HP delivered the HP455 G5 in different variants: different CPU and RAM configurations, different audio and WiFi chipsets.
My model came with an AMD A10-9620P CPU with Radeon R5 graphics, 8 GB RAM, Conexant Smart Audio, Realtek BT 4.2, Realtek PCIe GbE Family Controller, Realtek RTL8822BE 802.11ac PCIe Adapter, and Synaptics FP Sensor (WBF, PID 003f). Also a build-in HP backlit keyboard with german layout. The bottleneck of the system is the slow PCIe bus integration of HP, and the installed SSD.
Officially, the AMD A10-9620P with build-in Radion R5 graphics is not compatible with Windows 11, even if the system supports Secure Boot, has an Infinion IFX TMP 2.0 Chip (7.63.2253.0; TCG PPI 1.3, TMP Spec 1.16), and has enough RAM.
Upgrade to Windows 11 24H2
- Update the BIOS with the latest firmware (in my case 01.26.00 R; HP Q84 System Firmware; July 24, 2024). This can be done via Windows Update, the HP Support Assistant, or by downloading sp155228.exe manually.
Since the HP 455 G5 (with the latest firmware) supports both, Secure Boot and TPM 2.0 (and has more than 4 GB of RAM), only the CPU check must be bypassed. Anyway, the installed AMD CPU supports both SSE4.2 and the CNT instruction, which makes it compatible with Windows 11 24H2. - Cleanup: Before upgrading Windows, it is a good time to delete unused software and apps (Settings > Apps and Settings > System > Storage). Also get rid of old drivers and setup programs in the Downloads folder.
- Disable harddisk encryption (i.e. Bitlocker) and virus scanners. In best case, an upgrade is also possible with enabled encryption and security software, but that can lead to problems. Disabling software like Bitlocker takes some time, because the volume must be decrypted first. After the upgrade it can be re-enabled.
- As with all OS upgrades, it is advised to backup personal data. Some software or hardware may be not compatible with Windows 11 or later builds (i.e. 24H2, 25H2). Creating a bootable recovery medium is advised. There are free tools like Macrium Reflect Free for that purpose, also supporting full backups of the system drive or selected partitions. Windows 11 offers a rollback to Windows 10, but its always better to have a plan B.
- Download the multi-edition ISO image of Windows 11 24H2 directly from Microsoft. The image can be mounted as virtual drive simply by double click the ISO file after the download has finished.
- Press Win + R on your keyboard and enter cmd. Now press Ctrl-Shift-Enter to run it elevated with administrator privileges (alternativly click right on the start menu icon and select Terminal (Administrator), if available.
- In the command prompt (or Terminal window) change the working directoy to your previous mounted virtual drive by entering the drive letter. You can find the drive via Explorer under "This PC".
- Assumed that the drive is E, enter the following:
E: cd \sources setupprep /product server
- Answer and accept the questions and start the installation. Choose to keep apps, settings, and personal documents. The process requires multiple restarts and takes a while.
Fix Radion R5 graphics card driver
Unfortunately, Windows 11 comes with an incompatible driver by default. Also AMD offers no fixed drivers for Windows 11 and the mobile R5 GPU.
It can happen that the GPU is marked with a yellow exclamation mark in the device manager. The CPU/GPU runs with high power consumsation (the laptop heats up and the fan runs in high speed), and features like VariBright are not working - the brightness cannot be changed and is always on 100 percent. So the battery consumption is also higher. Sometimes the driver is even replaced by the Basic Display Driver offered by Microsoft.
To fix that issue, download and install the Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.7.3 (radeon-crimson-16.7.3-win10-64bit.exe) targetting Windows 10, 64bit (354 MB). It is also compatible with Windows 11 24H2.
- Download the driver: just search for amd-radeon-software-crimson-16-7-3-whql-driver. On the AMD site the Crimson Edition is no longer available, but you can find it on several software and driver archives, i.e. on Guru3D.
- Decompress the executable archive (running the .exe directly can lead to an error: "wrong platform" or similar). Maybe you need a software like 7zip, PeaZip, WinRar, etc. that supports decompression of .exe files.
- Open the device manager, select the graphcis card, right click on it, and select "Update driver".
- Select "Search on my computer" and select the folder with the contents of the decompressed .exe. Click update and accept the optional upcoming dialogs.
- After the installation the exclamation mark should disappear and all features should work as expected.
- Go to the driver folder "radeon-crimson-16.7.3-win10-64bit" and into the sub folder "Packages\Drivers\Display\WT6A_INF\B304863". Run ccc2_install.exe inside the directory to install the "Radion Settings" panel. That can take a while.
- Adjust your individual settings, power saving, brightness, enable VariBright, etc.
- Reboot. It can happen that Windows Update now offers a more up-to-date driver by HP that is also compatible (27.20.20904.1004; July 19, 2021).
- Re-enable Bitlocker if required. On problems with other (external) hardware or selected programs, Windows 11 offers to rollback to the prior installed version.