64 bit False eligibility, or not?

Hi, I'm Mike.

I purchased a Dell Inpiron Laptop 1545 at the end of August this year. It had 1GB RAM, and Vista 32bit pre-installed.
I researched my laptop, and bought the max RAM it could handle. It now has 4GB RAM installed, although vista 32bit only recognised 2GB - a common problem as i have seen.
I recently purchased Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade version, and wanted to upgrade to 64bit. I downloaded the windows 7 upgrade assisstant which said i was fine for the 64bit. However, when trying the 64 bit disc, the error message said the disc wasn't compatible. I have thus installed Windows 7 32bit, where it still only recognises 2GB of RAM.

Please help. I just want my laptop to recognise the the full 4GB, even without 64bit

Cheers
Mike

Hi Mike, and "Welcome to the Seven Forums."
As to your ram, 32 bit systems will only recognize 3.2 gigs; just the nature of the beast.

As to 64 bit OS. Did you buy the Win 7 OS through a Retailer or get it from Dell. As new as your unit is you should be able to get an upgrade to Win 7 through Dell. I looked into your laptop on the dell site, and they do offer this unit with both Vista or Win 7. Check with Dell about Win 7.

I was eligible for Dell's program to upgrade to windows 7. However, as much i tried to enter my details and contact dell, it kept saying that i wasn't eligible/ or that my laptop wasn't on the system.
It's not a problem. I bought the windows 7 upgrade from Amazon.co.uk, and i don't think there's a problem with the copy. I just wanted the 64 bit OS disc to work, which it doesn't, but my laptop says that a 64bit OS should work. Weird, huh.

Yes it is weird, especially since Dell offers them with a Win 7 and Vista 64 bit OS. May be another member will come up with a solution (hopefully). :)

I'm a pretty rookie computer-skilled guy, so could you guide me through installing firmware?

Mike1011 said:

Hi, I'm Mike.

I purchased a Dell Inpiron Laptop 1545 at the end of August this year. It had 1GB RAM, and Vista 32bit pre-installed.
I researched my laptop, and bought the max RAM it could handle. It now has 4GB RAM installed, although vista 32bit only recognised 2GB - a common problem as i have seen.
I recently purchased Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade version, and wanted to upgrade to 64bit. I downloaded the windows 7 upgrade assisstant which said i was fine for the 64bit. However, when trying the 64 bit disc, the error message said the disc wasn't compatible. I have thus installed Windows 7 32bit, where it still only recognises 2GB of RAM.

Please help. I just want my laptop to recognise the the full 4GB, even without 64bit

Cheers
Mike

Two things:

1) It isn't permitted to do an upgrade-in-place for a 32 bit OS to a 64 bit one. You can use an upgrade license, but only to do a custom (clean) install.

2) The 64 bit upgrade DVD won't launch from a 32 bit OS. You'll have to boot the laptop from it.

Incidentally: when you say that Win7 X86 only "recognizes" 2GB of RAM, precisely what do you mean? I'm not quite sure how it's reported in Win7, but Vista X86 (at least after SP1) reported the full 4GB, although the amount of RAM available to Windows was not changed. How much RAM is reported by the laptop's BIOS?

Hi again

For DarkXeno: Just installed BIOS update. Went fine. Could you guide me through booting from the 64bit disc?
For Bobkn: Looking at my RAM usage, it says there is only 2GB available, when i installed 2x2GB RAM Modules a month ago, i.e. 4GB.