sremed

6 Posts

269267

January 3rd, 2013 05:00

Dell Latitude d630 and Windows 7

Does anyone know why Dell doesn't support Win7 on a Dell Latitude d630?

This machine was built November 24, 2008 with Windows Vista 32-bit O/S. The original invoice date was May 22, 2009. Win7 wasn't released until October 2009. The guy I bought this from had installed Win7 and I didn't get any backup or recovery discs with it. It works okay except it doesn't have enough RAM, (which is no big deal). The problems occurred when I tried to update the drivers and discovered there are no drivers for this model with Win7. When I called Dell they said they don't support Win7 on this laptop.

So I was just curious if anyone knew why? I'm not going to waste the money upgrading the RAM if Win7 is going to be a problem.

Responses(9)

theflash1932

7 Technologist

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16.3K Posts

1

January 3rd, 2013 08:00

Although W7x86 lists 1GB as the minimum, I've found 2GB to be the minimum sweet spot.

More RAM is always a good investment, and even if you decide not to run W7 on this PC (hopefully your friend purchased the license outright to pass along to you), more RAM will be beneficial to XP, Ubuntu, or whatever OS you decide to run on it. However, more RAM may not completely cure your sluggishness, as that could be a result (partially or fully) of malware infections, software problems, file system corruption, and/or a bad hard drive ... a reinstall to your specs may be in order.

You may also try searching the forums (or Internet) to get a feel for real-world experiences. I suspect there should be no issues ... I manage some D830's (similar systems - one step up, but same age/line) at work that installed and have run W7 flawlessly.

S

Stephen714

21 Posts

1

August 18th, 2015 01:00

I cannot explain why but can tell you that you are beating a dead horse. I have owned Dell laptops for 15 years and I have never had any cooperation when attempting to upgrade the OS. The computers always had specs higher than the average new computer being sold with the OS I wanted to upgrade to and I wanted to purchase a new copy of Windows. In every case, I was told that Dell did not have drivers for my relatively new notebooks, therefore it would be at my own risk. What I was hearing every time was we are not going to help you upgrade because we can get you to buy a new computer if you really want the new Windows OS. I don't know if other computer makers are like this, but I think it is a bit cheesy for Dell to treat customers with $5,000 laptops in this manner. In Dell/s defense I can say that although this behavior is greedy, all the old laptops from Win XP to Win Vista and Win 7 are all still humming along without any problems. Although Apple is more greedy than Microsoft was at any time, they at least update the OS on iPhone, etc., at frequent intervals. When Apple is able to put out iOS 9, 10 or 20 that may eventually work is something I won't hold my breath for. There are not enough years on earth left for Apple to ever get iOS to be a dependable OS that works. It's absurd, $700 for an iPhone that gets bogged down due to a messy OS that just gets worse all the time. Apple will stop at nothing to make more money. After selling customers iTunes match, they are trying to make it obsolete with Apple music, a similar service that costs exactly 5 times as much for one year. If Microsoft ever did what Apple does all the time, it would be front page news. With the introduction of Apple Music recently, they messed up almost everyone's music files and playlists. Could this have really been an accident? The recent fix, an update to iOS 8.41 supposedly to fix the music problem did absolutely nothing. The WiFi on iPhones drops the connection frequently. I discovered this was an iOS problem on my own since Apple was allowing Verizon to replace my iPhone 4 times and the problem persists. The reality is the WiFi problem is an iOS problem and might, just might be fixed with iOS 9. I am happy with the Apple hardware and the iPhones have been lasting-without repairs-as long as Dell hardware which does require a lot of service and parts replacement at first until you do get enough parts that work. The bottom line is both Apple and Dell are foolishly unconcerned with the long time use of their products which can make for some happy but also many unhappy customers.

sremed

6 Posts

0

January 3rd, 2013 07:00

Thank you for your response. The computer is extremely sluggish, the cursor skips around occasionally, audio files don't play smoothly and videos hardly play at all. I am [ASSUMING] that only 1.5GB of RAM has a lot to do with that. Before I invest in more RAM I was hoping someone might be able to give me a little more specific information to help me decide if it's a wise investment or not.

I appreciate your help and I completely understand what you're saying. "Maybe it will work - maybe it won't." That's pretty much where I'm at. So I just need to decide if I want to spend the money and take the chance that I'm just flushing it down the toilet. I'll try that Win7 Upgrade Adviser. It's worth a shot. Thanks

theflash1932

7 Technologist

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16.3K Posts

0

January 3rd, 2013 07:00

Dell doesn't ADD support for newer and newer OS's ... they only support the OS's that ever shipped on a particular machine.

Now, supported does not mean it won't work - just that it may not (or it may), and there may be devices that do not work, but in any case, it is up to you to purchase, install, find/install drivers, and troubleshoot any issues you may encounter installing and/or running an unsupported OS. I have an XPS G4 from 2004 that runs W7 beautifully. If it runs Vista, it will most likely run Windows 7 fine. Try the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to get an idea if there is any hardware or software that you might have problems with. For drivers, you can find drivers for other machines on which Dell does support Windows 7, you can go to the individual device manufacturers' websites to see if they have Windows 7 drivers, and/or usually Vista drivers will work.

sremed

6 Posts

0

January 3rd, 2013 08:00

Yeah, I know 1.5GB isn't much RAM, but I'm afraid the sluggishness, the bouncing pointer and the choppy playback is more than just a lack of RAM. I ran the Dell Diagnostic Test yesterday and all 57 tests it scanned passed. I'm not sure exactly what that tells me, but I'm leaning toward just cutting my losses, getting rid of this one and buying something a little newer. I prefer AMD processors anyway - I was just trying to get by cheap with this thing. Thanks for all your help

Philip_Yip

7 Technologist

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16K Posts

1

January 3rd, 2013 13:00

I have Windows 7 32 bit running perfectly on a Latitude D830 with 4 GB of RAM also the D630 should run just aswell (I got it working perfectly on a D630 for a friend once also). It will run okay on 2-4 GB of RAM is a bit sweeter.

My suggestion would be to clean install Windows 7 (you have no idea how much software the previous owner, installed and uninstalled or if they attempted to run registry optimisers/cleaners - which typically ruin Windows 7).

I would advise running Belarc Advisor to get the Windows Upgrade key on the system, this will save you wasting an additional license: http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html This is of course assuming the user bought a legitimate upgrade version of Windows 7.

Ensure that the product key is not a Dell OEM SLP Key (or any other SLP key) as here: http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/10370-Windows-7-OEM-SLP-Key-Collection It shouldn't be an OEM SLP key otherwise the system is incorrectly licensed and the product key is useless to you. Also check the product key on the Vista COA, take a note of it if it isn't faded.

Once you have the correct product key please download the correct .iso file from here (page 272):

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/4362.windows-reinstallation-guide-and-related-software-guides.aspx

Follow the instructions on page 272 to download the Windows 7 .iso and create a bootable USB. Then follow the instructions on page 64 and clean install Windows 7. Use the Vista drivers with the exception of Bluetooth the A Clean Install of Windows 7 guide will instruct you on driver installation and driver installation order.

sremed

6 Posts

0

January 4th, 2013 09:00

Thanks. Great advice. Exactly what I was looking for. I don't know the guy I bought this from, but based on the experience I wouldn't be surprised if there's a problem with the Win7 install. Thanks again.

LLLVLA

1 Message

0

August 17th, 2015 13:00

natakuc4,

I just signed up to the forum and have not been able to find how to post a new question, so forgive me if I use this thread.

I have a perplexing problem. We own 2 Latitute d630 that were running perfectly on Win Xp. They were bought together and are identical, absolutely IDENTICAL. They both were used for "out of the office tasks", presentations, writing field reports, Internet access, etc. One person left and I decided to experiment.

Converted the first one to Win 7 in spite of all the warnings. Did hunt for a couple of drivers, but all I really did was update the BIOS to ver A17 and install 4Gb of memory. It is working perfectly and FAST. No glitches, no freezes, NOTHING. That is the computer I am using to write this, working on my desk with a Dell docking station - that is how much I like it!

SO, with such success, I decided let me do #2, which is the "reserve road computer". Did the same stuff, NOTHING HAS GONE RIGHT.

When I load QWin7 it creates the initial user as an administrator (normal) but locks the user profile (a little lock icon shows next to the users setting folder) and does not allow me access to certain functions (like invoking bcdtedit to eliminate another problem).

When I create a new user it tells me the settings will not be saved and it creates a Temp user folder. Indeed after logging off that user name is gone.

If I make the built in Administrator account visible, log on to it, and delete that account created at installation, now the administrator is licked and I am back to square 1.

The original evidence of a problem was that when the system boots after the installation, the Windows Boot Manager is displayed and asks me to choose the OS. The only one listed is Win7. I have tried all the recommendations read here and elsewhere - it won't go away, and there is only Win7 on the HDD.

What have I done? I originally installed over WinXp, which is what I did w/laptop #1, and that went fine. OK, so I wiped the disk, deleted partitions, formatted the disk, formatted and deleted partitions, created them - Nothing! Updated the BIOS and then went "back in time". Again no difference. I am on A10 on machine #2. Machine #1 is on A17 and running great.

I spent all of Sunday doing this, about 10 times! Each time the results were identical. It is obvious al least to me that I have no idea what is going on, and short of going to a witch doctor cannot decide what to do next. I can give you more details, but this is long enough as it is, so if you need to know anything else, please let me know.

The machine is now unplugged, with a wiped disk with no partitions, and the battery off because one of the last posts I read suggested to "let the charge run out" although I do not know what that will do since the battery is still in good shape and holds a charge for 3 hour + and for week when not in use. Certainly they do not mean the internal battery, do they?

Your help or anybody else in the forum would be immensely appreciated, included but hopefully not limited to the 800 # for that witch doctor :)

Thanks in advance,

Lee

Philip_Yip

7 Technologist

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16K Posts

1

August 18th, 2015 01:00

It sounds like your Windows XP had an infection which carried over to Windows 7 or the hard drive is bad.

The first thing to do is to carry out the full F12 preboot diagnostics:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/f12-preboot-diagnostics/