Identify Z64 box and install Windows

Pingouin

Active member
I've got a Z64, and here is what I know:
  • It runs Android 4.4.4 20150413
  • The sticker on the board says "MINIX NEO Z64-W"
  • BIOS is "JCRDA 1.42 x64"
AIDA64 says:
  • NEO-Z64
  • Instructions set: 64 bit x86
  • CPU ABI: x86
  • CPU ABI2: armeabi-v7a
  • Android kernel architectrure: x86_64
My questions are:
  • Is this a Z64-A or Z64-W?
  • Does it/can it run a 64 bits OS?
  • Can I install Windows on it?
Thanks!
 
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Is this second hand?

It must have been a Windows device and the previous owner has converted it to Android.

You should be able to convert it back to Windows!
 
Just realised you said, "on the board" !

What does it say on the underside of the device case?
 
Yes, it's second hand. It had a "NEO J50C-4 Plus" sticker on the underside!
It's an Intel chip, box is recognised as a Z64 in the KitKat settings, so I thought that it might actually be a Z64-A, or it is a Z64-W that someone somehow converted to KitKat for Z64-A. I can't imagine someone went to the trouble of spoofing the inside motherboard sticker, so was thinking it was the latter.
How do I go about to convert it back to Win 8/10? I tried to update the BIOS with no luck. UEFI didn't seem to find my drive, so not sure if I formatted it properly as the instructions just say "prepare a USB key support EFI file system"?
If I can't update the BIOS, my understanding is I can only install Windows 8, not 10.
Thanks!
 
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Just to clarify, I tried to follow those instructions but UEFI didn't seem to boot the drive:
https://theminixforum.com/index.php...w-firmware-installation-instructions-pdf.200/

EDIT1:
Pen drive formatted NTFS, renamed WINPE, ISO written with Rufus. Drive is a Kingston 32GB USB3, I don't have a 8/16GB USB drive.
Instructions are for Win 10, and say to unzip everything in drive. Since I couldn't update the BIOS, I want to install Win8.
Now trying to cleanly format the drive and unzip .ISO on it, let's see if that works

EDIT 2:
that's worse (clean NTFS formatted drive with ISO extracted on it), USB drive doesn't even appear in UEFI boot list, which is not surprising really. I notice the Win10 Zip archive contents are not in the same hierarchy as the Win8 ISO, so presumably the Win8 installation steps should be quite different?

EDIT 3:
Some progress. I watched this video:
Windows 8 and drivers now installed!
 
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