Has anyone successfully updated a Latitude D830 to Windows 7 x64?

Have you tried running an extended diagnostics on the hard drive?

I have Win7 64-bit running on my Dell Latitude D620 with just 3GB, and it works fine. It was able to run even with 1GB RAM.

My E1705 does the same thing under Vista CPU pegs at 100% and memory spikes to 87%,My problem was mcafee.MCAgent.exe,and SuperFetch were the culprits causing the spikes.Dell was no help either in my situation,but hinted around to checking services running.I checked that after hanging up with them and turned off all services,then turned them all on ONE at a time until i caught it.

I upgraded to Win 7 from Vista which was troublesome from new. Did the upgrade about 18 months ago and at same time had the engineer fit a 500Gb disk as the 80Gb it came with was getting a bit full. Upgrade was seamless and the machine ran much much better, faster and with no crashes.

Started to experience overheating problems about 2 months ago and dramatic slowing down in performance. As I could not even get diagnostic boot to work Dell sent an engineer who changed Motherboard and fan. He left power supply and heat sink although he said if Dell would have provided them he would have fitted to be safe.

Overheating problems are now back and Dell say they are not surprised, the D830 machine was never capable of running Windows 7 and suggest that as they admit Vista is flaky they think I should go back to XP.

That is just too painful do you reckon that if I upped RAM to 4 from 2 that might help?

But puzzled that originator of thread reckons that Win 7 is recommended by Dell when they tell me it won't work, especially as it did work brilliantly for over 12 months.

Any suggestions welcome.

I know this post is old, but with XP expiring In April 2014, I'm sure that there will be others looking to do something with their old machines and wondering whether they're capable of running WIn7.   

I've been experimenting with Win7 Pro, 64bit on D820s and D830s this week.  My D8*0s are stock, with the exception of additional memory (3GB, 667Mhz) and Samsung 840 Series SSD.  I installed Win7 Pro 64-bit to take full advantage of the memory-- I plan on going to 4GB RAM @ 800Mhz. So far, the performance is tolerable, but I have to admit that I'm underwhelmed. My best Windows Experience score on the D830 is 2.3. The D830 CPU is a T7300 and the D820 uses the T7200. The D830 "processor" score 2.3, and that's not going to change much, no matter how much memory I install. The "graphics" score is 3.3-- again, that's not going to change unless I go for a Dell dock and external video card..  By comparison, I upgraded a Vostro 200 desktop to 8GB RAM, Kingston SSD, and a Sapphire Radeon HD 7750 (about $115). The Windows 7 Experience score on the Vostro 200 is 6.7, with processor and memory scores both lagging @ 6.7-- there's only so much you can get out of an 800Mhz Front Side Bus no matter how fast your memory or processor is. Put the scores aside for a second: my eyeballs tell me this is slower and less responsive than my XP configs.

I fix computers and upgrade them on the side, so I see a lot of Dells, both consumer and corporate versions.  I'm happy with the Vostro /Win7 combo and will keep it. I'm going to keep kicking the tires on the D830, upgrading the memory to 4GB @800Mhz to see what I can tease out of it. I need an everyday beater laptop and the D830 is my leading candidate. I will also get a copy of Win7 32bit and try it on the Inspiron 1505/6400.  I'll post more after I gather more data.

I'd like to hear what other D830 users are doing and thinking about life after XP.

.02

Well my D820's score was 3.3 under Windows 7. I can't remember what exactly each of the individual ratings but the limiting factor was the graphics at 3.3. CPU should be much higher than 2.2. I couldn't install the 64 Bit version because of the processor in the D820 was 32 Bit only. It is now with Windows 8.1 32 Bit which doesn't have the ratings.

The Inspiron 6400 shows the same results as its hardware is more or less the same. Both have the Intel 945 GM graphics. It also worked with Windows 8.1 32 Bit which doesn't have the ratings.

Some questions, have you clean installed and have you installed up to date drivers. If not see my Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean install of Windows 7:

http://philipyip.wordpress.com/dell-community-forums/

Also use my unofficial driver sets, I have drivers for the systems you have mentioned:

http://philipyip.wordpress.com/unofficial-driver-sets/

Also open up the task manager and go to the performance tab. There were a few cases where only 1 of the 2 cores was displaying in a Windows 7 installation hence ruining the performance of the processor significantly. People resolved this again by clean installing, I had it once after upgrading to Windows 8.0 consumer preview.

Moreover the T7300 should have a rating of 5.1, you can see that others had this issue in this thread here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/34036-t7300-rating.html 

I would retry the rating later while the unit is doing nothing. Otherwise perform the clean installation.

Phillip--

First: thanks for the links to drivers, research, and collected smarts. There's plenty to read here and it's helpful. Among the links, I recommend the Intel® Driver Update Utility, and the shortcut to the Dell FTP site.

For my D830, all my drivers are recognized, up to date, and working properly.  In a few cases, I have more recent drivers than are available from the Dell FTP site.  Also, several drivers from the Dell/Intel sites failed to install due to package corruption, OS  or unspecified incompatibility (e.g. abrupt termination of the install utilities). Some Vista64 drivers installed cleanly; others did not.  I had no luck with any Intel storage driver updates or apps. I did flash the firmware on my Samsung SSD with an ISO that I got from the Samsung site. Once the SSD firmware was updated, Win7 installed a newer driver and there was noticeable improvement in boot, app launch, and shutdown speeds.

The fix to my Windows Experience CPU score turned out to be simple and non-technical. I booted to BIOS (A17), loaded BIOS defaults, saved, and restarted the computer. When it rebooted, it beeped and loaded the "F3 warning" screen, reminding me that I was using a 65w power brick instead of a 90w. Bingo. I swapped my brick to a 90w, rebooted, and re-ran the Windows Assessment after the OS loaded. My aggregate score improved to 3.5, with the CPU score updated to 5.0, and the Memory (RAM) score updated to 5.0.  I'm guessing with Speedstep enabled, the D830 was clocking down to match the 65w power input, and the resulting WinExperience score was lower. FWIW, the Graphics score is still the laggard @ 3.5.

Since my OS is clean and up-to-date, I'll skip doing another clean OS install-- I'm gettting a little tired of clean installing Win7. I've cloned my SSD using Acronis TrueImage and will use that baseline for a few more D830 experiments. I have a 2nd laptop that needs memory, so I'm going to purchase 4 GB 800Mhz DDR2.  Also, mobile T9400s processors are cheap and plentiful (less than $20 shipped in some cases), and the Latitude is so much easier to work on than consumer-oriented laptopns, so there may be a CPU swap in the future.

FWIW: Unlike consumer-oiriented products (e.g. Inspiron), Latitudes were aimed at corporate audiences and IT departments. Driver and BIOS updates were generally maintaned longer to match the way that IT departments operate with standard builds, system images, and spare parts. Finance offices can depreciate assets over a longer period of time when they know how long Intel will continue a CPU or chipset family, so the product lifecycle of a Latitude or OptiPlex could easily make 3-5 years. Standard parts also make Lats and Optis easier to service-- again I don't intend to bash the Inspiron product line, but the variations in consumer components can be vast among HDs, video cards, NICs, etc. CorpIT needs to lifecycle plan when they buy hardware; consumers generally are looking at price and couldn't care less whether their NIC was Broadcom or 3Com. These are all factors for helping you to decide whether your Dell is worth upgrading to Win7.

The only open issues I have currently are with Flash crashing under my browsers. Firefox/Flash isn't happy with my 64-bit OS.

Anyhow, thanks again for your suggestions and for maintaining your fantastic resources regarding Win7 and Win8 installs and upgrades for Dell. I'm looking forward to reading more about Win7/8 differences, and will post updates if I continue to upgrade the D830.

steve g

I'd have to recommend the upgrade to Win 7... I tried it on a whim was blown away by the significant improvement.  It boots from the the end of the bios boot screen to Win 7 fully loaded at idle in 19 seconds.  That's with an SSD, but it's still a significant improvement over Vista.  Going from Vista to Win 7 resulted in significant improvements in the Windows Experience Scores:

.................................Old   New

Processor               5.4    6.2
Memory (RAM)        5.0    6.2
Graphics                  3.4    3.4
Gaming Grapics     4.4    5.2  
Primary Hard Disk  5.9    7.8 (keeps getting better somehow)

That was a clean install of each.  There was some kind of bug preventing me from getting the most out of my SSD with Vista.  I was hoping to see an improvement in the hard drive, but had no expectation of improvement from the rest of the scores.

If you're the type to overclock, I also got an improvement in graphics and gaming graphics to 3.5/5.3 by downloading "Nvidia Inspector"  and bumping clock speeds from/to GPU: 400/475  Memory:  400/475  Shader 800/950.  I like Nvidia Inspector because it's certified by the manufacturer, and it's a software based OC.  So, it's not an automatic overclock on boot.  Once you know what you want, you can create a shortcut that only overclocks when you want it to by double clicking the shortcut.

I have had no concerns with temps, and the 140m idles at 58* C.  I know WEI isn't a real test so, in order to compare with what some guys were doing back in 2007-2009, I downloaded the 3Dmark06 benchmark utility.  It showed a graphics improvement from 1440 to 1730 - about a 20% increase, which is consistent with speed increase.  Some guys have done better, but I may still play around with my graphics drivers.

HELLO PHILIP…

MY NAME IS PAT CALLEJA… I HAVE BEEN READING A LOT OF YOUR POSTS AS OF LATE… I HAVE A D830 WITH A 500 GIGG SATA HARD DRIVE… I HAVE 4 GIGG’S OF DDR2 PC 6400 RAM AND I HAVE A T9300 PROCESSOR THOUGH YOU WOULD NOT KNOW IT AS MY PROCESSOR SCORE ON PERFORMANCE IS A DIZZYING 2.4… I HAVE RECENTLY INSTALLED WINDOWS 7 ULTIMATE (64 BIT OS)… I THEN PROCEEDED TO DO ALL THE UPDATES AS WELL AS THE USUAL FULL COMPLEMENT OF SOFTWARE… SO MY QUESTION IS IT’S NOT THAT MY PC IS SLOW BUT IT JUST SHOULD DEFINITELY HAVE A BIT MORE PEPP… I CAN BARE DOWN ON THE RESOURCES AND IT SEEMS TO DO OKAY, BUT IT SEEMS AS IF THE TIRES GET STUCK IN THE MUD SEMI FREQUENTLY… TASK MNGR SOMETIMES TAKES EONS TO LOAD AS WELL AS A FEW OTHER PROGRAMS… AS WELL THE SHUTDOWN COMMAND WILL OFTEN 30 TO 45 SECONDS TO EXECUTE AND THIS IS WITH EVERYTHING ELSE ALREADY SHUTDOWN…

AS WELL IT OFTEN TAKES UPWARDS OF TEN MINUTES SOMETIMES TO BOOT… THOUGH I HAVE NEVER HAD A CRASH OR BLUE SCREEN… SO I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO UPDATE THE BIOS AS I THOUGHT I HAD INSTALLED THE LATEST VERSION ON MY LAST FULL INSTALL A YEAR OR SO BACK, I COME TO FIND OUT I DID NOT… SO TO MY SURPRISE I THE SUPPORTED OS’S FOR THE UPDATE IS, 98, ME, XP & VISTA (32-64BIT)… SO READING UP ON THE DRIVER AND DOWNLOADS SUPPORT PAGE THEY MENTION USING A BOOTABLE DOS FLASH DRIVE TO INSTALL FOR NON WINDOWS USERS AS WELL AS LATE MODEL OS’S… SO HEAR IS THE ISSUE I HAVE TRIED SOME HAVE A DOZEN DIFFERENT SET UPS FROM UNEBOOTIN WITH FREEDOS TO HIRENS BOOT, GRUBDOS EVEN A BOOT UTILITY MADE BY HP… ALL WOULD NOT WORK… THE ERRORS WOULD RANGE FROM JUST FREEZING UP OR RATHER I WOULD DESCRIBE IT AS I AM NOT ABLE TO PROCEED AFTER THE INITIAL DIALOGUE BOX INITIATES AFTER THE FILE OPENS TO “FILE NOT FOUND OR JUST DID NOT SEE OR RECOGNIZE THE FILE…” AND CLASSICS LIKE,”CAN NOT OPEN THIS FILE…” SOMETIMES IT SEEMS AS IF MY LINE COMMANDS WOULD GO THROUGH BUT NOTHING HAPPENS… I HAVE TRIED PUTTING THE BIOS TO DEFAULT SETTINGS, GOT RID OF MY DOWNLOAD MANAGER AND HAVE REOBTAINED THE UPDATE WITH MULTIPLE DIFFERENT BROWSERS TO DOWNLOADING DIRECTLY TO THE DIRECTORY I AM TO BOOT FROM… NOW WERE IT JUST AS SIMPLE AS A QUICK REINSTALL OF AN EARLIER OS THEN TO RELOAD 7 AGAIN I MAY HAVE CONSIDERED DOING THAT BUT ALL THE COUNTLESS HOURS OF UPDATES AND SOFTWARE AND PLAIN OLD SYSTEM TWEAKING INVOLVED TO INSTALL FROM WHAT I HAVE COME TO BELIEVE IS MORE A NECESSITY THAN WHAT THE SUPPORT PAGE CONSIDERS A RECOMMENDED UPGRADE… FROM MUCH OF THE READING I HAVE DONE ON THE SUPPORT FORUMS I AM NOT ALONE WITH THIS UNIQUE PROBLEM … THOUGH I HAVE READ OF A SUCCESS HEAR AND THERE BUT WHAT IS INTERESTING IS THAT ONE SOLUTION FOR ONE DELL OWNER SEEMS TO FAIL FOR THE NEXT USER… SO I WOULD LIKE TO ASK IF YOU HAD A LITTLE INSIGHT INTO HOW I MAY GET THIS DONE?? I WOULD VERY MUCH APPRECIATE A NUDGE IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION… THANK YOU IN ADVANCE…

P Z…

I'm not Philipp.  However, I'll try to help.

You should absolutely not need any of these 3rd party programs to load Windows or update the BIOS.

The latest bios for your system is A17.  You can download it here:  http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/DriverDetails/Product/latitude-d830?driverId=NKWV6&osCode=WW1&fileId=3204521845&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI 

Just download it to your desktop in windows and then run it.  The program will do the rest.  I've udpated to this BIOS in sever D830s from both Vista, and from Windows 7.  I would only be concerned if you think your computer will completely freeze up in the middle of the installation.

I agree that you have a significant problem, but its hard to say what's causing it.  It could be the BIOS.  I know that A05 didn't work at all with my T9500 chip.  I literally had to reinstall a T7250 2.0 GHz chip to get the computer to boot.  I would assume that's not exactly the issue, since you're booting, but as a wild guess, maybe the 6400 RAM is not working well with whatever BIOS you have installed.  From what I've read, PC2-6400s should work fine in this system, but it will slow the memory down from 800MHz to 667.  Consider reinstalling 5300s RAM if you have any just to verify if it works.  

I know there are diagnostic tools that the techs will ask to look at to help you find out what's going on.  I'm not a tech, but I can say that it sounds similar to my D830 when my hard drive was going bad.  It took forever to load programs, to boot, and to shut down.  However, unlike your situation, it did begin to freeze and require a hard boot, or sometimes it even blue screened.  It would also "check disk" when booting up from time to time.

Finally, if you want to install windows correctly, be sure to use the original CD to boot from, or download the .iso and create the CD.

Get the BIOS update as a direct download as you are obviously having additional issues from the Dell/Drivers and downloads page:

http://ftp.dell.com/FOLDER01556726M/1/D830_A17.exe

Follow the instructions here for updating the BIOS, it will update in Windows 7 (I updated my Latitude D820's BIOS in Windows 7):

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/updating-the-bios/

Ensure that you clean install Windows 7 64 Bit and don't simply upgrade from Vista (which is what I think your issue is). "Upgrading" from one version of Windows to another other via "Upgrade" usually kills performance.

See my Windows Reinstallation Guide/A Clean Install of Windows 7:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/a-clean-install-of-windows/

Use my unofficial driver set:

http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/driver-sets/latitude-d-series-laptops/latitude-d830-windows-7-64-bit/

I got in even Win 10 with 2 gb ram... hope it helps a little...

Yes,  Currently running Windows 10 Pro on my D830.

T9500, 8GB of RAM, Corsair SSD.

I actually swapped the hardware from D630, to the D830 without issue.

I believe Windows 10 runs the better on than any of the previous Operating Systems, on this platform.