Unsolved
This post is more than 5 years old
1 Message
0
5038
OS compatibility
I was given a Dell 5150 laptop with no working OS. RAM has been upgraded to 2 GB. On board (via F12) diagnostics (Dell diagnostic not available) produce no errors. I'm contemplating installing a full OS, Windows 7 vintage. Not sure about bit spec.. 32 or 64, and would appreciate some help in this regard. Concern is the obvious. Do not want to waste time and money for something that will not work on this old machine. Just want a rudimentary, operating Windows laptop.
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
9 Legend
•
16K Posts
0
July 27th, 2014 15:00
That system is very old first run full F12 diagnostics:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/
The 64 Bit OS definitely won't work the system isn't 64 Bit capable. All compatible processors have a 32 Bit instruction set only.
The 32 Bit version may work as you have the RAM overall the systems hardware is pretty poor.
I advise downloading Windows 7 from here and installing without a product key for a 30 day trial:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/download-microsoft-windows-and-office/download-microsoft-windows/windows-7-sp1-iso-download/
This gives you ample time to figure out how well it runs.
See instructions here regarding installation instructions:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/
Personally I would say the hardware isn't worth the cost of a Windows 7 license.
If you are going to reinstall XP on it see here:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/legacy-windows-xp-reinstallation-guide/
It should have an XP license so you can get a matching XP Reinstallation CD on eBay likely XP Home.
You can also try to install a variant of Linux such as Fedora.