Can I Install Win 7 On My Old Computer

[computernewb]

I have an older computer and was wondering if I can run Windows 7. I already have run the Upgrade Advisor and everything seemed to be OK except for my graphics controller (Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV) saying the driver installed is not compatible. Can I install something else so that it will be compatible?

I'm also thinking that it just might be time to get a better computer, as I'm wondering that even if I can get Win 7 going on my current setup, it may not be optimized correctly, run sluggish, any thoughts?

My specs:

Compaq Evo D310 Tower
P4 2.4 Ghz
Win XP Pro
1 GB Ram
32 bit

 

[bassfisher6522]

You can use this Intel utility to find your driver.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

 

[Ztruker]

Buy a new video PCI/AGP/PCI-E video addin card and you should be all set.

 

[computernewb]

You can use this Intel utility to find your driver.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

It says my graphics driver is current.

 

[computernewb]

Buy a new video PCI/AGP/PCI-E video addin card and you should be all set.

could you give me a name/model of a card that would be compatible with my current system?

 

[AddRAM]

You can use this Intel utility to find your driver.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

It says my graphics driver is current.

It says it`s current because it`s current for the system you now have installed. Will you be wiping XP out ? You should create another partition and install W7 on that until you`re sure you`re happy with it. No sense wiping out what you have......yet. Is that all the ram the motherboard supports ? You should max it out b4 you install. All you need is an AGP video card with at least 512 MB memory. It does have an AGP slot doesn`t it ?

Post a snip of disk management now, so we can advise you.

 

[computernewb]

You can use this Intel utility to find your driver.

Intel® Driver Update Utility

It says my graphics driver is current.

It says it`s current because it`s current for the system you now have installed. Will you be wiping XP out ? You should create another partition and install W7 on that until you`re sure you`re happy with it. No sense wiping out what you have......yet. Is that all the ram the motherboard supports ? You should max it out b4 you install. All you need is an AGP video card with at least 512 MB memory. It does have an AGP slot doesn`t it ?

Post a snip of disk management now, so we can advise you.

I'll probably wipe XP out, wouldn't having 2 OS's cause it to be slower? I'll definitely take your advice and create win 7 on a second partition first to make sure though.

Motherboard can hold 2 GB ram whereas I only have 1 GB right now, I'll upgrade first.

Yes it has an AGP slot, I'll buy a video card for it.

"snip of disk management" ......not sure what you mean by that, I went to the disk management and it said basic, NTFS, healthy, 115GB with 70GB free

 

[AddRAM]

Having 2 OS`s will not slow it down. Remember you`re just testing here, don`t wipe out XP. Post the shot using paint or the snipping tool.

Partition Wizard Bootable cd is the best tool ( IMO ) to make and modify partitions.
http://partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

here`s an example.

 

[gregrocker]

I think 82845 will run in Win7 so I'd install it first to see if you get a driver via installer or WIndows Updates that gives you the screen res you desire. If not then you can buy a card.

Let us know what happens.

 

[computernewb]

Having 2 OS`s will not slow it down. Remember you`re just testing here, don`t wipe out XP. Post the shot using paint or the snipping tool.

Partition Wizard Bootable cd is the best tool ( IMO ) to make and modify partitions.
Partition Wizard Bootable CD allows user to manage partition directly with partition manager bootable CD.

here`s an example.

Here's the shot, I also might try the above posters suggestion and just try to install win 7 and see if it works as it is right now.

 

[gregrocker]

Use free Partition Wizard bootable CD burned to CD using WIndows Image Burner or Imgburn, boot, rightclick C to Resize to the size you want to make Win7, Click OK, then Apply. Partition Wizard Move/Resize Partition Video Help.

I'd suggest 40-50gb depending upon how many programs you want to test run it with and whether you want to keep your files on 7 or access them from the XP partition.

Boot the Win7 installer to Clean Install Windows 7 to the partition you made, which will configure a Dual Boot menu to choose the OS you want.

Have your wireless or ethernet driver for Win7 or Vista on a stick or CD so you can get online quickly to install all Important and Optional Windows Updates after enabling Automatically get recommended drivers and updates for your hardware.

Any drivers which are then missing in Device Manager should be imported from the Support Downloads webpage for the PC or device model. YOu can also google the device make/model and Win7 driver, or report back what's missing and we'll help you find it.

If you decide you want to keep Win7 and remove XP we'll help you move the boot files to Win7 and even recover the disk space after deleting XP as shown in Partition Recover Space Used by an Older OS

 

[AddRAM]

Go for it, and when you`re done you`ll see how sluggish it will run and you`ll say, why did I do that. You should really reconsider and I`m sure Greg will agree with me.

1 more thing, how you gonna activate it ?

 

[gregrocker]

I've had Win7 run fast on P4 with 1gb RAM before. I'd just like to know if 82845 GPU will give a good resolution nowadays. I believe it finally got a driver other than Standard VGA, or it's XP driver will function installed in XP mode. So I'm willing to work with you and others to see how it sorts out since you like AddRam's idea to test it first.

You'll need to buy a license if you decide to keep it.

 

[computernewb]

1 more thing, how you gonna activate it ?

I'll have to buy it online somewhere.