Will Windows 7 work on dell dimension 3000?

Thanks Dinish.
I figured as much with the generic drivers, but wanted to double check. I am not expecting a full W7 experience on this PC, just testing for compatibility in my environment. W7 works rather well on all of my home computers that are less than a year old.

zigzag3143 said:

NW

Im running win 7 ultimate on similar hware. 945 graphics and integrated audio. It runs as well as or better than xp did

Ken

Thanks Ken, good to know. Did you change any services that run in the back ground for improved performance? Did it pick up the generic drivers automatically?

Not as fast as XP but a lot more features.

zigzag3143 said:

NW

Im running win 7 ultimate on similar hware. 945 graphics and integrated audio. It runs as well as or better than xp did

Ken

I stand corrected.

Nwebb said:

Thanks Ken, good to know. Did you change any services that run in the back ground for improved performance? Did it pick up the generic drivers automatically?

Yes on services (blackviper) and it picked up all my drivers. I found a better vid driver at Intel but the one win 7 picked up was running 1440x900 fine. I can run aero and dont even have to force it. My only problem is mine is a laptop and it runs warmer than xp by abt 10F. I have had abt 8 diff builds on this thing and not one BSOD.

Ken

Thanks, Ken!

I am using a Dell Dimension 3000 with the onboard video right now. Yeah I know it doesn't meet the minimum specs that MS says you need, but it works just fine. I did an upgrade to the V word (Ultimate) just over a week ago on this old warhorse just for kicks, and then downloaded 7 Ultimate and decided to go for the gusto. I have a couple of virtual machines on my work computer with 7 and I use 2008 Enterprise server with Hyper-V as my desktop OS.

The only real trick with the video is this: Download the drivers from Dell for your original configuration, R106458.exe, and run it to extract the files to your drive. Following the 7 install you will have a glorious 640x480 desktop that made me want to lose my dinner, but don't lose hope. Navigate to the location of your driver files, c:\dell\drivers\R106458 if you went with the default, and locate the setup.exe file. If you try to run it you will be cussin' me 'cause it will choke and laugh at you and say you can't run this file on 7. So don't give it the satisfaction and just right click on the file and select properties. Select the compatibility tab and click the box for XP mode, and hit enter. You won't be able to see the whole dialog in the window nor could I scroll to bring it to view, but just hit enter. Then run the setup.exe and it will tell you that it needs to restart. Do it and when it comes up again you should be looking at a 1280x1024 screen.

Hope I didn't miss anything. Enjoy! You wont get video quality and performance as you would with a high performance video card, but it beats Vista or XP for that matter. A bit of a learning curve, but if you can figure the workarounds life is good.

Stan