Will Windows 7 install on a Presario S6500NX?

[OldeThom]

I have inherited a S6500NX and was wondering if Windows 7 will install on it? It is currently running XP SP3. It is all orig equip (I think) ie, A7V8X-LA mobo with Athlon 3000+ and 2Gb's of PC2700 RAM with 1x 80Gb IDE & 2x SATA-1 160GB drives installed; 1x IDE DVD R and 1x IDE CD R/RW.

Reason I ask is because I am having a hard time getting it to be recognised on our home network. If I shutdown all the win 7 machines (2 lptps and 2 dsktps) with only the XP running I can get onto the network and access the internet, however as soon I bring any of the Win7 pc's on line, the XP vanishes from the network and no longer able to access the internet. We've looked MB issues, masks, etc. I have had multiple people out to look at it including my grandson who works at a local IP in their business network tech support group. We've tried difference network cards, same result. It could very well be a combination of things, but feel the continued hassle of having a lone XP on the network is not worth it. (btw we have followed the guides like at http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/033c418b-1096-4df7-bfad-fd... and other sites with no joy.)

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

The graphics adapter in that model is not Windows 7 capable.

The best thing to do is to run the windows 7 upgrade advisor which will report the PC's compatiblity with W7.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/downloads/upgrade-advisor

So, you re-ran the network setup wizard on your XP PC, renamed the workgroup from MSHOME to WORKGROUP, and turned off password protected sharing on the W7 PC's and the XP PC is still not seen on the network?

I don't understand why the PC won't connect to the internet via the router. That should be independent of the network.  Each PC connects to the router independently, via a network cable or wirelessly.

Paul

[lasvegaswireman]

Here are the specs for your Compaq S6500NX desktop computer and its A7V8X-LA Kamet2-GL6E motherboard. Based on these specs, I would say that after purchasing an AGP 8X/4X (1.5v) graphics card, your system should handle Windows 7 32-bit without issue. Infact, I installed Windows 7 on an old eMachine (slower CPU and less memory than your system) and it ran fine.

Frank

[OldeThom]

Indeed we did Paul, trying all kinds of deviations and options. Without the Win7's on the network, the XP system connected to the router (a Netgear N600) without issue but Like I said once any of our Win7 systems were on the network the XP vanished. We tried wired and wireless, although we had other wireless issues we could not solve on this XP machine either. I was going to reinstall XP from scratch, but that was when I decided to just find out if this machine could be "upgraded" to Win7.

As for the onboard VIA UniChrome chip ,,, ugh, no I bought a Radeon HD 4670 IceQ AGP card. I realise that is overkill and going to be held back by the single core processor, but it was cheap and the best I could find for the A7V8X-LA.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Thom

[OldeThom]

I have the user manual for the S6500NX as well as the manual for the ASUS A7V8X-LA mobo. I looked over the minimum requirements MS has for Win7 Home Pre 32/64 and thought it could, just could not find if anyone had actually done it to this system. Glad to read that your older system installed and runs fine with Win7. Also, thanks for the links and the quick response.
Thom

[OldeThom]

Thaks for the responses! Since there is no upgrade path from Windows XP to Windows 7, I ordered the OEM version of Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (Full) System Builder. It will be a system my grandkids will play on, in fact it may ultimately go to my daughter's house. Win7 will be this system's last upgrade so the OEM version made sense.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

My recommendation for a Windows 7 video card would be to get a used but tested and working ATI Radeon 9600 128 MB AGP video card.

There should be some available on eBay.

That is a Windows 7 capable card and should work within the limits of the power supply, etc.

Paul

[OldeThom]

Paul - Ah yes I failed to mention that the fan in the 300W PS was noisey and failing to spin at times, so I bought an ENERMAX ETK500AWT - that I did on my own. I don't do Ebay (or Craigslist for that matter), despite their lure and potential - too many bad experiences with sellers over the years. The Radeon HD 4670 was the best, off the shelf, new card I could find that would work in this system. You probably know these sites, or others like them, but my grandson pointed me to gpureview.com and motherboards.org so I could do some comparisons and read reviews.

The easist thing to have done was to scrap or donate this old system (my usual ploy) and get a new one. But I wanted to try and figure this one out. Turns out I couldn't nor could those that worked with me on it. One thing I have noticed since digging into this system's problems and getting various people to work with me on them, is that every person had a different way of working through problems and every person had their own opinion on what to do. This is largely due to their own personal experience and knowledge. I have concluded that there are as many good ways to solve a computer problem as there are bad ways, but really only one or two best ways. Maybe that is true with life in general. But thanks for the info and reply. 

Thom