My Dell computer runs windows xp

[Peace Pilgrim]

Can I upgrade the OS on this old piece of crap?

Thread closed since we banned the OP as an RBM
-ViRGE

 

[Harvey]

The two easiest ways to find out whether your machine will run Windows 7:

Search Dell's site for the exact model number of your machine for driver updates and info about whether drivers are available for Windows 7 and how to do it.

Search Google for the exact model number + Windows 7.

 

[Peace Pilgrim]

The two easiest ways to find out whether your machine will run Windows 7:

Search Dell's site for the exact model number of your machine for driver updates and info about whether drivers are available for Windows 7 and how to do it.

Search Google for the exact model number + Windows 7.

Thanks man. I knew I joined up here for a reason. Much appreciated.

 

[VirtualLarry]

And there's something else to consider. Even if you can, would you really want to? (Will you be happy with the performance of Windows 7 on older, slower, hardware.)

If you are going to spend the money on Windows 7 (especially if it's an OEM copy that can't be tranferred between machines), then you might as well spend it on a decent machine.

The most important thing, in my mind, to running Windows 7 on older hardware, is if you have enough RAM. I recommend no less than 2GB. Even that will result in a slower experience than 4 or 8GB. If you have 4GB or more, use the 64-bit version of Windows 7. Even at 2GB, you might see some advantages in 64-bit Windows, but the 64-bit version of Windows 7 takes more RAM for itself too.

 

[JackMDS]

May be that if you are able to describe your computer in Technology (aka specs) terms rather than "feces" terms we will be more capable to make a functional comments.

As for Dell support. Most Dell computers use to be sold with No Graphic card and use the onboard chipset GPU.

Many of them were not compatible with the Graphic needs of Win 7 and thus Dell would not provide anything Win 7 Support/Drivers.

Some of these computers can run comfortably Win 7 if One make sure that there at least 2GB of memory and get for less than $20 nVidea 8400GS or 210 cards.

 

[Skaendo]

I had Windows 7 on 1 of my 2008 Inspiron 1520s for years and had no problem whatsoever. Performance was just fine. Now I am running Windows 10 (x64) on it and it is very fast.

BTW: 2GHz, 2GB, 500GB.

*I also have Windows 7 (x64) on a 2007 Dell Dimension E521 (2GHz, 4GB, 250GB). Runs fast and flawless.

 

[Towermax]

I installed Windows 7 32-bit on my old Dell D610 (Pentium M 2.0GHz, 2GB DDR2, 80GB 7200RPM PATA drive) and it seems faster than the Windows XP that was on it.

 

[corkyg]

I have Win7 installed and running perfectly on my old LenovoT60 laptop. That is circa 2006.

 

[xgsound]

You will get very clear answers if you include the model such as Latitude 1525 or dimension 3000. Memory amount, cpu and video card if any would help too. The program CPUZ can find the above specs.

Jim

 

[Matt1970]

I have put Windows 7 on countless Dells for people. Some older XP Dells can be as slow as a single core 2 GHz which I wouldn't recommend or could be a Core 2 Quad at 3 GHz which runs 7 nice.

 

[axlrose87]

RAM would be the most important part. I would recommend no less than 4GB of it.

 

[OrionMaster]

You can install a light version of ubuntu linux on it

 

[fire400]

if the pc is really slow, i would do x32 OS which would generally see roughly 3GB

Dell Optiplex GX520 (free)

intel 530 SSD: $60
3GB DDR2 pc4200: $27
psu: $15
pentium D 915: $13 (fvcken forgot to search for cheaper option, could of got it for $3.45 shipped!)

$115 for parts. would've been much, much cheaper, but kept giving parts away and constantly throwing stuff out.

OS: linux or windows 7/8.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

And there's something else to consider. Even if you can, would you really want to? (Will you be happy with the performance of Windows 7 on older, slower, hardware.)

Fiddlesticks, man, Win7 runs better than XP on a lot of older, slower hardware. (Provided there's >2GB RAM, anyway.)

It's certainly less painful in an AD environment.

 

[Spungo]

The most important thing, in my mind, to running Windows 7 on older hardware, is if you have enough RAM.

Seriously.

If you can't buy more RAM due to the motherboard's memory limitations, buy a solid state hard drive. It makes a huge difference. Virtual memory will slow a regular hard drive to a crawl, but it doesn't seem to have much effect on solid state drives. I put an SSD in my old laptop that only supports 2gb of of RAM, and it's like a new computer. You can't tell that it's going nuts on the hard drive, swapping things in and out of memory.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seriously.

If you can't buy more RAM due to the motherboard's memory limitations, buy a solid state hard drive. It makes a huge difference. Virtual memory will slow a regular hard drive to a crawl, but it doesn't seem to have much effect on solid state drives. I put an SSD in my old laptop that only supports 2gb of of RAM, and it's like a new computer. You can't tell that it's going nuts on the hard drive, swapping things in and out of memory.

This is true, too. I downgraded my HTPC from 8GB to 2GB of RAM, and you don't really even notice when the commit charge is over 4GB, due to having an SSD.

 

[John Connor]

I am using right now a Dell Precision M6300 that only had Vista drivers I installed Windows 7 Ultimate on here and used the Vista drivers and it works.

 

[sweenish]

You can install a light version of ubuntu linux on it

It's not a Windows thread without one of these.

Now that we've entered "legit" thread territory, has OP disappeared? Maybe someone told them to format c:\.

 

[ultimatebob]

I can't believe that this troll got this many replies.

He should have gotten one lone reply that said "What model Dell computer do you have? We can't give you any useful advice without that information."

 

[nemesismk2]

all of my computers are dell even my windows xp and windows 7 ones

 

[sonitravel09]

Why not? I also runs the Windows 7 on my old Dell. )

 

[Spungo]

I can't believe that this troll got this many replies.

He should have gotten one lone reply that said "What model Dell computer do you have? We can't give you any useful advice without that information."

He already gave plenty of detail - it's a Dell from the time when Dell computers came loaded with XP. That would make the computer about 10 years old. That would strongly imply the thing has maybe 1gb of memory. The max memory for the mobo would probably be 2gb, but there's a slight chance it could be 4gb.

It would make more sense to just throw the thing in the garbage. Here's a ghetto $50 computer that supports up to 16gb memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138368

 

[Matt1970]

He already gave plenty of detail - it's a Dell from the time when Dell computers came loaded with XP. That would make the computer about 10 years old. That would strongly imply the thing has maybe 1gb of memory. The max memory for the mobo would probably be 2gb, but there's a slight chance it could be 4gb.

It would make more sense to just throw the thing in the garbage. Here's a ghetto $50 computer that supports up to 16gb memory.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138368

Not necessarily. Dell computers came with XP up till mid 2009 many of which came with the upper end Core 2 Quads plenty capable of running Windows 7, 8, 10, and a lot of the games out there. Many of those could easily run 4GB of ram and Sata II drives.

 

[escrow4]

Not necessarily. Dell computers came with XP up till mid 2009 many of which came with the upper end Core 2 Quads plenty capable of running Windows 7, 8, 10, and a lot of the games out there. Many of those could easily run 4GB of ram and Sata II drives.

Heh, 4GB RAM and SATA II. Partly like its 2006! :awe:

 

[VirtualLarry]

Heh, 4GB RAM and SATA II. Partly like its 2006! :awe:

Be real now, there's a lot of store-bought PCs that fit into that category that are more recent. Like my 3.4Ghz Sandy Bridge i3 Lenovo PC, with 4GB DDR3, and of course, an H61 chipset, which is again, only SATA2, and no USB3.0 either. And that's only a few years old. 2012 model, I think.