Windows 7 on a OLD machine


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well the legendary XP nvidia driver 72.30 do work on windows 7 for those pre geforce 6 video cards, bring some direct 3d and its better than standard VGA driver that microsoft ship by default.

Of course there wont be AERO glass or any aero features but do run aero basic very well. Issues so far its slower startup and shutdown compared to Beta 1 and System rating could not be rated.

Also WMP seems to be unfriendly with CCCP or any codec packs, by default WMP can play now xvid or divx but not MKV files so a codec its needed but it seems to conflict each other.

KMplayer and CoreAVC do work very well and im impressed that i could run h.264 files on this legacy machine (sure a little bit slowdown but almost not noticeable).

I think that Windows 7 will be netbook friendly as microsoft said since a netbook should be faster than my old machine, Very stable so far not a single BSOD or crash.

Try VLC instead for those MKV files. I use it for all the formats that Windows 7 doesn't natively support.

9.3 and 9.2 dont work on my card on win7. refuses to install. and 9.1 the driver randomonly stops responding

Try installing the driver under Vista sp1 compatibility mode and I bet it will work then.

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Installed Windows 7 b7127 on my old computer cause I had nothing better to do. It actually runs faster than Windows XP which was the biggest shocker. Not only that, Aero glass worked. I couldn't get Aero to work in Vista with this computer back in the day. Was going to throw this video card away but now it has a use! :D

Specs:

1.7 Ghz Intel Pentium 4

512 MB SDRAM (yeah, SDRAM)

nVidia Geforce 6200 128MB

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What's the official requirements for 7? The old desktop I used to use before I got my laptop is downstairs with nothing to do and it has a p3 1ghz with 512 mb of ram and some old ati graphics card with a whopping....64 mb of dedicated memory.

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Windows 7 Requirements Leaked.
For the Basic Windows 7
	* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
	* 512 MB of system memory
	* 20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
	* Support for DirectX 9 graphics and 32 MB of graphics memory
	* DVD-ROM drive
	* Audio Output
	* Internet access (fees may apply)

For the Premium Windows 7
	* 1 GHz 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
	* 1 GB of system memory
	* 40 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space
	* Support for DirectX 9 graphics with:
		  o WDDM Driver
		  o 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
		  o Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
		  o 32 bits per pixel
	* DVD-ROM drive
	* Audio Output
	* Internet access (fees may apply)

link

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Try installing the driver under Vista sp1 compatibility mode and I bet it will work then.

already trieed that, slighty different erreor msg but the end result is the same.

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IMO anything older than a C2D is too old -- but then again - I have been called a computer snob alot :blush:

From posts i've seen you just seem to hate when people try and get use out of old things and I don't understand why?

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I've been using Windows 7 build 7068 on the below configuration for about 2 months now and it runs great, including the Aero features!

Don't game that much but the ones I do, from time to time, run pretty smooth with decent graphic settings; Flatout 2 and MoH PA that is. I'll install a newer build soon as I've read that it runs even smoother.

Bottom line, for simple tasks like the Internet, watching a DVD or writting a couple of lines in Word 07, Windows Seven is quite a cool OS for my dusty hardware.

98gj1z.png

P.S. @TEX4S: My rig is 6 years old and counting. Imagine that! :D

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If your GeForce 4 doesn't work properly now I highly doubt it will change towards the launch of Windows 7. Windows 7 has an Aero-Capable graphics card with WDDM1.0 drivers available as a minimum requirement, so technically there is no reason for nVidia to develop a driver since there shouldn't be any Windows 7 running with a Geforce 4.

Even though it would be nice since Windows 7 is a great OS for slightly slower PC's.

Not quiet true. That is a recommended requirement not an actual requirement. Windows 7 is actually backwards compatible with XDDM (XP Driver Development Model) display drivers, so any GPU can be used, as long as a minimum level of XDDM drivers are available for it. Not to mention Netbooks will not be supplied with WDDM capable cards.

However as the GeForce 4 is now considered ancient technology there is no chance at all that there will be any more releases for it. The last official nVidia driver release to support the GF4 series was 93.71 (XDDM), but I believe the latest XP releases can be used with the GeForce 4 if they are INF modded, not sure if the same applies to the Vista drivers as they are designed for cards with a minimum of DX9 capability

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I have actually had win7 running on my EEE 900 however that was BETA1 and an update or something I installed stopped the keyboard/mouse working after login.

Celeron M 900mhz

1gb ram

It was usuable but having to run it off the secondary SSD means it wasnt quick.

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Now I'm reminded why I can't put Windows 7 on my old Pentium 4 VAIO.

The XPDM drivers for the Radeon 9200 keep BSODing on a reboot. :hmmm:

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From posts i've seen you just seem to hate when people try and get use out of old things and I don't understand why?

I know - Ive got issues

I dont understand why either :blush:

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I know - Ive got issues

I dont understand why either :blush:

We all like new and improved stuff, but most people can't just run out and buy the latest and greatest because they have other interest and responsibilites. I used to upgrade my PC once a year when it made a huge difference in how well the things I do work. Today most consumers, including most enthusiast have more processing power than they need so they can hold on to old hardware longer and still have a acceptable experience.

I now upgrade the CPU, RAM and mobo around every three to four years and just upgrade other parts, like the hard disk and graphics cards when needed to get the best bang for my buck performance increases when needed. Then I use the money saved on other items that make use of my PC, like a decent digital camera, my zune, (Yes I am one of the 17 people that own one and would not trade it in for a ipod.) decent speakers, soon a dual digital tuner so I can dump satelite and next year a new 1080p monitor along with a Asus sound card.

So instead of wasting limited funds on just CPU, RAM and mobo, I now am able to get even more out of my computing experience. If you learn this type of wisdom, you will love your PC a whole lot more than you do now.

At least you are honest you have issues. Cheers! :pint:

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I got W7 running on a old 800MHz Celeron laptop (that's P3 Coppermine). 1024x768, 24bpp, crappy onboard i815 graphics. 512MB PC100 RAM. Surprisingly, it's actually usable for light stuff. I use it for web browsing with Firefox 3.5 beta (keep it in bed for reading news and e-mail when I wake up in the morning) and testing simple software.

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Tried it on my old laptop, with AMD Turion 1.8GHz single core, 1.5GB RAM, ATI x200m integrated gfx, and it ran 7 just fine.

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  • 2 months later...

Well time to revive this topic

http://img195.yfrog.com/i/windows7rtm.png/

a Toshiba Satellite with a very old specs

Pentium 4 2.26 GHZ Northwood

768 MB ram DDR1

40Gb Hard drive

Geforce 4 MX 420 32 mb

Changes from rc1 to RTM its more the aesthetic, its running very well so far, i wish theres it some wddm drivers for my geforce 4 which it runs direct 3d with a XDDM driver nvidia 72.30 xp driver.

Somehow i feel laggier in some new videos .flv HD from youtube. i guess its because of the gpu, but almost everything its the same from rc1

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I`ve tried 7 on a duron 700, 512ram and gforce 4 32, 80G HD. Unfortunally, I want able to see a xvid, normal resolution, on the TV Out. It worked like a slide show....

Back to XP on this machine :/

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I`ve tried 7 on a duron 700, 512ram and gforce 4 32, 80G HD. Unfortunally, I want able to see a xvid, normal resolution, on the TV Out. It worked like a slide show....

Back to XP on this machine :/

The problem is that, while Vista gained 3D acceleration for the DWM, traditional "2D" acceleration was lost in the NT5->NT6 transition, so in the many areas where that mattered, NT6.x is going to be significantly slower than XP.

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Can it? Yes. Will it be usable? No.

The problem is that, while Vista gained 3D acceleration for the DWM, traditional "2D" acceleration was lost in the NT5->NT6 transition, so in the many areas where that mattered, NT6.x is going to be significantly slower than XP.

Windows 7 reintroduces acceleration for several GDI functions.

...and also gets rid of the graphics buffer in system memory, which means it uses less RAM than Vista but that certain operations will be slower if they have to read back from video memory.

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i am using win 7 on my 4years old pentium4 3GHZ Prescott processor with 2GB ddr2 ram. i found it to be the fastest among xp , vista & win7. win7 really runs as a breeze on my old computer.

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