Vista Upgrade for Demension 520

Question

Has anyone done a vista upgrade on a Dimension 520 and how successful where you?

I have yet to receive mine and am looking forward to it. I bought my new machine in Dec and registered for the upgrade in Jan. I guess I’m well behind after viewing some of the reports of peeps who have registered long before I have and are still waiting. I have also read a lot of issues regarding the upgrade and would love to know of anyone with issues on the 520

Thx in advance.

Golferrob2007

dumasclub · Answer

I have an Dimension E521 with a Nvidia card and haven't been able to install.  Although it looks like a critical update has been announced for my computer so I'll try again.  Just remember to get all the updates and drivers and bios and there's a pretty good chance it will work.

jdavidm · Answer

golferrob2007,   I have an Dimiension E250 system that I performed a clean install on this past weekend.  See my Thread on 3-9 regarding a configuration boot problem with trying to do an update. In addition, see my Thread on 3-11 regarding system freezes.   In summary, I couldn't do an upgrade. Kept getting an error that Vista couldn't update my boot configuration. Dell Tech Support of course provided no help (4 chat sessions) to resolve.   I decided to go ahead and do a clean install even though this requires more work after to reload programs and files.  I had a few annoying issues, however, other than the random system freezes, it is going fine. I don't appear to be the only one with the freezes so hopefully that means an update will be coming to correct.   Good luck.   jdavidm

MrSparks82 · Answer

I haven't installed the Express Upgrade yet but I did do a clean install of a slightly less official version on my second hard drive to see if it threw up any problems...and it was perfect, absolutely no issues.   Vista will run fine with 1GB of RAM but seeing as memory is so cheap at the moment, if you have the $90 or £55 (roughly) needed to get an extra 1GB then do it because it will improve the performance of your system.

golferrob2007 · Answer

Thx for the insight Jd. I'm not lookin forward to spending all those hours installing but after looking around and seeing the other post's I guess im in for it.Perhaps I will wait a little longer for some of these bugs to be worked out.

Jd as you can see below I only have 1Gb is that enough for operation or would you recommend more?

Dell Dimension E520
Core 2 Duo E6400 2.13GHz
1GB DDR2 533
2x250GB SATA Hard Drive 7200RPM
ATI Radeon X1300 Pro 256MB
Dell 20" LCD Monitor
XP MCE

jdavidm · Answer

golferrob2007,   I'm not a computer geek, but I know my way around a computer which means I'm probably just knowledgable enough to be dangerous.  Do plan on hours. It's a time consuming process. Unfortunalely it's not as simple as it should be.  People seem to be having different types of problems and issues.   Regarding the required memory that seems to be within the required specs.   Good luck.   P.S. Waiting awhile if it's an option probably isn't a bad idea.

Jenerics · Answer

I too was unable to install Vista on my E520. I used the Upgarde Assistant and then tried to install the OS. After copying the files it would go to gathering files then quit. An error message would pop up saying ' The upgrade was cancelled'. 'Any changes that were made to your computer during the upgrade will not be saved'. A second pop up comes up with : Windows insatllation encountered an error and cannot continue'.   Dell support was no help. Their answer was try System Restore and try again.   After all I've read on line about the upgrade, I think I'll stick with XP.   :smileymad:

4thebirds · Answer

Hello, I have a new 1 month old Dimension E520 and I was able to install the express Vista on my computer. I had some problems at first until I came here for help. Please look at my post on March 11, 07 under the subject ' Unable to install Vista' to make it short my problem was when it said 'Potential Issues'  there was some software that they said it would not be a problem if I didn't uninstall them so I didn't but the guys here told me to uninstall them and to uninstall my Antivirus and when I did that I was able to install Vista. I hope this help. It helped me.

jdavidm · Answer

Are any of you with E520's having a problem with temporary system freezes that last 20-60 seconds and then everything is fine (no lost data or shutdown, just freezes then resumes normally)?   Any suggestions by any of you?   jdmince   P.S. See my post on 3-11 for more detail.

jdavidm · Answer

golferrob2007,   Just an update. I've solved my system freeze problem. See my postings in the Dimension 9200 Freeze thread that began on 2/24.   Have you 'weathered the storm' with the Vista upgrade?   jdavidm

Windows General

Vista Upgrade for Demension 520

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