Windows Experience Index could not be computed

Question

I've upgraded recently from Windows Vista to Windows 8. When I try to rate my computer, it accesses DirectX 9 performance, then processes to DirectX 10 tests:

And it gets stuck at this point. In 5–10 minutes, it shows error message:

The video card is rather old: Mobile Intel 965 Express Chipset Family. I'm pretty sure it does not support DirectX 10. Why does Windows assess it with DirectX 10? And how can I make it skip DirectX 10 tests and get the system rating?

The driver was installed automatically by Windows 8 from Windows Update.
Version: 8.15.10.2697
Date: 10/01/2012

Answer 1

DirectX 9 is listed as minimum requirement for Windows 8, but the system requirements also list DirectX 10 as required by "some games or programs", which would make sense why Windows Experience Index (WEI) requires you to have DX10 capabilities present.

Generally speaking, I wouldn't recommend using WEI as a general measurement of how well your machine performs. The way I see it is that it merely measures you, which part of the system is the potential performance bottleneck for Windows.

If you want to measure the overal performance of your system I'd much rather recommend using some other metrics, like free memory, CPU benchmarks, etc. Personally I'd start by getting measurements with some version of 3DMark.

Answer 2

I haven't found a way to skip DirectX 10 testing. On the other hand, I've found a way to fill system rating data so that Windows Experience Index is displayed:

The following steps explain how to change the displayed numbers. Since I couldn't run the official performance testing, I had to cheat.

WinSAT: Windows System Assessment Tool

Using WinSAT command-line utility, I ran all the tests excluding gaming graphics:

winsat dwmformal
winsat cpuformal
winsat memformal
winsat diskformal

This way I obtained the rating for almost all the components. The results are saved in %WinDir%\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore\ in XML files.

And then I ran only DirectX 9 subset of graphicsformal3d assessment:

winsat graphicsformal3d -dx9 -xml d3d.xml

I skipped graphicsformalmedia assessment as its data are not displayed.

Formal Assessment Data File

Luckily I had a copy of XML file with Formal assessment from another Windows 8 computer. I modified the data in <WinSPR> element and put my data into it:

<WinSPR>
    <SystemScore>3.1</SystemScore>

    <MemoryScore>4.4</MemoryScore>
    <CpuScore>4.8</CpuScore>

    <CPUSubAggScore>4.1</CPUSubAggScore>
    <VideoEncodeScore>3.9</VideoEncodeScore>

    <GraphicsScore>3.1</GraphicsScore>

    <Dx9SubScore>4.1</Dx9SubScore>
    <Dx10SubScore>5.6</Dx10SubScore>

    <GamingScore>3.3</GamingScore>

    <StdDefPlaybackScore>TRUE</StdDefPlaybackScore>
    <HighDefPlaybackScore>TRUE</HighDefPlaybackScore>

    <DiskScore>5.1</DiskScore>
</WinSPR>

In my case, the file is named 2012-12-03 12.12.03.212 Formal.Assessment (Recent).WinSAT.xml.

After modifying the XML file, the system displayed the data but complained the data were out of date. To fix it, I copied the data starting with <SystemConfig> up to the end from one of the formal assessments generated above.

Inconsistencies

I didn't modify the data in <Metrics> element, so they're incorrect.
Additionally, the data in <Dx9SubScore> and <Dx10SubScore> are inconsistent with <GamingScore>.

The inconsistencies can be fixed by copying the data from the formal sub-assessments. My goal was achieved: Windows displays the Windows Experience Index, so I left those unchanged.

Acknowledgements

The answers to Performance rating returns with no results showed me the way to go. I learned about WinSAT and how Windows stores its Performance data that are displayed as Windows Experience Index.

Answer 3

The solution is to roll back to the latest Windows 7 drivers, version 8.15.10.2555.

To do this you need to modify the installation INF file to allow installation on Windows 8 and then use advanced reboot to allow Windows 8 to install the unsigned driver. See instructions at TachisAlopex: Windows 8 and Intel graphics driver to patch the INF file, but I just used General - Advanced startup in the Windows 8 settings to load the unsigned driver.

Seeing as the Windows 7 drivers version 2555 work fine in Windows 8 with Open GL 2.1 support, I can't understand why the official version 2702 Windows 8 drivers removed it.

http://communities.intel.com/message/166171#166171