varigb707 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 1220 posts, RR: 1 Posted (10 months 2 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 1504 times:
I have a Presario V2000 (purchased in 06), running XP Home.
- Crashed 2 years ago, installed XP Home.
- Working fine with all the security and anti this and anti that,Avast, MSN Essentials, yada yada yada.
- It gets quite hot after 35/45 minutes of usage, which may require a cleaning.
Now the question is : should I go ahead and upgrade to Win 7, instead, or clean it and keep XP?
ajd1992 From UK - England, joined Jul 2006, 2645 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (10 months 2 weeks 4 hours ago) and read 1502 times:
Windows 7 won't help it be cooler so you might want to find a walkthrough online and completely dismantle it to clean it out. Don't just blow in the vents as it pushes the dust further in.
If you really feel like upgrading then go ahead. Check the specs before you do though - with it being a 6 year old laptop it may not run so well with all the fancy aero graphics (I have them turned off on my netbook - 1.8GHz dual core processor, 4GB RAM and a small graphics card so by no means the worst spec Windows 7 runs on)
varigb707 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 1220 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (10 months 2 weeks 3 hours ago) and read 1464 times:
Quoting ajd1992 (Reply 1):
Windows 7 won't help it be cooler
Definitely. My upgrading option was only towards a better computing experience. Not that there's anything wrong with XP, which runs very well by the way.
I reckon I may just clean it and keep it as it is. After all I only use that machine at home.
Thanks for your reply though. Cheers mate.
einsteinboricua From Puerto Rico, joined Apr 2010, 2043 posts, RR: 6 Reply 8, posted (10 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1362 times:
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I wish my laptop could be running XP, though some perks of Windows 7 do come in handy.
Unfortunately, a limitation about getting a laptop is that its hardware may not run future versions of an OS. You can certainly increase RAM, but what good is it if the HD is the same? For instance, my Dell Inspiron has only 125GBs of memory. RAM was boosted to 2GBs from 250MBs and yet it still runs slow; hence why I bought another, modern laptop...stay away from ACER
"You haven't seen a tree until you've seen its shadow from the sky."
mham001 From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 3001 posts, RR: 3 Reply 9, posted (10 months 1 week 6 days 23 hours ago) and read 1342 times:
Quoting ajd1992 (Reply 6): It is 6 years old so it might not even run Windows 7 so well. XP sounds like the best idea for that laptop.
Understood, just pointing out that Win 7 will be inexpensively outdated very soon.
His computer can come in a variety of configurations, some that might work just fine. Others won't. Nobody can say for sure without knowing his specs (and checking drivers). I have run Win 7 on a 10 year old Thinkpad and is currently running Ubuntu, although admittedly, not real well. I'm not sure I would invest much in an old Compaq though. Microsoft does have it's compatibility check.
varigb707 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 1220 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 1227 times:
Longhornmaniac From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 3094 posts, RR: 48 Reply 11, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 14 hours ago) and read 1220 times:
Ps76 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 12, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 1210 times:
Hi!
Personally I would stick with Xp. Like other said I would go with "if it ain't broke why fix it". I have Xp on one PC and Vista on another and really there is very little difference in the experience between them. I surf the web, I play games, I write the occasional letter. Ok Vista has a picture viewer and a newer version of Windows Media Player but neither does anything which couldn't be done previously.
I would say stick with Xp unless there is a particular feature of Windows 7 that you really want or need.
StarAC17 From Canada, joined Aug 2003, 3225 posts, RR: 9 Reply 13, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 1210 times:
Quoting varigb707 (Thread starter): Now the question is : should I go ahead and upgrade to Win 7, instead, or clean it and keep XP?
I have updated a system from 2005 to Vista back in 2007 and in ran better than it did on XP and 7 is a more efficient OS that Vista. The biggest things to look into to ensure it runs effectively is RAM (1GB is needed 2GB or more is desired) and your graphics capability to make sure Aero works well without slowing down the system to a crawl.
One thing to check is if you Laptop has or had "The Windows Vista capable" sticker. If it has that because it was purchased in 2006 you should be fine. 7 and VIsta have the same requirements IIRC.
The biggest factor is if you plan on keeping this laptop long term MS is going to cut off XP support soon if it hasn't already, so 7 might be the better option for consistent updates. If you were to wait a few months you might get a bargain on a 7 licence because IIRC Windows 8 is due in the fall.
varigb707 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 1220 posts, RR: 1 Reply 14, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 3 hours ago) and read 1142 times:
Thanks everyone for your opinion, ideas and suggestions. Much appreciated.
RayChuang From United States of America, joined Jun 2000, 7695 posts, RR: 5 Reply 15, posted (10 months 1 week 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 1121 times:
Unless your computer supports more than 2 GB RAM and can run x86-64 CPU instructions, I do not recommend upgrading to Windows 7.
My laptop computer--which uses an Intel Core i3-2330M CPU with 4 GB of RAM--runs Windows 7 very well indeed.
planejamie From United Kingdom, joined Sep 2011, 572 posts, RR: 0 Reply 16, posted (10 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1068 times:
For your own sake, stick with XP - I have a higher spec 7 year old PC and it didn't like 7 at all, I reinstalled XP Professional and still run it now, getting a new Retina Macbook Pro in a few weeks (as I don't really like 7 either to be honest):
Quoting mham001 (Reply 3): You will be able to upgrade to Win 8 for as little as $39.99 when it is released this (next?) month.
Have you seen/used the developer previews of Windows 8? God help us all, it is awful. Possibly the worst Microsoft OS since Vista or Windows ME. It'll run well, but confuse the hell out of everyone as well as decrease your productivity completely. It will only barely work on a touch screen/tablet, not a desktop/laptop at all - not due to specs or anything, due to the user interface only being touch screen friendly really.
Revelation From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 10470 posts, RR: 20 Reply 17, posted (10 months 1 week 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 1047 times:
As noted elsewhere, W7 needs boatloads of memory to be tolerable, and it needs to be fast too.
I think 2GB of main memory is the starting point, and it should be at least DDR2 or hopefully DDR3 standard at the highest speed your system will support.
Given that 4GB upgrade kits for modern PCs cost $30-$40 or so, you should not skimp on it.
If you don't have a modern PC, then you very well should consider staying on the older OSes.
Personally I like a lot of the usability improvements that come with W7, such as the Start menu having a search box, etc. but it's not what I'd call revolutionary.
Time after time you are reminded that good old Windows is still its same old self.
Quoting einsteinboricua (Reply 8): For instance, my Dell Inspiron has only 125GBs of memory. RAM was boosted to 2GBs from 250MBs and yet it still runs slow; hence why I bought another, modern laptop...stay away from ACER
Cost of memory per byte is more for older systems because it wasn't made in the high densities we now use.
It is also slower per byte because the interface specs it has are just slower.
Some older systems may also have limits on the total amount of memory.
I recommend going to a reputable memory vendor web site like crucial.com and running its system scanner.
It will tell you what standard of memory your current system uses as well as its max capacity, and will propose various upgrade packages.
Their prices are usually decent, but you can always write down the specs of what they are trying to sell you and see if you can't get it cheaper elsewhere.
Quoting mham001 (Reply 9): Microsoft does have it's compatibility check.
Good point.
Quoting StarAC17 (Reply 13): The biggest things to look into to ensure it runs effectively is RAM (1GB is needed 2GB or more is desired) and your graphics capability to make sure Aero works well without slowing down the system to a crawl.
You get what you pay for. I have purchased a few of them as dirt cheap desktops and in that role they were fine. I doubt their laptops would put up with any real use so I don't ever buy them.
Quoting planejamie (Reply 16): It will only barely work on a touch screen/tablet, not a desktop/laptop at all - not due to specs or anything, due to the user interface only being touch screen friendly really.
I'm told you can fall back to a Win7-like desktop interface if you like, but time will tell.
mham001 From United States of America, joined Feb 2005, 3001 posts, RR: 3 Reply 18, posted (10 months 1 week 4 days 16 hours ago) and read 1041 times:
Quoting planejamie (Reply 16): Have you seen/used the developer previews of Windows 8? God help us all, it is awful. Possibly the worst Microsoft OS since Vista or Windows ME. It'll run well, but confuse the hell out of everyone as well as decrease your productivity completely. It will only barely work on a touch screen/tablet, not a desktop/laptop at all - not due to specs or anything, due to the user interface only being touch screen friendly really.
Yes I have. Win 8 is basically the same as Win 7. If the computer will run Vista, the computer will run Win 8. You can easily change the UI to look just like Win 7.
The answer is quite simple given the information we have. Windows Compatibility Check.
varigb707 From United States of America, joined May 2006, 1220 posts, RR: 1 Reply 19, posted (10 months 1 week 4 days 15 hours ago) and read 1038 times:
Quoting planejamie (Reply 16): Have you seen/used the developer previews of Windows 8?
- Yes on my W7 machine. Had to re format, restore, do it all over, etc.
andz From South Africa, joined Feb 2004, 8298 posts, RR: 11 Reply 20, posted (10 months 1 week 2 days 20 hours ago) and read 941 times:
I have a 4 year old HP 6710b with 2GB RAM which I upgraded to W7 a couple of months ago and it runs fine. Better, faster and cooler than with XP. I upgraded it because I don't have a recovery disk and using a normal copy of XP caused all sorts of problems. No such issues with W7.
The only problem is that the touch keys above the main keyboard (wireless on/off, volume etc) don't work and the so called fix from HP makes no difference.
Sometimes all a laptop needs is a good reformat and reinstall to restore performance.
After Monday and Tuesday even the calendar says WTF...
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