Windows 11 24H2 on AK2 Pro with J4205 CPU...

[Gabe]

I put Windows 11 24H2 on my AK2 Pro with the J4205 CPU. Everything was going well, and I had some additional programs already installed, but all of a sudden it developed a serious freezing problem. The system would just freeze up. Sometimes during startup, sometimes when booted into Windows, but before all of the programs set to run at startup were up and running, and other times a few minutes into running. When it freezes, the only thing I can do is either press and hold the power button to shut it off, or cut the power. It's not overheating, as it only gets to about 75C. I checked the drive and that seemed fine too. I didn't check the RAM though. I'll have to open it up to see if the RAM is replaceable, but I don't think it is.

I was curious if anyone else with the same model and CPU has tried W11 24H2 on theirs, and if so, how did it go? I had to use Rufus to create 'workaround' installation media, as the J4205 CPU doesn't support Windows 11.

I'm probably going to put Windows 10 Pro back on it and see how that works, as that's what it originally had and worked fine with it. Actually, I need a decent Windows 10 machine for my printer, as it doesn't work with Windows 11. Or I should say it no longer works with Windows 11, as in their infinite wisdom Microsoft decided to purge the driver for it with one of their updates last year. Not a version update, like from 22H2 to 23H2, but a regular old, Patch Tuesday update. It's an older printer, being a Brother HL-2040, but still. Purging a driver with an update? SMH.

[barry777]

Sometimes it feels like updating to the latest version of Windows just invites more problems. It almost seems like the system would be more stable if we could just avoid the updates. But of course, Microsoft doesn’t exactly give us that option!

[vito]

That freezing sounds frustrating, especially after you went through the setup with Rufus to get Windows 11 running on that CPU. It could be worth checking the RAM if you get a chance sometimes even a good drive and normal temps don’t rule out memory issues. If the RAM isn’t replaceable, maybe try reseating it if possible.

[Gabe]

That freezing sounds frustrating, especially after you went through the setup with Rufus to get Windows 11 running on that CPU. It could be worth checking the RAM if you get a chance sometimes even a good drive and normal temps don’t rule out memory issues. If the RAM isn’t replaceable, maybe try reseating it if possible.

Unfortunately, the RAM is a part of the system board, but I ran MemTest86 and it checked out fine. The storage also checked out, with it being mSATA. It's an older design, so no replaceable RAM or m.2 storage. I'll likely put Windows 10 back on it this weekend.

This is a little off topic, but it's interesting to note that the AK1, AK2 and AK3 all use the same board design, even though they look different on the outside.

AK1-2-3.jpeg (92.19 KiB) Viewed 657 times

The AK1 has the board's component side up, while the AK2 and AK3 have the board's component side down, but the boards have an identical layout. My second and third mini PCs were a GK1 and an AK3. I liked the GK1's AK1 type case because of the bottom detachable drive carriage, but the board in the AK3 had a better CPU and double the RAM, so I swapped the boards.

Now the reason I bring this up is because both the GK1 and AK3 have TF/Micro SD card readers built in, while my AK2 Pro does not (the non Pro model in the picture does). When I had the AK2 Pro disassembled to see what type of RAM and storage it uses I found that it actually does have the card reader on the board, yet there's no opening on the case for it.

I could use my Dremel to make an opening in the case, but I use a little Kingston USB card reader that's a lot faster, so I'm not going to bother to do so. I just thought it was funny that the board has the reader in the exact same place as the other two, yet the case doesn't have the opening for it.

[Gabe]

Well, so much for that idea. I reinstalled Windows 10, with the drivers the system originally had on it, and after I was mostly finished with its setup it froze.

I'm running Memtest86 again. It's been been running for nearly two hours at present. No errors yet.

[Gabe]

Well, Metest86 ran for about 16 hours and completed nearly eight passes, and there wasn't a single error.

At this point I think I'm going to remove the mSATA storage, install a 2.5", 250GB Samsung 840EVO SSD in the drive expansion spot under the lid, install Windows 10 on it and then see if the problem occurs again.

When I originally got the unit I didn't use it past the initial Windows 10 setup, saving the drivers, then a clean install and the initial Windows setup again. Had I actually used it for a while, it's likely that I would have seen the problem then.

[Gabe]

Well, I gave it my best shot with the 2.5" SSD. I did end up having a problem with the 2.5" SSD, which actually turned out to be a faulty adapter cable, which was easily rectified by using the unused adapter cable from my GK3 Pro. Once that was fixed, I continued with the Windows setup as usual, as well as installing Core Temp, and just as I was moving the pointer to Microsoft Edge on the taskbar in order to start it and set it up so I could finally go online, it froze. Nothing was running except the basic stuff. The temps were in the 40s/50s.

So, whatever the problem is, it's not something I can fix. If it was an expensive unit I'd probably spend more time on it, and perhaps even a little money, trying to figure out what's wrong with it, but it uses an eight year old CPU design that's been discontinued, and benches pretty low as it is, so I'm not going to bother with it.

I've never had a PC just freeze. I've had BSODs and shutdowns and all other sorts of things over the years, but never a unit that just completely freezes. It's just weird.

Who knows, maybe one day when I'm excessively bored I'll do a quick install of Linux Mint to see if it freezes with that. If it doesn't, maybe I'll put Batocera on it and see if I can use it for retro gaming.