Windows 11 & TPM 2.0 Requirements; Radeon Software Issues

I just wanted to speak a bit on the Windows 11 TPM 2.0 and SecureBoot requirements.

I spent a bit of time trying to understand why TPM 2.0 was needed.  When I investigated, I found that SecureBoot is also a requirement for upgrading to Windows 11.

I suggest enabling it if you have it.  If your system was built 3-4 years ago, it should already be TPM 2.0 capable (you may need to enable it within your BIOS or use a discreet TPM).  If your system is older, your system will more than likely not be capable of using TPM 2.0.

SecureBoot is also a requirement, as both TPM 2.0 and SecureBoot will keep rootkits from starting before the OS boots up.  I'm not sure on if SecureBoot will interfere with dual booting systems (if you've configured your systems to boot both Windows and Linux, for example)...it shouldn't but I'd test first.

The below video has a lot of information about TPM and SecureBoot.

Now, for a different subject.

So, as you know, I've upgraded my GPU to an AMD Radeon RX 6600.  While I love that it's a lot more capable than my prior GPU, I'm finding that I do NOT like certain things about it.  Well, it's not a card issue, specifically, but it is a driver and software issue that I've been experiencing the past few days.

If I right-click on my desktop, I should be able to pull up the AMD Radeon software console.  Well, it hasn't been working.  I've followed several tutorials explaining how to fix this issue, but none of them work.  It's always explained that the issue is due to conflicting drivers and that you have to remove the driver installation folders, safe boot, then use DDU to remove all GPU drivers, then boot back into the OS normally, then reinstall the drivers.  I've done that at least 3 times, back to back and the software still doesn't start.  This is problematic because the software should be checking for driver updates and notifying me.  If the software can't start, it can't check the drivers and notify the system owner.  Apparently this is a known pain point with AMD cards.  I'm not sure how long it'll be before I find a real solution to this issue, but I'll manage, a guess.

Upgrades Performed, New System is Functional!

 I posted earlier in the week that I'd bought parts for a new system.  

I'd said that I'd wait for the weekend to strip down my current system and replace the motherboard and supporting parts (GPU, CPU, memory).  Well, I couldn't wait.  The CPU HSF and memory arrived yesterday and waited an hour or two after they arrived to begin the rebuild.

I'd not done this in awhile but it wasn't all that difficult, but was sort of a pain in the ass.  I basically had to strip down the old motherboard while leaving the rest of the system attached to the case, then remove the motherboard, then attach the new CPU to the new motherboard, then attach the CPU HSF to the system, then attach the RAM to the motherboard, attach the back IO panel to the case, then mount the motherboard to the case, then plug in the motherboard power connectors and the rest of the cabling.  I also had to try to ensure wires and cables weren't interfering with the cooling fans.  Some of the wires are very long and some are also very short, so I spent some time trying to route things...I'm probably going to have to revisit this, as I could spend a whole day trying to route and secure cabling using zip ties.

The PowerColor video card was a beast!  I thought my GTX1060 was big.  This one is a bit bigger.  I didn't know it had blue lighting, which enhances the blue lighting I already have in the case.

When I booted up the system with the new parts, I honestly thought it wouldn't boot because of something I'd forgotten.  At least the PSU is sufficiently powerful.  It immediately booted up but was complaining because it couldn't control the CPU fan - I'd plugged it into the wrong outlet, so I had to fix that.  It was a bit of a pain because I'd used a hot glue gun to secure the wires to the frame of the HSF - I had to remove the glue to reroute the cabling and then reglue the cabling so that it wouldn't get caught in the CPU fan.

The system is ultra quick now.

I played a few matches of War Thunder last night and noticed that the system was complaining that Windows wasn't activated.  I'd saved my product key from when I'd upgraded to Windows 10 but the damned key wasn't working.  Apparently, I'd nullified it when I added the new hardware.  It took me maybe 15 minutes to fix that.

I also downloaded and installed the latest RX 6600 drivers.

At some point, I'll probably wipe the drive and reinstall Windows and all of my games and hardware, but for now everything works.

I still need to do some things like find another area to mount my SSD drives, as they're in the way in case I want to add additional USB 3.0 ports in back.  I may end up buying a new case, though...this one is a bit cluttered.

Here's to another seven years!  :D

Gaming Desktop Upgrade

I came into a bit of money and instead of doing what I normally do (spend extra money on firearms or ammo or anything supporting firearms), I decided to upgrade my video card in my desktop system, since I've been having issues playing a particular VR game, a light flight sim called VTOL VR.

What started the desktop system upgrade process was the fact that I couldn't upgrade my video card to the latest-greatest, since my current motherboard only supported PCIe 3.0 x16.

This meant that I wouldn't be able to upgrade the video card to the RTX 2060 or any RTX card above 2060, as most current graphics cards are PCIe 4.0.

The motherboard that I'm currently using is the MSI Z87-G41 PC Mate, which is a motherboard that supports the following:

• Supports 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7 / Core™ i5 / Core™ i3 / Pentium® / Celeron® processors for LGA 1150 socket.
• Uses the Z87 Express chipset.
• CPU currently being used: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4690K CPU @ 3.50GHz

I also just now realized that this particular system is 7 years old!  And when I bought the above MSI motherboard, that motherboard wasn't cutting-edge.  In fact, there will be no Microsoft Windows 11 support for the i5 CPU I'm currently using. I will probably move it to another system and use it with Linux.

So, what started out as a GPU upgrade developed into a motherboard, CPU, and GPU upgrade, since I would need to upgrade the motherboard to use a PCIe 4.0 GPU and since I would need to buy a new CPU to use with the new motherboard.

I spent this weekend looking at motherboard/CPU packages at NewEgg and Microcenter (which is local to me).  I also looked and found an ideal GPU.

The problem with shopping for computer parts during Covid-19 times is that nothing stays in stock for long.  Also, there's a shortage of chips for GPUs, so GPUs are very expensive right now.  I could've waited but Covid is 2+ years long-in-the-tooth right now...could be a very long wait, while prices could keep climbing.  Microcenter isn't allowing online purchases of GPUs so I'd have to physically purchase the product.  NOTE:  While I hate that stores aren't selling GPUs online and that to buy them, you've to visit the brick/mortar store, it does lessen scalping and folks mass buying GPUs for cryto mining.  Also, I found that what was showing as in-stock was showing as out-of-stock after several hours of checking, and this occurred with the motherboard/CPU and GPU items I'd bookmarked (was researching so that I knew what to buy when I visited Microcenter the next day.

So, on Sunday, I did another quick search and found that NO i5 CPUs were in stock, which meant that I had to re-search for another combination that wasn't i5-related.  So, I stepped up to an i7 CPU.  

Also, there were no more Nvidia GPUs within my price range and I was NOT going to spend $800 on a card!  So, I changed up after doing a bit of research and decided to get an ATI video card instead.

Here's what I ended up getting:

• PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6600 Hellhound Dual-Fan 8GB GDDR6 PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card
• Intel Core i7-10700K Comet Lake 3.8GHz Eight-Core LGA 1200 Boxed Processor - Heatsink Not Included
• ASUS Z590-P Prime Intel LGA 1200 ATX Motherboard

Because of the issue of every single part I selected repeatedly going out of stock over the course of two days, I ended up going over budget by like $250!  I was very close to just calling the whole thing off...it was an extremely frustrating situation.

I also realized before going to purchase the parts that I'd also need to buy new memory, as the new motherboard required DDR4.  I decided that I could buy that online via Amazon.com and would probably be able to find good bargains, so I held off on buying that at Microcenter.

I bought the parts and when I got home, I looked at the CPU.  The damned thing didn't come with a HSF (heatsink/fan).  Looking online for a HSF for an 11th gen i7 was daunting.  I'd selected to buy either the:

• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo v2
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Black Edition.  

I wanted to see how large they were before purchasing and I'm glad I checked because both of those were EXTREMELY large.  These two HSFs are overkill for someone who won't overclock.

I actually settled on the Intel BXTS15A HSF assembly air cooled instead.  It should arrive in 2 days.

For RAM, I bought the following:  NVTEK 16GB DDR4-2933 Desktop PC RAM Memory.  It should arrive in 2 days, also.

About the only thing I haven't had to buy is a new power supply unit (PSU) and a new case.  I already have a good display, a Samsung 34" UltraWQHD 1440p screen (LS34J552WQNXZA).  There's the possibility that I'll have to buy a larger PSU but I'll do that only when I see that I'll need to do it.  Hopefully, I won't have to upgrade the PSU.  The current PSU I'm using is a Corsair CX750M, which may well be sufficient for the CPU and GPU I bought.  If I need to upgrade, I'll probably buy the PSU locally, as I bought the Corsair from Best Buy locally seven years ago.

I'll begin the build this coming weekend, which will give me a bit of time to backup important things to my NAS.

So, what I thought was going to be a simple $400 GPU upgrade will probably end up being a $1000+ upgrade of 5 essential (and expensive) parts. :/

At least I won't have to worry about this for another 7 years.  :)