32bit or 64bit on inspiron 531

Question

I have an inspron 531 that I am helping a friend fix. It says 64 bit on the front of it. Or it says AMD 64 athlon x2. I take that to mean 64 bit. anyway my question is why does dell tell me on thier driver page that this system does not come in 64bit. I am trying to get the drivers because I had to reinstall his windows vista, when I put my service code in it comes up as vista 32bit drivers please help.

theflash1932 · Answer

The processor supports 64-bit, but Dell never shipped that model with a 64-bit OS, as it cannot support more than 4GB of RAM (the biggest reason for 64-bit OS).  It can probably be done however, you will just need to go to the website for the actual devices to get 64-bit drivers for them, like AMD or nVidia for the chipset, graphics, network, etc.

jsktx · Answer

Although the Inspiron 531 was never shipped with a 64bit OS, it does support it.  Specifically Windows 7 64bit.  It even supports up to 8GB of memory.  The only issue with running Windows 7 64bit is with the Away Mode device.  There is no 64bit driver for this device so I had to install a null driver for it.  Otherwise it runs perfectly.

theflash1932 · Answer

Not supporting more than 4GB was a common reason for not shipping a 64-bit OS, particularly pre-Windows 7.  Dell may have release a BIOS update adding support for 2GB DIMM's for a total of 8GB ... I was only going off of the manual and Crucial.com showing a max (at least originally) of 4GB.

volsfan1965 · Answer

Thanks for the help, now I can go back and remove the 64bit and install the 32 bit as im having problems finding the drivers. Thanks again

celticpyro · Answer

are you sure it supports 8GB with win7 64bit?? I have this PC and need to know if I should order 4 1GB or 4 2GB sticks of ram.

Windows General

32bit or 64bit on inspiron 531