure boot keys or anything, just UEFI enable or disable feature switch.

 

I am running a non UEFI R4 with 8.1, if i wanted to go UEFI install what steps should i follow ?

Sorry if this isnt the thread for it

 

Go into BIOS (UEFI) and change Legacy/CSM boot to UEFI boot, enable Windows fast boot and disable load legacy, you can leave secure boot disabled if you want.You will need to convert your SSD into GPT from MBR as well.

 

Perfect thank you, will do that. I had done this before i just dint remember the steps.

While installing windows 10 i can format the SSD in GPT ?

 

You can convert MBR to GPT now without loosing any data:
http://www.disk-partition.com/free-partition-manager.html

Select the disk to convert from MBR to GPT
Right click the disk and select Convert to GPT Disk, click OK
Click Apply button on the toolbar to commit the changes

 

Windows 10 doesn't require UEFI, by the way. It should run fine in legacy BIOS mode, although without UEFI features (which aren't that big of a deal unless you want to run HDDs with huge amounts of storage space, which I don't know of any for laptops yet anyhow).

 

UEFI is a big deal, as should be able to run a 965M, 970M, or 980M if it were to be enabled.

 

Hi, I'm not sure if this really matters.

I have an M17X R3 3D (with a non supported Dell OEM GTX 680m) with the A08 Unlocked Bios and I enabled UEFI within the bios. Nothing broke and nothing seemed to change. Win 10 boots just fine and I didn't get any issues. However I'm contemplating on upgrading the bios to A12 Unlocked for the Sata and see if that does anything to my system negatively.

So far I'm enjoying Win 10.