Is my notebook beefy enough for Vista Ultimate 64?

3DPiper · Dec 22, 2008

I have a Dell M90 with T7600 cpu, 4G of ram, FX3500 Quadro, and 320G hard drive.

Is my system beefy enough to run Vista Ultimate 64bit smoothly?

Thanks

-Matthew

vIjAy_kHaSa · Dec 22, 2008

yaa it will run it smoothly

Airbot · Dec 22, 2008

Sure, it's fine 3DPiper.

pooch · Dec 22, 2008

3DPiper said:
I have a Dell M90 with T7600 cpu, 4G of ram, FX3500 Quadro, and 320G hard drive.

Is my system beefy enough to run Vista Ultimate 64bit smoothly?

Thanks

-Matthew

Hello Mathew,

You need to be sure that you can get all the necessary drivers check first with dell,

You may also need the latest Bios, Make sure that you know how to do this before trying. again check with Dell.

Apart from this I dont see any problems, you wont know for sure though until you try it.

I hope this helps,

Pooch

Dwarf · Dec 22, 2008

Hi Matthew and welcome to Vista Forums :party:

Your system should be able to run Vista 64-bit. Here are a couple of links - firstly to the main support page for your laptop: Dell Technical Support Home Page / Dell Troubleshooting Search and secondly to the Vista 64-bit drivers page: Drivers & Downloads
I suggest that you download all the files and place them on a CD/DVD so that you can access them as required.

Barman58 · Dec 22, 2008

Hi 3dPiper,

As the others have said you should have no problems running Vista on that machine.

To be sure have a look at Microsoft's advisor tool ...

Get Windows Vista: Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor

sygnus21 · Dec 22, 2008

Your hardware maybe OK...but is the software you run 64bit compatible? For that I would do my research before upgrading. Many people have upgraded to 64 only to find that their favorite apps don't work or is limited in functionality. Do your research "before" upgrading to 64!!!

3DPiper · Dec 23, 2008

Ok, I had an extra hard drive, so I popped it in my notebook and installed Vista Ultimate 64.. yay! Very smooth, no problems, very sexy-mac-ish interface..

But- the FIRST program I tried to install will not install. It is a fan-control program that gives you temps for you notebook and lets you speed up the fans for more cooling... Here:

Dell Inspiron Inspiron/Latitude/Precision fan control

I realise that this is an old program, but all the errors say drivers aren't signed and it will not let it install. Am I SOL with this program? I read the forms for it, and it doesn't look like the drivers will never get signed (and the workaround is to go into test mode)..

I did laugh when those 'allow/disallow' screens came up, it reminded me of those mac commercials! (although I hate them).. I know whey they did it (more security, plus if something screws up the system they can say "well, YOU clicked on allow!"), but I can see how those type screens can be scary to someone like my wife..

-Matthew

Barman58 · Dec 23, 2008

Hi 3DPiper,

If you press F8 as the OS is booting to get into the options menu, the one with safe mode etc, one of the options is to disable the requirement for signed drivers.

That may help :D

3DPiper · Dec 23, 2008

barman58,

Thank You! Although I still got a 'driver not signed' warning, the program did install. Yay! A cool computer is a happy computer..

Lots to learn about Vista. This is not your father's XP..

-Matthew

3DPiper · Dec 24, 2008

Arg, I spoke too soon. After loading once, the program will not load again. Plus, I got the dreaded 'test mode' screen (which took me awhile to get off).

I have tried other fan-control programs:

Notebook Hardware Control - says 'driver not found'
SpeedFan - could see temperatures, but not fans

Is there any other way I can control my fans in Vista?

-Matthew

johngalt · Dec 24, 2008

You'll have to perform that F8 step every time you boot up in Vista - hence the fact that everyone was telling you to verify your program work in 64bit OSs before moving to it. Since you used another HD, I realize that it is not a big deal for you - but this particular program is SOL unless you use that F8 trick every time.

3DPiper · Dec 24, 2008

johngalt said:
You'll have to perform that F8 step every time you boot up in Vista - hence the fact that everyone was telling you to verify your program work in 64bit OSs before moving to it. Since you used another HD, I realize that it is not a big deal for you - but this particular program is SOL unless you use that F8 trick every time.

Well, that sux. But shouldn't the other programs written for Vista work (Speedfan/NHC)?

Everything else works great (installed 14 programs with no problems), except this one little utility. In fact, I'm about to clone this HD and use it as my backup for a clean start if anything ever goes wrong. But not having any type of temperature monitor/fan control bothers me. I've had problems with this machine overheating before (with an older video card). Dell has the fans kicking in way too late to be effective, and there is no way to control them in the bios.. I don't mind the noise of the fans running as long as I know my system won't overheat..

-Matthew

johngalt · Dec 24, 2008

If they are written for Vista and specify Vista x64 compatibility, then yes they will work - it is all a matter of drivers - if they are not certified 64bit drivers, then Vista takes issue.

WindWaker2008 · Dec 24, 2008

If you download a program called "ReadyDriverPlus" it will automatically do the F8 option to disable drivers. It's useful incase you restart and don't remember to always enable that option. Just google it should be the first link.

johngalt · Dec 25, 2008

According Citadel :: View topic - Problem with vistax64 the post indicates that SP1 breaks RDP

sygnus21 · Dec 25, 2008

3DPiper said:
Well, that sux. But shouldn't the other programs written for Vista work (Speedfan/NHC)?

I can tell you speedfan works under vista 64

WindWaker2008 · Dec 25, 2008

I dunno why they say that. I've been using readydriverplus only after SP1 and it works fine. You can see it working during boot when it disables the driver signature enforcement for you.

johngalt · Dec 25, 2008

Thanks for the clarification then. I am off to install Vista x64 in a VirtualBox and test that - and see if it works with Windows 7 - if it does, then I am going to try to force the installation of my M$ KB with FP reader 32bit drivers and see if I can force it to work.

Thanks for the info, will be back with results.

pooch · Dec 25, 2008

sygnus21 said:
I can tell you speedfan works under vista 64

All well and good but it has also got to work with the hardware.

As is probably the problem here

pooch

Is my notebook beefy enough for Vista Ultimate 64?

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