Inspiron 9300 & windows 10

The main issue - I don't think any of my advice has done any good.  I do not think that the hard drive can be failing as you'd see evidence of that in the other installed OSs.  I'm still obsessed with drivers so I wonder if the system's inability to use the display driver correctly could be to blame.  If uninstalling then reinstalling the display driver does not do any good then try [purely as a test] setting the display resolution down to the minimum that your test applications [Solitaire, DlvX Player, ...] can take and see if there is any significant speed difference.  If so, and given that we both use the same driver, it would seem to me that the only remaining difference would be in memory usage - you could test the memory using Dell Diagnostics or some other memory utility.

Playing DVDs - WMP does not play DVDs [but it plays video files on a hard drive].  Users who upgraded from Windows 7 SP1 [or from Windows 8 with WMC] get a DVD Player through Windows 10 updates but I have seen several reports that it is an awful app so you & I are not missing out by not having it.  VLC plays DVDs.  I have  not looked into this particular subject at all in Windows 10 as I had already backed up my DVDs to an external hard drive [it was legal to do so at the time but this varies by country].  I use PowerDVD to play my video files normally and only played a few files as tests in WMP so I cannot claim to have great experience of it in Windows 10

Replacing the graphics card - I had no idea that this existed as a separate replaceable unit.  My 9300 manual does not have instructions for changing it so I just assumed it was not possible.

Windows 7 - I installed this temporarily on a spare hard drive just to see what would happen [it was fine].  I did not investigate drivers though.  I might also decide that Windows 7 would be a better solution for me.  I also have enough room on my hard drive to add it as an additional boot OS.  As you have experience of this already, can you let me know about any special measures you found it necessary to take [QuickSet, device drivers, ...] when you have time.

ReadyBoost -

I find this useful but it is unlikely to be the solution to your current problem.  You'll find a very brief description of it in Windows 7 Help and there is more information in TechNet.

It is set by right-clicking on the SD Card, selecting Properties then selecting the ReadyBoost tab - you can use some or all of the drive for ReadyBoost.  I just let it use the whole of my 8GB SD Card but could probably reduce that without reducing its effects.

An MS Vista spokeman once advised that the SD Card should be as big as the RAM and could usefully be up to 2.5 times the RAM [but anything bigger would be wasted, there would not be any further benefit].  TechNet added that the SDCard should be no bigger than 32GB if it was formatted NTFS [4GB for FAT32].  A user in the MSCommunity forum who gives competent advice looked into the subject and reported that - The device must have an access time of 1 ms or less. The device must be capable of 2.5 MB/s read speeds for 4 KB random reads spread uniformly across the entire device, and 1.75 MB/s write speeds for 512 KB random writes spread uniformly across the device. 

I knew I was experimenting so I just used an existing USB that had spare room on it as my test device because it had a light on it so I could tell how much it was being used.  I saw that it was used heavily during video editing [I just trim out the adverts from  my TV recordings] & when making system images.  I then found & bought a very cheap 8GB SD Card on the assumption that they would all meet the speed requirements by now; I was lucky and it works okay. 

I found the instructions for replacing the display card in my 9300 Service manual.  Apparently it's a single combined unit with the cooling assembly [it even adds the warning not to separate them but does not explain why not].

Well, eventually after no success with the Graphics card upgrade, I went back to the Radeon X300,  and finally figured out how to extract the cabinet file on the driver you gave in your original instructions.   Lo and behold, that driver installed beautifully and now I got my Windows 10 running nicely on my 9300.   Thanks for all your help.  

My Inspiron 9300 with GeForce Go 6800 works in Win 10... I used the GeForce Go driver 307.68 listed here:

http://ivanrf.com/en/nvidia-compatibility-issue-with-windows-10/

I continued to update my Dell Inspiron 9300 successfully up to & including Version 1709.

The Version 1803 update fails.  I have tried a variety of methods to overcome the problem.  MS is rumoured to drop some old CPUs in new Windows 10 versions without telling anybody.  So perhaps that is what has happened.  The failure does not leave enough traces for diagnosis  [BSOD IRQ not equal / not less than but nothing in the update logs].

So I can keep using Version 1709 until April 2019 when it falls out of support.  After that it will have to revert to non-internet-work-only to avoid the risk of hacking.

It had a very good innings - October 2005 to April 2019.

Denis

Rubbish.  I have been running Windows 10 on it since the early preview period.  And I am not the only one as you would have seen if you had read this thread before posting.

Denis

32 bit  Windows 10 will install but its horribly slow.

64 bit Windows 10 will NOT install because the processor doesn't support

LAHF SAHF and CMP XCHG 16

About "32 bit  Windows 10 will install but its horribly slow." - wrong.  32 bit Windows 10 runs not quite as fast as 32 bit Windows XP.

- I have no idea why frequent users of this forum keep insisting on posting false information. 

- I have no idea why frequent users of this forum keep insisting on posting false information without even bothering to read the thread beforehand and thereby educating themselves.

I have been using my Dell Inspiron 9300 with Windows 10 since January 2015 if not earlier.  So I know what I'm talking about. 

Denis

I still have my maxed out  Inspiron 9300 XPS which has ATI 256 MB DDR RADEON 9800 XT Video and is Maxed out at 2 GIGS of DDR2. Its still horribly slow with Windows 7 or 10.

It does not and will not install 64 bit windows 10.

So the only bad information IMHO is that its working fine with windows 10.

This discussion is about Dell Inspiron 9300 not your XPS.

My Dell Inspiron 9300 works well with Windows 10 [32 bit, naturally] up to and including Version 1709.

Denis

Works is a given.  Works well is not.

32 bit 1809 also works.

I still have mine but it has Ubuntu 18.04.2 on it because that runs better than windows 10 does.

You managed to install Version 1809 [32 bit] on a Dell Inspiron 9300 or are you still referring to your XPS?

I cannot find any information about a model called XPS 9300.

Denis

The INSPIRON XPS and the 9300 are one and the same.

the xps comes with video Option which has a higher clock speed

they tried to market the xps to the gamer and the 9300 to business.  The bad part about these systems is that they are limited to 2 GIGS TOTAL RAM.  You cannot do 4

Dell inspiron 1501 6000 6400 XPS 9300 E1505 used same parts internally afaikt.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Dell+Inspiron+9300+Video+Card+Replacement/73184

The difference is trivial.  With the lid lifted you cannot tell the difference.

https://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_laptop/esuprt_inspiron_laptop/inspiron-xps_owner%27s%20manual_en-us.pdf

Me and My Dell for Inspiron, XPS, and Alienware computers PDF HTML

The onboard video whether ATI or NVIDIA must use Legacy Drivers because there were never Windows 8 let alone 10 drivers.  The Geforce 6800 fits and works but I do not believe that this was a standard option.