Forced to install 32-bit W7 on 64-bit machine, major problems

J4rrod · 24 Jun 2012

Ok, so quick run through of what's happened the past few days. I have a Sony VAIO EB series; great computer. It came pre-installed with an OEM version of 64-bit Windows 7. It ran great, and I had to be an idiot and create a new partition on my hard drive and dual-boot Windows 8. Eventually, it got to a point where the system would only let me boot into Windows 8, and I ended up losing 7 completely (I did use a data recovery program to recover files from the 7 partition, however). So I reformatted, and put 32-bit Windows 7 back on it, and since then, it's been a nightmare.

I'll start with the drivers issues. On Sony's website, for my system, the only drivers available to download were incompatible 32-bit ones. So I eventually had to pay $200 for a 12-month tech support program where they would install all my drivers, and place a HELP icon on my desktop so I could connect to them anytime I needed to. They actually seem very competent, but, this isn't working. All the drivers are correct, but my system is incredibly slow, hangs a lot, etc., especially to be a recently formatted system. If the computer goes to sleep, it refuses to respond at all when it wakes, forcing me to restart it. Boot up time is insanely slow. When I open a web browser, the first page it loads feels like it takes a month to actually load, but then after that, as long as I stay in the same tab, it works as normal. I have had my computer off for awhile, because it's gotten to where it's not worth it; but when I come home today, it was only, and the fans were going crazy; it was incredibly loud. Yeah, not sure how that happened.

Is this normal behavior when running 32-bit on a 64-bit system? I've recently did the HELP thing and explained to them this stuff, and they ran a bunch of tests and installed something that fixed the sleep program once, but then it came back. I'm not sure what to do. At this point, I'm thinking of getting a refund on the 12-month tech subscription, and using Windows 8 Release Preview as my main OS until it officially releases this fall.

What do you guys think?

kegobeer · 24 Jun 2012

Is the laptop in question the one listed in your system specs? If so, then I think you were looking in the wrong place for drivers. I did a google search for "VPCEB390X drivers" and I found this:

Sony Vaio VPCEB390X Drivers | Sony VAIO Driver

It looks like all of the 64 bit drivers are there. I would do another install of Windows 7 x64 with your OEM installation media (or whatever disc you used when you did the install) and I would use the drivers available at the link I provided.

I also recommend going to a notebook forum to see if there is a list of "must have" software and drivers to get your laptop working correctly. Quite often laptop hardware is specialized and it requires drivers and notebook system software to work right.

karlsnooks · 24 Jun 2012

There is not a problem installing the 32 bit version on a 64bit machine.

Any reason you can't install the 64bit version on your computer?

gregrocker · 25 Jun 2012

Everything you need to get a perfect Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7
is in the blue link including the needed 64 bit installer.

Pay particular attention to how drivers are handled in Win7 which is the authority on its own drivers. This is not XP where we need to import a lot of drivers. The installer provides most all of them, with newer quickly updated when you get online to optional Windows Updates. Then whatever is missing can always be found on the computer or device's Support Downloads webpage.

What may be problematic sometimes with Sony is the enabling software package or hotfix to make certain features work correctly. It may not be produced for the non-supported bit version. So even if MS allows using the other bit version with every license, that may be a prohibitive factor if you rely on certain Sony features which need more than just the correct bit-version driver.

If these problems persist when reinstalling native 64 bit then you may want to order the Sony Recovery disks if you didn't make them when you set up machine.

AddRAM · 25 Jun 2012

Why did you install 32 bit on it ?