Will Windows 7 work on dell dimension 3000?

Apparently the 230W PSU seems to be the main cause of problems in upgrading to a dedicated card. Mostly people solve it by sticking a 400 w in !

The DBP,

Well, you've gotten further than I have. I have the exact same computer and I have a 3.0GHz P4 w/HT, As you've already seen from my first post, but the first time I tried installing Windows 7, it installed fine, but on the first reboot, It went to CMOS and said no hard drives were installed and I couldn't enable them. So I took out the hard drive with Windows 7 on it and put my Windows-XP drive back in and was fine. Then I waited for several months and tried again and this time, I got as far as installing Windows 7 and it was working fine. Then I did the first set of updates, and it rebooted and I got the message from CMOS that there weren't any hard drives installed, so I put my Windows-XP drive back in and am still using that. It wasn't worth the hassle of trying to get it to work with Windows 7.

A new Motherboard, Power Supply, but not from Dell, but one that had the same Form Factor, as long as the connections from the power swith and LED's matches up and the connections from the front USB/Headphone jack match up, you would be in better shape and it technically wouldn't be a Dell Computer anymore, but whatever brand of Motherboard and CPU you had and therefore wouldn't have the problems that DELL has. Also, with a new Motherboard, you could go well beyond the Max 2GB memory that is limited by Dell. Then too, you could take advantage of PCI-e cards instead of PCI cards and not have all the hassles I went through trying to get Windows 7 to work on my Dimension 3000.

I ended up getting an HP/Compaq Presario Notebook that came with Vista but I installed Windows 7 on it and it has a built in Number Keypad and Wi-Fi, and a much faster CPU so I use this now and just use the Dell Dimension 3000 for other things like backing up my Vinyl Record collection and transferring VHS Tapes to DVD.

I really don't think the 3.2GHz CPU will make a difference being I had a 3.0 one. And Dell's website says that it will only work on 2 older model desktops and unfortunately the Dimension 3000 isn't one of them.

I wish you the best in getting it to work, but in my opinion, it would be easier to try and get a new motherboard, power supply and CPU.

Susan

Well, I almost got it all worked out ... turns out it wasn't the power supply that was causing the video card to not work; it was a bad card. Tried it in two other computers, and it wasn't recognized in BIOS, Windows, or Linux. However, I'm glad I did replace the power supply - first, it was previously owned by a heavy smoker, and that things was NASTY inside, and secondly because this one was only 170W! 170W! So I picked up a cheap used Chiefmax 550W PSU.

I still need (OK, want) to get a new graphics card, so I'm going to return this one and try to find another one like it at a decent price. Does anyone have an opinion on 8400 GS vs. 6200? I'm leaning towards the 8400 GS since with that card I can turn this thing into a Hackintosh, but I've heard that the 6200 actually performs better. Anyone with first hand experience I'd be grateful to hear from.

I installed a Pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz, and it makes a HUGE difference. I picked one up on ebay for $11 including shipping from China. Important: You have to enable HT in BIOS, it's not enabled by default, and don't forget to clean and reapply your thermal paste.

So far it's running great, though since my battery is dead I have to keep going into BIOS to set the HT to enabled if I unplug it from the mains. Fan isn't ramping up (as it does on my upgraded E510) from the new CPU, just a nice speed boost.

Got a DVD-ROM for $20, dropped in a $10 USB 2.0 card, and I had an old Belkin 54g WiFi PCI card lying around so I plugged that in. Eventually I'll just get a USB 802.11n device, ditch the 802.11g PCI card, and put in a SATA PCI card. Then it's a small SSD boot drive and a big-ass data drive, and I've got a weirdly modern ancient dell file server ... or something. At this point it plays DVDs and browses YouTube just fine so I can't really ask for more, though I am looking forward to pouring way more time and money than is necessary into turning this thing into a frankensteins monster of a dimension 3000.

MOST OF ALL: Thank you everyone for the fast replies and jumping into an old thread to help me out, I appreciate it very much! Great crowd here.

slras said:

The DBP,

Well, you've gotten further than I have. I have the exact same computer and I have a 3.0GHz P4 w/HT, As you've already seen from my first post, but the first time I tried installing Windows 7, it installed fine, but on the first reboot, It went to CMOS and said no hard drives were installed and I couldn't enable them. So I took out the hard drive with Windows 7 on it and put my Windows-XP drive back in and was fine. Then I waited for several months and tried again and this time, I got as far as installing Windows 7 and it was working fine. Then I did the first set of updates, and it rebooted and I got the message from CMOS that there weren't any hard drives installed, so I put my Windows-XP drive back in and am still using that. It wasn't worth the hassle of trying to get it to work with Windows 7.

A new Motherboard, Power Supply, but not from Dell, but one that had the same Form Factor, as long as the connections from the power swith and LED's matches up and the connections from the front USB/Headphone jack match up, you would be in better shape and it technically wouldn't be a Dell Computer anymore, but whatever brand of Motherboard and CPU you had and therefore wouldn't have the problems that DELL has. Also, with a new Motherboard, you could go well beyond the Max 2GB memory that is limited by Dell. Then too, you could take advantage of PCI-e cards instead of PCI cards and not have all the hassles I went through trying to get Windows 7 to work on my Dimension 3000.

I ended up getting an HP/Compaq Presario Notebook that came with Vista but I installed Windows 7 on it and it has a built in Number Keypad and Wi-Fi, and a much faster CPU so I use this now and just use the Dell Dimension 3000 for other things like backing up my Vinyl Record collection and transferring VHS Tapes to DVD.

I really don't think the 3.2GHz CPU will make a difference being I had a 3.0 one. And Dell's website says that it will only work on 2 older model desktops and unfortunately the Dimension 3000 isn't one of them.

I wish you the best in getting it to work, but in my opinion, it would be easier to try and get a new motherboard, power supply and CPU.

Susan

At this point I pretty much have replaced everything BUT the motherboard! I was thinking about replacing it, but I don't want to invest much more into it. I had a bunch of stuff laying around (RAM, USB card, WifiCard), and most of the components I purchased can be repurposed after this computer is done being a stop-gap. I'd never repurpose whatever 775 or 478 motherboard I'd have to get to support the CPUs and RAM I already have.

I honestly am having a good time working around the limitations and trying to bring this ancient limited beast up to somewhat modern specs :) I've got a closet full of 68k Macs if that tells you anything about how long I hang onto tech :P

However I did just place an order for a new Sandy Bridge ITX media center build ... so I'll be taking a break from the 3000 for a little while I think!

One last note:

While I wait for a new graphics card, I easily enabled the Intel driver for the native chipset by installing this driver:

http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...=9498&lang=eng

In Windows XP SP3 Compatibility mode. Installed without a hitch, rebooted, and I'm looking at 1360x768 on my HDTV instead of 1024x768.

Haha I didn't really think this machine would be salvageable. It bounced around in my trunk for like 3 months before I decided to fix it up ...

Dell dimension 3000 .for video Intel 82865G Graphics Controller I went to went on compatibility mode icon
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Deta...=9498&lang=eng
and downloaded the driver. On the driver icon right click the mouse go on top where it say’s compatibility run under winxp service pack 3
Works excellent

I was wondering how folks are able to watch videos on this setup? I have been running Windows 7 on my Dell Dimension 3000 for a long time and I cannot watch videos without discoloration of my videos in Windows Media Player. Codecs don't help and VLC Player in Compatibility Mode works to an extent but is limited.

Just a note that this is on-board graphics run in compatibility mode on a Dell Dimension 3000. Is there some sort of trick to get rid of the discolor issues on video files?