XPS 8300 & Windows 10 Home x64 v.1709 - v.1909

lcocea,

Unfortunately, Dell will not be creating any other bios updates for the 8300 system.

The OptiPlex 790, OptiPlex 7010 and XPS 8500 all got UEFI BIOS Updates last months. It looks like our XPS 8300's just missed out (again, the XPS just missed out on a UEFI Boot) however it is a 7 year old model now.

Thanks, Jesse and Philip. I have no problem buying a new system but I need it to reliably serve me for at least ten years. That's why I chose a Dell system with a RAID drive, a fast multicore CPU, and the maximum amount of RAM in the first place. Actually, I am considering buying a workstation in the next couple years. When I purchased the XPS 8300, Windows had not become a service and supposedly the A06 BIOS is still fully compatible with Windows 7. Microsoft, however, decided to upgrade my XPS to Windows 10. As I mentioned before, everything still runs "as expected" but should it fail to boot up in the near future, I might choose a system & vendor with better hardware/software integration next time. Just trying to plan ahead. Cheers!

Hi, I'm considering upgrading my Dell Win7 PC to Win10 but have some concerns.

I basically have the same Windows 7 system as Icocea describes: "I purchased my custom XPS 8300 desktop in 2011. It came with an i7-2600 @3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, 500GB RAID1 @7200RPM. It is still an amazing system ..." The only differences with Icocea's description being that my PC has just 8GB RAM and a non-RAID 1TB drive.

My XPS 8300 runs very well for home use: IE11, Office 2007, MP3 basic editing, YouTube, iTunes, Adobe Reader, and the like. IE11 runs well on many websites, however, it runs slow and even occasionally hangs on certain websites, possibly because of complex webpages built with newer technologies. It could be that my IE11, with usage, has accumulated lots of gunk since the last time I did an erase/clean reinstall of my PC. Certain sites won't play video on IE11 with a message saying I should upgrade to a newer browser. AFAIK, Microsoft Edge won't run on Windows 7, at least not without some effort such as running a VM.

So should I upgrade my XPS 8300 to Win10? Is there a big benefit? Is the upgrade too risky, complicated, or unreliable? ZDNet reports that 50% of Win10 upgraders experience issues such as s/w & h/w compatibility problems. How do you think the XPS 8300 would fare with a Win10 upgrade?

Hi Icocea, as I mentioned, I'm considering upgrading my XPS 8300 system to Windows 10. You indicated that the only Windows 10 upgrade issues you had with your XPS 8300 were:

1. You had to manually install an Intel RST update for Windows 10.
2. With Windows 10 v.1803, you said you had to update the Realtek HD Audio driver as the old driver randomly prevented Windows sleep.

My questions:

1. Will I too need to manually install the Intel RST update for Windows 10? Do you have the link for that Intel update?
2. Will I also need to manually update the Realtek HD Audio driver? How do you know that it was your old audio driver that randomly prevented Windows sleep?
3. These kinds of issues and additional required patches scare me because I'm worried I might run into even more Win10 upgrade issues with my XPS 8300 as Win10 does future auto-updates. Any advice?

Pleased to report that I have just successfully upgraded my late 2011 Dell XPS 8300 from Window 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro (1803 17134.319), as an in-place upgrade, electing to keep Apps and Files.

Only minor issues, as noted below, easily fixed. Machine is running excellently.

Like others, I was nervous about upgrading, given Dell’s attitude. Prior to upgrade, I took two Macrium Reflect system images (onto two different media), in case of issues.

Machine details:
Dell XPS 8300, bought December 2011
Intel i7-2600 Sandy Bridge (3.4 GHz, 8MB cache)
8 GB DDR3 1333MHz, four x 2 GB
452 GB solid state drive (primary drive)
1 TB hard disk (spare drive)
NVIDIA GeForce GT545 1GB GDDR5 video card
Two Dell ST2420L monitors
Broadcom Netlink Gigabit Ethernet card
DW1501 Wireless-N WLAN half-mini card

Prior to upgrade, in addition to taking two system images:
- I ensured that all Windows 7 updates had been applied
- I ran Dell Support Assistant, which identified Dell BIOS 2.9.0 (in place of 2.8.1) and two other driver updates as required. Used Dell Support Assistant to install these.
- should have deleted Guest account from Windows 7 (Windows 10 handles differently, so required some clean-up post-install)

Upgrade itself took about two hours, after which time was spent configuring Windows 10 to the way I like it.

I was expecting network card issues that others have identified , but both Ethernet and Wifi cards worked fine. No devices within Device Manager reported any issues.

Canon MX870 printer/scanner was the only device that misbehaved. Solved simply by uninstalling all Canon programs and re-installing with latest Windows 10 Canon software off their website.

In short, relatively painless.

FWIW, a previous upgrade from hard drive to SSD has made the machine far faster and is highly recommended. I anticipate keeping this machine for many more years, it is running excellently.

Thanks for your response!

My XPS 8300 specs are virtually the same as yours (except I have a Dell U2412M display and Radeon 5450 HD graphics card). I don't do system images, so I just back up my data to a USB flash drive prior to doing system reformat/reinstalls, or in this case, if I decide to go ahead with a Win10 upgrade. Win10 drivers are available for most of the devices on my XPS, the only exception being my LG Blu-ray Rewriter drive (circa 2011) ... I hope the lack of a Win10 driver for that device doesn't cause Win10 upgrade problems. If worse comes to worst, I can remove the Blu-ray drive and just use the factory-installed DVD Rewriter.

I do have a few upgrade questions for you:

1. You suggested doing all Win7 updates first. Should I then do the Win10 upgrade through Windows Update or via a Win10 OS installation disc?
2. I can't find the Dell Support Assistant utility you mentioned on my XPS 8300. Is that utility available for download from the Dell site?
3. Should I delete all extra accounts on my Win7 system (other than the administrator account) before doing the Win10 upgrade?

If the Win10 upgrade works well, I might install an SSD and reformat/reinstall Win7/Win10. I just spotted a new Samsung 860 EVO 250GB Internal SATA SSD for Laptops @$58 (sounds like a pretty good deal and I assume that laptop drive would fit inside the XPS 8300 perhaps installed with some kind of mount). If all goes as planned, as you said, an XPS 8300 with SSD running Win10 could hold up for many years.

1. Suggest you use the “Microsoft Download Windows 10” webpage as your W10 source. Google “zdnet Ed Bott Windows 10 upgrade” and you will find a very helpful article dated 30 July 2018.

2. Dell Support Assistant may already be on your machine as an installed program, alternatively you can install it through dell.com.com >> support >> diagnostics & tools. Once installed, there’s a “check drivers” button. My logic for applying all available upgrades and latest drivers was to have the best possible chance of  W10-compatible drivers already being loaded.

3. I wouldn’t delete all extra accounts (assuming that they still serve a purpose). My regular user accounts came across without any dramas. Only my Guest account had an issue, because (1) it was configured without a password, which W10 couldn’t cope with and (2) Guest is a reserved user name in W10.

Be careful on SSDs, there are a number of different connections. SATA for desktop is different to SATA for laptops. I’m in Sydney, Australia, and I have found the website at upgradeable.com.au very helpful. I’ve bought through them a number of times. You’ll get a good idea of physical sizes, connections, capacity and relative cost from their website.

On System Images, I do them quite regularly, using Macrium Reflect free edition. I have had to restore from system image for real after a hard disk crash, and it was very simple to get my machine back, with all installed programs and data, just the way it was. I do the Macrium System Image to a WD Book external drive, but could equally use a USB-connected SSD mounted in a SATA hard drive enclosure. I would be nervous about doing a W10 upgrade without a System Image as an emergency fall back. These days, one can access individual files from a System Image, so it's a good general backup route as well.

Further to my post above, you might be interested in seeing the impact of the SSD on my Windows 7 system performance, and the further improvement once Windows 10 installed. The readings below come from Winsat (see instructions at foot of this post). I'm presuming that Winsat under W7 is comparable to Winsat under W10. The machine certainly feels faster.

Dell Desktop, as initially delivered


5.9, held back by DiskScore with original mechanical hard disks
7.6
7.6
7.6
7.7
7.2
7.2
5.9

Dell Desktop, with new hard disks after disk crash


6.2 , better with newer mechanical hard disks, but still constrained by DiskScore
7.6
7.6
7.6
7.7
7.2
7.2
6.2

Dell Desktop, with SSD disk


7.2 , much better with Solid State Disks, now constrained by GraphicsScore
7.6
7.6
7.6
7.7
7.2
7.2
7.9

After update to Windows 10, improvements all round


8.1 , held back by GraphicsScore
9
9
8.1
9.9
8.1
9.9
8.15

 Winsat running instructions:

Step 1 – create report
Open Command Prompt as Administrator
At command prompt: Winsat formal
Assessment tool will execute in Command Prompt window

Step 2 – read report
Navigate to C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore
Locate most recent Formal.Assessment.xml file
Open with Notepad or Browser
Look for string
Will need to clean-up text file for easier comprehension

Wow, that's more helpful info regarding the MS download & zdnet webpages, DSA, and deleting accounts. Fortunately, my guest account is not called "Guest" and it's passworded, so I should be ok there. As for the "Samsung 250GB SSD for Laptops," I've read tech product reviews and retail customer reviews all indicating it works in a variety of Dell desktops. Regarding your Macrium Reflect comments, I've never done system images but it makes great sense - I'll have to consider it. Thanks so much! I ran winsat as you suggested and this is the result:

Dell 8300, as initially delivered (still same components)


5.1 , held back by graphics, hard disk, OS
7.6
7.6
7.6
7.7
5.1
6.2
5.9

Based on your data and the winsat I just ran, I assume an SSD/Win10 upgrade will really boost my SystemScore, always hindered by the Radeon card. Maybe Win10 can raise my GraphicsScore to 6.0. I don't play video games and I'm fine with the system's graphics, so it's not clear why I would need to upgrade the Radeon card. I can live with it. :)

Good luck with the upgrade.

Let us know how you get on. 

Will probably upgrade but still uncertain. If and when I do so, I'll post an update here. Thanks again for your help!

I just installed a second web browser (in addition to the default IE 11) on my Windows 7 PC. IE 11 often hangs up on certain websites. The new browser I installed runs very fast with almost no issues on those same websites. Other than those IE 11 problems I've been experiencing, my system runs great. So now I'm thinking of staying with Windows 7 and the two browsers. Are there any reasons I should still seriously consider upgrading my PC to Windows 10? Thanks.

IMHO, the only reason to consider moving from Windows 7 is that, on 14 January 2020 (i.e. 14 months away), Microsoft will stop issuing its monthly updates, plugging security and technical issues as they are identified. Absent such updates, there must be an increased risk of nasties attacking your machine.

I haven't yet found ANY functionality feature in Windows 10 that makes me think "gee, that's better than Windows 7 was". Perhaps Windows 10 is more secure internally, but that's invisible to me as a lay user. Perhaps it's a touch faster. The fonts are prettier.

Paranoia about not receiving monthly updates was what drove me to make the change.