Windows 7 on OLD computers

[gregrocker]

Hi again Charlie -

I'd try upgrading the RAM first. Many older GPU's run Win7 fine but with basic (not Aero) graphics. I hardly notice the difference when I use basic Intel 845GC graphics on laptop at the beach, then come home to full Aero.

You can decide to add the graphics card after you see how it runs on that Dell. There could be other hitches that Dell knows about which require aa test run anyway, but I doubt it. The kind of research you're doing tells me you'll likely sort it out as well as anyone can..

You have 30 days to activate any Win7 install which is plenty of time to decide what to upgrade.

 

[cgraham]

Hi again Charlie -

I'd try upgrading the RAM first. Many older GPU's run Win7 fine but with basic (not Aero) graphics. I hardly notice the difference when I use basic Intel 845GC graphics on laptop at the beach, then come home to full Aero.

You can decide to add the graphics card after you see how it runs on that Dell. There could be other hitches that Dell knows about which require aa test run anyway, but I doubt it. The kind of research you're doing tells me you'll likely sort it out as well as anyone can..

You have 30 days to activate any Win7 install which is plenty of time to decide what to upgrade.

Perfect timing, Gregrocker!

I have spend all day trying to figure out what I need to upgrade the B110, and the video is the most frustrating, because all the recommendations date back to 1998 or so, when PCI was common. Those cards are not common now, and it is difficult to confirm what meets the specs. Plus there are power supply headaches.

So I was indeed wondering, do I really need to upgrade from integrated graphics, or is it all about Areo (whatever that is: if I am looking at it on my 7 machine, I don't know it .) So I probably don't need it on this older machine.

Good point on Win 7 activation: don't want to waste a copy on a machine that doesn't work. BTW, is there any downside to purchasing an OEM copy?

With all the generous help here and other places, I think I'll do the installation myself, after all. That should keep the upgrade cost to about 1/3 of a new machine, or better if I don't need graphics.

Thanks, Charlie

 

[gregrocker]

OEM is for System builders who build rigs to sell. I would go with retail Upgrade which can migrate for life, unlike OEM which dies with the mobo. Best deal right now is Home Premium Family 3 pack for $129 on Amazon, 3 retail licenses for less than the price of one.

You can also borrow or find an installer to see how it runs first, then buy and insert the key(s) within 30 days if you like it.

 

[hariharan]

^^ Best solution

 

[cgraham]

OEM is for System builders who build rigs to sell. I would go with retail Upgrade which can migrate for life, unlike OEM which dies with the mobo. Best deal right now is Home Premium Family 3 pack for $129 on Amazon, 3 retail licenses for less than the price of one.

Thanks for the clarification! You put me on the right track to research and understand better the whole issue.

However I don't see an advantage in a Family Pack for me when I only have one machine to upgrade, even though a FP is the best value in a broader context.

You can also borrow or find an installer to see how it runs first, then buy and insert the key(s) within 30 days if you like it.

This suggestion I don't understand, in spite of further reading. I'm not sure what you mean by an installer. Further, one can't buy a key alone, only the entire product - which is OK by me (extensively discussed on MS forum).

I don't know if I can install a borrowed copy of Win 7 and activate it with the key from a new retail package (same version), rather than reinstalling the new purchase. Is the key tied to a particular cc of Win7?

Further, the update requirements for the two copies are likely to be different, and I don't know if updates are tied to the key or to some other identifier that tells MS what to download.

Any further enlightenment will be welcome!

Thanks, Charlie

 

[gregrocker]

As stated, you can borrow or find an installer for your desired version to test install, then within 30 days buy the product to insert the key if you want to keep it.

Any retail installer (DVD, or the ISO image file burned or written to DVD or flash stick) can be activated with the key for that version.

Any retail installer can also have all versions unlocked by extracting the ISO using ImgBurn, running the ei.cfg removal tool on the ISO, then burning an all-versions DVD to install your desired version. Unlock any version eicfg removal tool

The Home Premium Upgrade family pack right now gives you three licenses for less than the price of one, licenses which last for life. As long as you keep control of the Product Key, you can also dole these out to family or friends for as long as you/they need - make it more a lifetime rather than a one-time purchase.

 

[nekov4ego]

 

[hariharan]

When is Windows ThinPC RTM release?

ThinPC works great on my P3 based system

 

[hariharan]

Installed Windows 7 Home Basic x86 on the below system.

Specs:

Processor: Intel Celeron 1.1Ghz Socket 370

Motherboard: Zebronics 810E motherboard

Memory: 2x256MB SD RAM

Storage: Maxtor 160GB IDE HDD

Display card: nVidia FX5200 PCI Graphics card

Ethernet: D-Link 538 TX Lan Card

USB 2.0 Card: Zebronics PCI USB 2.0 card

 

[DocBrown]

Nice work hariharan,

 

[Ravi5kumar]

Installed Windows 7 Home Basic x86 on the below system.

Specs:

Processor: Intel Celeron 1.1Ghz Socket 370

Motherboard: Zebronics 810E motherboard

Memory: 2x256MB SD RAM

Storage: Maxtor 160GB IDE HDD

Display card: nVidia FX5200 PCI Graphics card

Ethernet: D-Link 538 TX Lan Card

USB 2.0 Card: Zebronics PCI USB 2.0 card

Wow! You are great!

 

[apollodominion]

I installed Windows 7 Pro SP1 32bit on my classic gaming pc to see if it worked

Duel Pentium III 800EB S370
2GB SDRAM PC133 (1gb-512-512)
Geforce 4800Ti AGP 128mb ( 2x Voodoo2 12mb SLI for Glide2x/3x)
SB Live! 24bit
4x 120GB IDE 1x 160GB SATA HDDs
Windows 98SE-Windows 2000 SP4R2-Windows 7 32bit

 

[gregrocker]

I have an HP 510 notebook with Celeron 1.1ghz I use for travel and on the beach, expecting it to drown (without rescue) years ago but it it perseveres as a sturdy tireless surfer.

Upgrading from 528mb to a gig RAM made all the difference. It runs as good as Win7 ever does, just without Aero which I don't even notice.

So the gig of RAM is the hump even with a weak processor. Without that I couldn't run gadgets or Avast.

 

[NeroDevil]

I managed to squeeze Windows 7 Home Basic x86 on my old rig:

Intel Celeron CPU : 2.6GHz
512MB DDR-400 RAM (2X256MB)
Gigabyte GA-8SIMLH-P(-C)
SiS 651 chipset (SiS are terrible, by the way D8)
80GB WD IDE Hard Drive
SiS Integrated Graphics (These are like...worse than Intel IGP's) :O

Yet, Window's was perfectly useable, and surprisingly nippy for this setup.

 

[hariharan]

Installed Windows 7 Home Basic x86 on the below system.

Specs:

Processor: Intel Celeron 1.1Ghz Socket 370

Motherboard: Zebronics 810E motherboard

Memory: 2x256MB SD RAM

Storage: Maxtor 160GB IDE HDD

Display card: nVidia FX5200 PCI Graphics card

Ethernet: D-Link 538 TX Lan Card

USB 2.0 Card: Zebronics PCI USB 2.0 card

Wow! You are great!

Thanks.

 

[shunk wugga]

Hello Seven forum. Found this forum while debating on whether or not I should throw 7-32bit on one of my old machines and trying to figure out why it refuses to work properly on my other one.

Machine 1
Dell Optiplex GX200
933MHz Pentium 3
512MB PC800 RAMBUS (2x256MB)
64MB ATI Radeon 7000 PCI video card

This machine would get a RAM upgrade to 1GB (2x512MB) and a video card swap to an ATI 9250 PCI card. Judging from some of your posts, this just might work well.

The second machine is my primary workstation, custom built by myself. I've tried installing both Vista-32 and Win7-32 on it and have precisely the same problem with it.

Machine 2

Asus P4G800-V Motherboard
3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 HT (Prescott core) with Hyperthreading on.
Kingston 2GB PC3200 RAM (2x1GB)
PNY 256MB Geforce 6200 AGP video card
Creative Audigy2


k... here's the issue with this one. It SHOULD work with 7 and Vista without a problem but I have the exact same problem with both: I install either OS on my machine and at first everything is fine. At first login, I can enable Aero Glass, then download and install a Service Pack (on Vista), reboot and immediate blue screen.

Since I can't get past this, I try it again: reinstall - ok, first login - ok, don't enable aero glass - ok, install Service Pack, reboot, blue screen.

Here's where it gets odd: If I simply install the OS, all is well until I reboot even if I haven't install a thing. The first login is fine and everything works, but when I reboot, I get a blue screen.

The complaints I've read on the net have this being an issue between Vista/7 and Nvidia's driver, but I haven't even installed a driver yet; I'm still using the driver that ships with the OS!

To see if that made a difference, I installed the latest NVidia driver with the same result: blue scree upon reboot.

I installed Vista using an old Matrox G400 card I had laying around and it worked just fine, no problems with blue screens.

of the two, this one should be most capable of running 7, but I can't get past the blue screens


... and if I ever get around to rebuilding my ThinkPad 570e (P3-500), I'mma try Win7 on that one too.

 

[DocBrown]

Welcome, Have you checked out our Questions list for help with installing.

http://www.sevenforums.com/installa...-use-help-installation-issues.html#post300660

 

[4lex]

A ten year old mobile p3/800/256mb/20gb. Actually it goes better than the xp it replaced!

 

[hariharan]

Good.

Enjoy your new(old) system.

 

[Sbrideau]

I might not have an old system like you guys, but I still find it impressive on what systems can work, and better than XP over that.