Testing WS 2012 r2

[Lotusisrael]

As you know, at least the ones who read my posts, my CPU does not support WS 2012 r2, due to the lack of CMPXCHG16b. But there may still be a way of installing it as un upgrade from ws2012. I have tried to test it on VMware Player, I failed to install WS 2012 with GUI there. My suggestion is to try this: Install on VM with CMPXCHG16b disabled (I know that at least VirtualBox allows this) WS 2012, then after you log on to WS 2012, try to upgrade from it to WS 2012 r2. I would be very gratefull, and not just me, but also many others who are a in similar situation. So , please, try this.
Take care

[Anonymous]

I haven’t tested installing WS2012R2 with an incompatible processor,
but I have tested installing Windows 8.1 Pro x64 with an incompatible processor.

To my understanding, win8.1 x64 and server2012r2 share the same kernel,
so I’m guessing the same hardware requirements are in effect:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/preview-faq
specifically:

Additional requirements to use certain features:

For 64-bit installations of Windows 8.1 Preview, your CPU must also support CMPXCHG16b, PrefetchW and LAHF/SAHF.

Anyways, my experience was a dead end.
I tried on an old AMD socket 939 desktop processor,
the installation from cold boot from disk wasn’t even starting with no error displayed (rebooting before the installation GUI),
the update from within windows 8.0 x64 gave out the same error as yours (CPU does not support CompareExchange128),
and then tried modifying the files from the extracted iso
(delete the C:WINDOWS~BT folder, delete sourcessetuperror.exe, and comment everything within compliance.ini),
the installation started, went on until the first reboot, and then stuck at an infinite reboot loop.

So, I’m guessing you can trick the installation to start/skip the cpu feature check, but I’m not sure it’ll ever complete.

There’s a whole thread about it here:
http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/46840-Windows-8-CPU-Feature-Patch-%28Bypass-Windows-8-CPU-feature-checks%29

Anyways, after trying the above, and the patch from MDL, the reasons I finally decided to give up was these:
1.

The patch does not make Windows 8 compatible to your CPU since it only bypasses the compatibility checks. This means that if Windows 8 tries to use one of the features, your computer will probably crash. For example, if you applied the CMPXCHG16B patch, a 0x0000001E (KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED) BSOD with error code 0xFFFFFFFFC000001D (STATUS_ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION) could occur if a CMPXCHG16B instruction is attempted to be executed.

2.

The tool cannot predict how the feature checks will be implemented in future file versions of the files to be patched, which means that there is a risk that future file versions cannot be patched

I know I’m talking about physical machines and not VMs,
but I’m guessing the situation is the same under VBox, Vmware.
Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

I knew about that solution onb My Digital Life, a clean install does not work. But my point was for someone to try to install upgrade from WS2012 installed on a CPU not supported by WS2012 r2 to WS2012 r2, using to upgrade options, available if you upgrade after you are logged on the OS. I was hoping that, at least for thoose who upgrade, there is an option there, different from the clean install.
From what I am aware of, all Windows 8 users are clearly forced to upgrade to 8.1, like the previously Windows versions users were forced to install a service pack. Thoose who have installed 8 on unsupported x64 CPU should have two versions: 1) reinstall the 32 bit of Windows 8.1, using their old Win 8 key, loosing the use of some of the functionality of their CPU, ability to install 64 bit programs etc; 2) The update that will come through Windows Store on Octomber 1st will bring a slightly different version of kernel, that will be supported by old CPUs. If the second will be the case, this update shall come to WS 2012, to bring this kernel upgrade and upgrade also the Win 8 interface to a Win 8.1 interface, leaving the server features the same.

[Author]

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