PC Manufacters: Support Windows 7 on old Hardware


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All PC Builders and Hardware Manufacters should start developing new drivers and supporting their old hardware on the new Windows 7.

I have a K8N Neo4/Sli. MSI dosen't support Windows 7 with this old motherboard. And all the software is only meant to run on Windows XP. I have also a Compaq Laptop of 2005, and the ATI M200 isn't supported either.

Seeing the really good performance i am getting with this hardware with Windows 7, thanks to the nice backward compatibility that Windows 7 has with old machines like this one, it make me wonder what will be the reaction of Hardware Manufactures to this matter.

This haven't happened with older Windows. It needed always more and more power to run it since Windows 95. But this time is different. This time they (MS) do it right and provided a very scalable OS supporting a wider range of old pcs. Making it a good choise for those who want a new OS experience mantaining the speed of the system.

What do you think?

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What's the point? Why should manufacturers spend large amounts of money supporting products that are discontinued and no longer sold by them? Just so Microsoft can make even more money? Have you really thought this through?

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With old hardware, you cannot expect even good performance of the OS. You can just run Windows 7. For good performance one has to upgrade.

I do not know how you are getting good performance, did you install the applications you use. Install all of them and I am sure the PC will be slow.

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What are the chances they'll make drivers for Windows 7 if they haven't made drivers for Windows Vista? I'd say there's no chance at all. Especially if the hardware is discontinued.

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With old hardware, you cannot expect even good performance of the OS. You can just run Windows 7. For good performance one has to upgrade.

I do not know how you are getting good performance, did you install the applications you use. Install all of them and I am sure the PC will be slow.

It?s common knowledge Windows 7 works very well on older hardware, my Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop from 2005 has 64bit drivers for everything on Windows 7, I can honestly say Windows 7 runs better than Windows XP or Vista ever did.

I?ve had Windows 7 installed for about 2 months now.

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Exactly. It's the old "we've already got your money and there's no prospect of us getting more, so why should we care?" principle. This is the same reason why almost all games stop getting fixes/patches as soon are no longer being sold (which is relatively soon after the release, given the high churn in that market) and why compatibility problems with new versions of Windows are fixed by Microsoft using their extensive application compatibility framework and not by the developers of the software in question.

In any case, you don't need motherboard drivers. They are, for the most part, bells and whistles. The important functionality should already be covered by the bundled drivers.

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I can't compute a good reason for a bunch of average folk (with old computers) to go and upgrade their Operating Systems, so I can't computer a valid reason for hardware manufacturers to spend extra cash adding driver support...

Just stick with the OS that the system was built for. A new computer will come with Vista/7 installed with the drivers.

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It's common knowledge Windows 7 works very well on older hardware, my Acer Ferrari 4000 laptop from 2005 has 64bit drivers for everything on Windows 7, I can honestly say Windows 7 runs better than Windows XP or Vista ever did.

I've had Windows 7 installed for about 2 months now.

But you wouldn't be able to use Aero, XPM. Moreover, you may not be able to run huge applications and there will be less gaming support also.

I think it is fine for average computing.

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It seems they are already doing this through Microsoft. I was very surprised my nforce2 system was detected and the sound worked with drivers from WindowsUpdate. And my Ati Radeon 9600 is discontinued but in every beta of win7 I have had a better driver.

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But you wouldn't be able to use Aero, XPM. Moreover, you may not be able to run huge applications and there will be less gaming support also.

I think it is fine for average computing.

Aero works perfectly on it, as does any game from its era such as UT 2004, Doom 3 and Quake 4... yes it?s not going to play Crysis but I wouldn?t expect 4 year old laptop to.

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XP mode doesn?t work, but then again even a fair few of Intels recent processors dont support XP mode, its not exactly like the laptop needs to run XP anyway as everything works fine in Windows 7.

I really don?t see any downside to running Windows 7 if the driver support is there, no point in replacing the laptop if it serves its purpose fine.

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I would like to see more drivers released for Hardware that could theoretically run 7 but realistically it just isn't going to happen, nowadays it is becoming more common for support cycles for hardware to be a lot shorter than they once may have been in the past.

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...I have also a Compaq Laptop of 2005, and the ATI M200 isn't supported either.

I just installed an x86 7260 on an Toshiba A105 (1.7 Celeron M with 1.5 GB RAM-And works flawlessly, I don?t even wanna think what Vista would be like on that hardware)

It has an ATI Xpress M200 , all the drivers for the laptop were installed by default except for the display driver (just generic-vga drivers)

While I was Binging for M200 drivers Windows Update popped up saying there was an update for my computer and there was the ATI M200 driver just waiting for me to download and install it- wich I did and got got aero running and ewerything didn?t even need to restat- I freaking love this OS!:p:p

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That will be a basic driver required to provide basic 3D acceleration, I doubt you'd get very good performance from it in 3D applications, but it is nice that a product that ATI have dropped is even being supported by Microsoft

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I never get the mentality that say's "Old hardware shouldn't be supported". Is 2.5-4 years considered old?

And anyway, when someone buys a product, he pays a fixed cost (price of the item) plus a variable cost (labor, rent, drivers support and development...). Therefor, why shouldn't it be supported?

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I never get the mentality that say's "Old hardware shouldn't be supported". Is 2.5-4 years considered old?

It's generally considered old when it is discontinued and no longer in production. For computer stuff, this can be very fast. It is very expensive to keep supporting discontinued products, and the manufacturer would be doing so at a loss.

And anyway, when someone buys a product, he pays a fixed cost (price of the item) plus a variable cost (labor, rent, drivers support and development...). Therefor, why shouldn't it be supported?

He pays for a product that is supposed to function together with a specific set of other products listed by the manufacturer. That's it, nothing more. If you buy a graphics card and it says it supports Vista on the box, then that is all you can expect it to work with and all you are paying for.

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He pays for a product that is supposed to function together with a specific set of other products listed by the manufacturer. That's it, nothing more. If you buy a graphics card and it says it supports Vista on the box, then that is all you can expect it to work with and all you are paying for.

Well, that's true enough. But don't you agree that some hardware can live trough4-6 years?

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I'd be suprised if it were true that 7 won't run on that MB. Assuming it does then from all reports if it has enough power to run XP then 7 will be fine.

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But don't you agree that some hardware can live trough4-6 years?

So you are saying hardware around 2003 then ?

No, some hardware back then ( ;) ) did not even work on Vista :D

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That's pretty awesome. I'm really excited to try out WIndows 7... only problem is that I dont have a spare hard drive to install it on.

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I really don't see any downside to running Windows 7 if the driver support is there, no point in replacing the laptop if it serves its purpose fine.

Yes really, you do not need to replace anything for sure, if its working fine. A 4 year old laptop is I think competitive to run and perform in 7, so from your side, it is all fine but think if it is a 233 MHz with 256 RAM desktop, then one has to upgrade, but still it is very lucky for him that he has tested the latest OS on the old hardware!

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