Windows 7 memory requirements - 2GB?

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JohnnyLucky

JohnnyLucky

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May 30, 2007
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Hiya Gang!

7 Years ago I built an inexpensive AMD Socket 939 system with 1 Gigabyte of memory for my sister-in-law. It had an old version of Windows. Everything was fine until a few days ago. My sister-in-law's son decided to install Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bit. That's when the trouble started. Widows starts to load and then stops when the logo appears. No BSOD and no error messages. It just stops loading.

Initial boot up is fine and I can access the System BIOS. The settings are good.

I went to the official Microsoft Windows web site and checked memory requirements for Windows 7. According to the web site 1 Gigabyte of RAM is suficient for 32-bit and 2 Gigabytes of RAM is sufficient for 64-bit:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-sg/windows7/products/system-requirements

Is 2GB really sufficient for 64 bit or should I bump it up to 4GB?

 
Solution
B


Hi :)


Lack of ram WAS the problem....the customer THOUGHT that as XP was running slowly with 512 mb , then upgrading to 7 would make it faster lol :)

We pulled the 512 piece, and put in 2 x 2 gb and it was fine....

All the best Brett :)
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Yes, the minimum for windows 7 64-bit would be 2GB of RAM. However, I would put atleast 4GB of RAM, 2GB of RAM is not really enough for these days. If you plan to gaming, video editing, or applications like those, I would go for 8GB of RAM. RAMs are cheap these days. Why not get more?
 
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2 Gigs coupled with Win 7 64 Bit = sluggish as it will be doing a loot of wapping in and out of Mermory.
For win 7 I recommend min 3 gigs for 32 bit, recommend 4 gig. For 64 bit, recommend 4 gigs with 8 gigs being the sweet spot.

Johnny, Not sure if the 2 gigs for win 7 64 Bit is an absolute, or just a recommended MIN, Which I think it is.

Added:
The 2 gig Is NOT a 64 bit requirement as XP 64 bit only required 1 gig

Also found this on the net
Quote ALL THIS IS RUBBISH! im using windows7 pro x64 now with 1gb of ddr2 no problems."
Ref: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproperf/thread/38d0ba0f-b481-4486-8b0e-ac780cce48c0/
 
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what a load of hokum...
1.5 gigs is the minimum recommended amount of ram stated by Microsoft. if your running 32bit o.s you can then add up to another 2 gigs or 1.5 gigs if you have a 1 gig gfx card.
there is no upper limit on win 7 64 due to most motherboards being physically limited to 24-32gigs. by there slots.
2 gigs is perfectly fine for running games on win 7 64. my old amd 6000x2 88gt has 2 gigs and it ran deus ex on low settings just fine with 30+ fps minimum. it multi tasks just fine and does everything required of it... jeez mostr people here forget they ran windows xp on 1 gig and they thought that was a huge amount of ram... unless your pc's is full to the brim with crap ware and masses of startup entries you dont need lots of ram... i have six gigs on my system and rareley ever go above 3. and thats with my pc running 64 ultimate...
if you dont have a lot of cash then 2 gigs should be your minimum goal.
 
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1) Did the nephew-in-law actually buy win7 or just some software he "found" on the internet, a Win7 OEM disk that has been customized and meant for a different computer (like a dell/hp/lenovo).

2) Did he upgrade, or do a fresh install.

Wipe the drive, do a fresh install with the correct copy of Win7 and i think you will be OK. IF you need to save the old files, put hard drive in a working computer and copy things over.

That being said, if you want to take the effort to give them a speedboost while you are at it; you can go ahead and upgrade the ram (as well as probably upgrading a new HDD too). This shouldn't be too expensive
 
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I'm currently running 1 PC with 4GB and the other with 2GB, both with 64bit OS.
The one with 2GB is of course slower, but I only use it to watch some recorded TV shows.

The video card on that PC is not that great... to say the least, but again I don't use it for gaming.

What I see that it might be a problem is that you said that you built your PC 6-7 years ago, so I'm going to bet that you are probably not using DDR3 memory on that PC.

DDR2 for some strange reason (if you find it) is way more expensive than it should be.
Specially when compared to DDR3 RAM.

So do your research before you expend any money on OLD RAM.
 
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Win 7 32bit works with only 512m - Aero disabled ( but it's sluggish as hell )
Win 7 64bit requres minimum 1gig - However I see absolutely no reason in using the 64bit version a computer with less than 4gig. The idea of 64bit was invented with the purpose of using more than 4gig of Ram ( and programs that can access more than 2 gig at once )
 
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Supermuncher 85 - I was also thinking it may be a hard disk problem but when I saw the system only had 1MB of memory I started thinking it wasn't enough for Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bit.

Retired Chief - Thanks for the link. Originally I installed Windows XP and 1GB of DDR, 400, PC3200, Dual Channel memory. At the time that was plenty and everything worked.

Brett928S2 - What was the problem with the customer's pc that took 10 minutes to boot and would not multitask?

Hexit - I built that pc 6 or 7 years ago. No telling what wound up getting loaded and what wound up in the start-up entries. I won't be able to tell until I get it up and running.

raytseng - My sister-in-law's son (my nephew?) actually purchased a full retail version of Microsoft Windows 7 Home Edition 64 bit. I saw the package, disc, product key, and receipt when I went over to check the pc. The kid said he inserted the disc and just followed the instructions. No telling what he did. When I asked about installing drivers he just had a blank look on his face.

drwho1 - The pc is so old it's actually DDR, 400, PC3200 memory installed in an ASRock 939NF4G SATA2 NVIDIA GeForce 6110 Micro ATX motherboard.

wavetrex - I undertsand. Unfortunately my sister-in-laws's son did not consult with me before purchasing.

In the meantime - The pc has two Corsair Value Select, DDR, 400, PC 3200, 512MB Dual Channel memory modules. The exact same memory is still available in 512MB and 1GB modules. The good news is the price at newegg is exactly one half of what is was 6 or 7 years ago. Several other vendors sell them for less. The motherboard has 4 memory slots. According to the owners manual the maximum memory capacity is 4GB - 1GB per memory slot and the modules have to match exactly. It would be a cheap upgrade and wouldn't be a problem if it turned out the memory was not the problem.
 
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adamdbz - The cpu is an AMD Athalon 6400 3000+ Venice 1GHz Socket 939 single core processor Model ADA3000BPBOX. It supports 64 bit applications. Pretty decent stuff back then.

The motherboard has integrated graphics. According to my business records I used the integrated graphics instead of installing a dedicated card. My sister-in-law is not a gamer or enthusiast. She is a senior citizen. She uses the pc for web browsing, shopping, email, and keeping in touch with family. There was no need to build a gaming rig.
 
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highly recommend you at least consider out Ebay prices over buying new. You may find you can just throw out those old 512mb modules. 2x2gb

Even if it was "half" of what you paid 7years ago, computer prices should go down much faster than that for obsolete parts.

At the same time, while you are at it, can also consider getting a cpu upgrade too.
Near top of the line x2 is well affordable and much faster than the single core you have there.

Again, check ebay, shouldn't be too expensive, if you are OK buying used.
 
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raytseng - I am familiar with Ebay. I have been a member ever since the site opened for business. Right now an Ebay seller called planetmemory has the best price for the correct used memory. However, I can get brand new memory for just a little bit less from a retail vendor. The difference of course is the manufacturer's warranty. This is not the first time I have run into this. It always pays to be patient and thorough.

I have already discussed an upgrade with my sister-in-law. I thought I should tell her just in case an upgrade becomes a necessity. According to my records I built that pc exactly 7 years ago this month. It ran rock solid the entire time until Windows 7 was installed. I'm sitting here thinking it sure would have been nice if the pc kept running another three years without any component failures. Think about it - 10 years without a problem! :)
 
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PRINT THIS FOR FUTURE REFERENCE!!

2GB is fine for most people who don't game.

The failure to load has NOTHING to do with the amount of RAM. Since there appear to be no major hardware issues before, I'd have to say it was installed incorrectly.

To be on the safe side though, he should run Memtest ( www.memtest.org ) to test the RAM. Or better yet, use the same Memtest v4.3 tool from the Ultimatebootcd since I recommend another tool on it.

Here's how I recommend installing Windows 7:
Prep:
a) run Memtest v4.3 (ultimatebootcd or from www.memtest.org )
b) copy an data needed from the hard drive to another location

1. Unhook all drives except the hard drive to which Windows 7 is to be installed

2. Wipe the drive completely using Active Kill Disk by booting to the Ultimatbootcd ( http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ )

3. *If you can't BOOT to the disc, change the BOOT ORDER in your motherboards BIOS so that the CD/DVD comes before hard drive

4. Boot to the Windows 7 install disc and install

5. Install the relevent drivers from the motherboard support site (main chipset driver, network driver, *audio and possibly some others)
*audio driver can sometimes come directly from www.realtek.com but make sure its the correct version

6. Install any other drivers, such as graphic drivers for addon graphics if required

7. Microsoft Updates (takes a long, long time. set updates to Automatic but the first time keep forcing to recheck and apply until none are detected.)

8. Install antivirus (such as Microsoft Security Essentials)

9. Investigate backup tools to create an IMAGE of your C-drive (Windows drive) to a physically separate hard drive (Acronis True Image has a free version at the WD site for WD drives and Seagate if you have at least one of their drives. Must have at least one external or internal WD or Seagate drive.)

10. make sure BIOS is up to date and flash if needed (maybe do this at the beginning)

11. make sure fan control is working properly if available

12. do NOT overclock unless everything is working properly. If you do, you must ensure that the RAM is not also overclocked (when you overclock the CPU you might raise the Base Clock which also affects the RAM. If so, you might fix this by dropping the RAM MULTIPLIER so that your RAM is now the proper frequency.)
 
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Something a bit different happened to me I will start installing and then it will blue screen
Turns out the bios ware incapable
This happened with a pc from 2600
But I installed tiny 7 on two older pc from 2003\2004 and it worked
-Adam Ericson
 
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you are funny, you know how long the OP has been around for, and the tenure of all the respondents, i think that most of the seniors are on this thread, good to see all rallying around.

JohnnyLucky, its already been mentioned but no reason 2GB shouldn't work, my guess is a driver that should have been installed but win7 didn't include or didn't realise was needed, how to fix it? really difficult unless you can get into safe mode. Win7 repair? You could do a sysprep if you can get it vaguely stable and then have a freshish start.
 
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Hi :)


Lack of ram WAS the problem....the customer THOUGHT that as XP was running slowly with 512 mb , then upgrading to 7 would make it faster lol :)

We pulled the 512 piece, and put in 2 x 2 gb and it was fine....

All the best Brett :)
 
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Solution
I would use min of 4GB for win 7, my xp 32 bit machines hit 4GB limit all the time and my work win 7 machine hits the 8GB limit frequently because I have oracle running on it. I just bought a version of 7 for home to use at 16GB, but I can't see having a decent experience at 1 or 2 GB
 
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