Moving from Win 7 Home Premium 32 bit to 64 bit

I have a 2.5 year old Acer Laptop which was a top spec beast at the time, here are the main specs:
Screen: 18.4"
Processor: Intel Core 2 P8600 @ 2.4 Ghz
RAM: 4Gb (3 used)
Twin 300 Gb HDDs
O/S: Win 7 Home Premium with SP 1, but only 32 BIT! I wish I had understood the implications of that when I bought it.
FULL SYSTEM SPECS ARE IN MY sevenforums.com Control Panel.

I use this computer for multi-tasking and these days often have 8-10 programs open simultaneously. I do no gaming at all. I am using Office and a range of graphics programs, plus browsing and email. It is performing very slowly now and I wanted to speed up everything. I know the real answer is a new laptop with a core i7 processor and matching components, but that is not within my budget. I must have a laptop as I travel quite a bit, so a desktop machine is not an option. The 18.4" screen is a dream to use but the list of available machines is very small. I live in the Philippines, so Acer was definitely my first choice as there are service centres in most major cities.

When I look in Device Manager I see that the processor is labelled "ACPI x86-based PC". Yet when I check on the Intel site at Intel® Core I see that this processor is capable of running 64 bit progs. So if I installed a 64 bit version of Win 7 would that device manager setting change to 64 bit? I have downloaded the X17-24209.iso file which is the official 64 bit version of Home Premium. I have done nothing with that yet. I am hoping that I can over-write my existing Win 7 system with that and use the same serial number as the 32 bit boxed version I have. I am guessing again that I would use the clean install process described in Clean Install Windows 7 ?

Anyway, I ran the Microsoft Win 7 upgrade advisor - and on the 64 bit tab it reported "You'll need to perform a custom install of 64-bit Win 7 and then reinstall your programs." So that seems a positive thing. I have only my OS and apps on partition C:, all data and backups are on other partitions, so formatting C: and installing the 64 bit version I have downloaded seems the best option, that would allow me to use all 4Mb of RAM. I am tempted to do a test drive and install the 64 bit version over the top of the existing one, just to see it all works OK. Would that be advisable?

Looks to me that a processor upgrade to at least i5, would be another big boost, but I am undecided about spending several hundred dollars on one of those.

I would be grateful for some feedback on the above, before I start doing something and **** it all up well and truly! I do take regular image files of the C: partition, so have a way back from a disaster if necessary.

Cheers
Adrian

Moving from 32bit to 64 requires a clean install and re-install of your apps.

You can use the easy transfer wizard to import you settings and most of your data.

You may not get much of an improvement bump when changing to 64bit because though it can use the entire 4 gigs of ram it uses more resources so sometimes it is just a wash.

merlincorp said:

I have a 2.5 year old Acer Laptop which was a top spec beast at the time.

It is performing very slowly now and I wanted to speed up everything.

I think you are tentatively going down the wrong path---at least for now.

"Very slowly" isn't likely to be changed simply because you move to 64-bit.

I'd troubleshoot why the laptop is operating "very slowly".

Always slow? Sometimes slow? Slow since certain changes were made? etc.

If I had no success with that, then I might do a fresh install, which may as well be 64-bit. But I suspect that the slowness has a commonplace explanation.

Thanks guys, some great advice there. Maybe my problem won't be solved by a reinstall of win7 after all. It takes almost 2 days to do a complete reinstall of all apps and tweak them. I have a load of work to do, so am looking for any way to avoid that if possible. If the added resources needed in the 64 bit version just take away the 1Mb RAM advantage - I may as well not bother!

I ran the sfc/scannow utility and it reported "did not find any integrity violations".

I have called my ISP to check my connection as it too is slower than usual, though that wouldn't explain why other progs occasionally freeze too. Firefox 8 seems to be a resource hog, but while I like Chrome the one essential app that I use (Roboform) can only appear at the bottom of the screen, where it obscures the target URL when I hover over a link, etc. Chrome does not support toolbars and therefore Roboform cannot develop a fix for this. It might seem a small point, but I find it intensely irritating to have to close that RF toolbar on a very regular basis.

I have (as usual) a load of stuff all open right now, but will have a look in the BIOS to see if I can release any more of the remaining 1mb RAM, though I don't really know where that setting may lie. I will report back later ...

Thanks
Adrian

If you do decide to install the 64-bit version of Windows 7 you will still need to buy another product key to activate it.

Personally, I don't think there's that much difference in performance when comparing the two platforms and as you're going to keep your laptop you'd be better to concentrate on tuning it up.

Have a look at this tutorial: Optimize Windows 7

If all else fails, bite the bullet and reinstall Windows. Once you've reinstalled all your applications, create a system image backup and restore from that if you need a performance boost in the future.

It's up to you which bit version you reinstall, but you can use the same Product Key for either - but not both as SeaVixen was explaining.

Whichever you decide, follow the steps I gave you above to get a perfect reinstall and maintain your Win7 best.

gregrocker said:

It's up to you which bit version you reinstall, but you can use the same Product Key for either - but not both as SeaVixen was explaining.

Whichever you decide, follow the steps I gave you above to get a perfect reinstall and maintain your Win7 best.

I should have made myself clearer.

As gregrocker correctly states, you can use the same product key for either version if you install either the 32-bit version or the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

If you install both versions at the same time, you will need to buy another product key.

Well folks, I have had some terrific advice from here and cannot thank you all enough. My conclusions are:

1) Stick with the 32bit version of Win 7 for the time being. If I get really flush with funds I'll pay for the 64 bit version and add 4Gb more RAM. I wonder if that would make my existing memory card redundant though? Is it likely that that the existing memory is on just one card?

2) I think that upgrading the processor is just going to be too costly and suspect that more RAM will provide more "bang for the buck".

3) I have been through Shawn's outstanding "Optimise Win 7" document and tweaked all those points.

4) I have had a technician from my ISP here and the slow internet/browser problem is down to a cheap LAN to USB adapter I needed to switch to after a recent lightening strike damaged my internal LAN port, even though the laptop was disconnected from the mains at the time. The LAN port is part of the main motherboard and that would cost a small fortune to replace. Only cheap crap is readily available in the Philippines where I live. I have just ordered a top spec adapter from the UK.

Cheers everybody!
Adrian

You're very welcome, Adrian.

If you are considering extra RAM, you might want to run Crucial's memory scanner, which will offer advice on customising your current layout.

SDRAM, DDR2 and DDR RAM memory upgrades from Crucial.com