Is windoze 7 allowed?

[elita]

I just stumbled over my old computer, and I recall there is a challenge or competiton that requires older hardware. This computer would be my Core2Quad Q9400, socket 775. This is where win7 comes in.

I used to run win7 on said machine, which ran fine. However, that machine only has 4GB RAM, which used to be enough, but now it's just sad. Since I don't have much RAM to work with, would it be okay if I used win7 on that machine? Does Benchmate support win7?

Unfortunately, win10 would be pushing it and I need some headroom to work with, to start the cpu-z thing 7000 times and if possible maybe a benchmark would be nice.

[wutske]

Each benchmark has it's own rules and they mention OS limitations when applicable. That said, most are just fine if you run then om Windows 7.
Benchmate doesn't officially support Windows 7, but it runs fine with some quirks. Make sure the get the manual installation archive since the installer version doesn't work.

 

Inside the zip, you'll find a prerequisites folder, make sure to install those Windows Updates. In the res/certificates folder, you'll find two bat files, run those as admin to install the certificates that are used to sign the packages, without it, the app will just crash. Make sure that you're on the latest service pack and you may want to install the latest convenience update pack for Windows 7 too.

Other than that, be patient, it takes Windows 7 a long time before the WMI (?) isn't overrun by other stuff after startup, so it takes a couple of minutes before you can actually launch Benchmate.

 

Other tip: if you're using an nvidia card ... the latest Windows 7 driver doesn't necessarily work. If they're signed, you might not be able to install it since the CA expired and Windows considers the installer to be malicious. The installer will give you a stupidly vague error message though.

[elita]

I see. Thank you! With that, I will be able to work.

I wanted to increase the memory to 8GB, but none of the sticks I got, since 2012 were compatible with the Gigabyte EP45T-UD3P. So my 4GB OCZ RAM will have to suffice. At least, those I can overclock.

I vaguely remember doing all the drivers and w-updates on win7 and then having to wait for the entire night until win was ready to do anything.

A few months back, I switched out my Radeon 6850 with 1GB for my Sapphire Pulse RX 6600. With that, the idle power consumption on Linux Mint desktop, with the screen on standby, down to 36 Watts, which is an incredible result. It used to be around 75 Watts "idle".  Thanks again. This was very helpful!

Edited December 9, 2023 by elita

[wutske]

I have the EP45-DS3R and it's "automatic" memory settings are dumb from time to time, especially with XMP. Try booting it with working sticks, go  in the BIOS to the RAM settings, set the RAM speed to a fixed but safe value (set both the multiplier and reference clock), then go into the advanced memory timings and make sure to set the command rate to 1T or 2T since, for some reason, they thought that 0T would be a valid default option for some sticks.

 

Anyhow, small side note, I can't send the results from Benchmate from Windows 7 (probably due to certificate errors), but you can just copy paste the results folder to a Windows 10 PC and then send the results from there.

[elita]

Thank you, Sir!  Exactly that last bit, was exactly, what I wanted to ask about. That is good news. I'll just store the folder with the results for a later delivery then.

[_mat_]

7 hours ago, wutske said:

I

Anyhow, small side note, I can't send the results from Benchmate from Windows 7 (probably due to certificate errors), but you can just copy paste the results folder to a Windows 10 PC and then send the results from there.

This should work when installing the hwbot certificate from BenchMate's manual installer. If it doesn't work, please let me know.

[wutske]

16 hours ago, _mat_ said:

This should work when installing the hwbot certificate from BenchMate's manual installer. If it doesn't work, please let me know.

Just gave it another try, made sure the time on the machine was correct but I'm stilling getting an SSL connect error.

Maybe it's because TLSv1.1 isn't enabled by default ?
 

Quote

Earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 7 or Windows Server 2012, don't enable TLS 1.1 or TLS 1.2 by default for secure communications using WinHTTP. For these earlier versions of Windows, install Update 3140245 to enable the registry value below, which can be set to add TLS 1.1 and TLS 1.2 to the default secure protocols list for WinHTTP. With the patch installed, create the following registry values:

src: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/mem/configmgr/core/plan-design/security/enable-tls-1-2-client

[_mat_]

Yes, I think that's it. Have you tried the update? Does it work?

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/search.aspx?q=kb3140245

If it works, I will add it to the install readme of the manual installer!

Edited December 10, 2023 by _mat_

[wutske]

Just checked and apparently I already had it installed .

I already tried the easy fix installer, didn't work either. Curious why it doesn't work because PCMark 7, Geekbench 3 (don't think it has TLS), Geekbench 4 & 5 can submit their results without problems.

[_mat_]

What happens when you just open a browser and go to hwbot.org? If the certificate is deemed invalid, can you show the certificate properties? It should show exactly why the certificate is invalid.

As for the others, the certificate is either still valid or they don't check the certificates for uploading.

[wutske]

The certificate is valid in Firefox, I don't have IE on that machine anymore, but if I download the certificate and open it, it shows as valid

 

Nothing noteworthy in the logs either

Submission thread running: 0x000000000000047C
New submission update status: Connecting to hwbot.org (5%)
Could not connect to HWBOT for user authentication: SSL connect error
Authentication failed with error: Connection error => SSL connect error
Submission update error: Could not authenticate with hwbot.org!



Error:Connection error => SSL connect error

 

//edit: did a quick check with curl for windows, I can't connect to hwbot if I limit TLS to 1.0 or 1.1. Though, Windows 7 should support TLS 1.2 ...

Edited December 11, 2023 by wutske