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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Johny,
The consense seems to be that while maybe running slow, win 7 x64 should run. Just a thought, but My quess would be missing a 64 bit driver for Your "Old" machine. Have a feeling 32 bit win 7 would load just fine.

With 64 bit, it's a realy hit/miss on 64 bit drivers for older Hardware. ie ended up ditching my 'trusty" cannon scanner because cannon would not release the driver (WHICH they HAD). Could be the HDD chipset driver - ms probably did not provide a default driver (a intel driver for older systems was probably included - Higher % of older intel still around are time of win 7 launch).
 
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Tend to agree with this. Your not going to get any performance benefit from 64 bit anyway. Since it is retail, it should include the 32bit license as well.

edit: [strike]you know the make and model of the motherboard by any chance?[/strike] I should read more carefully 😛
 
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Good Morning Chief! :)

When I asked my sister-in-law's son about installing drivers all I got was a blank stare. He didn't have a clue.

Last night I checked the ASRock web site. The last download/update was released in February 2006. I built the pc in August 2005. Might be worth a shot once it is possible to do so. I'll check on other drivers & downloads and have them on disc ready to be installed. I'll also run full diagnostics, virus scan, check Windows start-up, and the hard drive. I'll do a fresh install if necessary.

I also went ahead and ordered 4GB of appropriate memory. Luckily it was inexpensive. Should be here in a couple of days.
 
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I didn't read through the entire thread but wanted to throw my 2 cents in.

I run 64 bit windows 7 and my memory usage is constantly around 15% which for me is 1.8 GB of RAM out of 12 GB. I should mention this is during normal "regular" use with only a few programs open. Top RAM users being (in order from largest to least) Firefox, explorer, desktop windows manager, and rainmeter.

So with that said, I personally think 2 GB would run windows 7 64bit but not with much headroom and only for minimal use operation. I'd say jump for 4 GB if you can.

Good luck!
 
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Johny, if this is the motherboard: http://www.asrock.com/mb/NVIDIA/939NF4G-SATA2/?cat=Download
Only saw drivers for Windos XP x64, No Win 7 64 bit.
May need to visit specific chipset manuf sites for drivers. Also may have a problem if other than HDD Chipset (load by "F6" Method) may be a problem if can not get to operating system.
Not only are the chipsets old, but are probably the Least common:
■NVIDIA® GeForce 6100 chipset
■NVIDIA® nForce 410 MCP chipset
 
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"Is 2GB really sufficient for 64 bit or should I bump it up to 4GB?"

Hello,

There is a lot of conjecture in the replies, so some actual real life experience:

2Gb is absolutely fine. My wife has a Acer 2930 laptop, Core 2 Duo, Intel graphics, Windows 7 64 bit and 2Gb of RAM. Runs perfectly. She uses it for internetting and checking emails, runs completely flawlessly. I even installed Lord of the Rings Online on there and that ran absolutely fine.

Being an IT geek and knowing the laptop could take 4Gb I upgraded, and as I expected there was absolutely no difference in performance. I expected it because there were no performance problems in the first place.

So the answer is that, yes, absolutely 2Gb of RAM is plenty to run Win 7 64 bit for a normal computer user to do normal, mainstream activities. 4Gb of RAM would only be necessary if you were doing non-mainstream activities like HD video editing or high-end gaming.

Edit: forgot to say: on boot, Win 7 64 bit takes up 1.2Gb of RAM on my wife's laptop, leaving my wife with 800Mb of free RAM (prior to me upgrading her to 4Gb).
 
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Chief - Thanks!

The memory should arrive on Wednesday but I will not be able to work on the pc until Friday at the earliest. I'll post the results as soon as I figure it out.

Hmmm... just had a thought....I'll have to take a new can of compressed air with me. I bet that pc has not been cleaned even once during the 7 years that it been up and running.

While I'm at it I guess I should replace the thermal compound too. According to my records I used Artic Silver 5. It should have been replaced a long time ago.

Heck! I'll just take a box full of tools, spare parts, and software utilities. No telling what I might find.
 
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Problem Solved - It appears to be the lack of sufficient memory for Windows 7.

After using a can of compressed air to blow out 7 years worth of dust I swapped out the two 512MB memory modules for four 1GB memory modules. Started right up without any problems! No Muss! No Fuss! No Bother!

System BIOS, Chipsets, and device drivers were good to go.

Windows start-up items were cluttered with 7 years of old stuff that was no longer needed or unecessary so I deleted them. Cleaned up the registry while I was at it.

I ran a bunch of utilities just in case and cleaned up the hard drive.

If the pc can survive another 3 years that will make 10 years use.




 
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Good to hear! The memory could have been bad or it was all that dust. Either way it's better to have more then 2GB for 64 bit! And if you can get more use out of it that's even better! I have a 12-13 year old PC that still works great. Im attempting to start using it again, especially since there's only a few years left on XP & would be great to learn a couple Linux systems as well.
 
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Supermuncher85 - The kid installed a 64 bit version which uses just a tiny bit more memory than a 32bit version.

BTW - I like your avatar. I remember Asterisk and Obelisk from my tours of duty in Germany. My favorite comic book was "Asterisk and the Romans" - Die spinne die Roemer! Geez! That was a long long time ago!
 
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Yeah I grew up around the air base in Frankfurt am Main and Asterix and Obelix definitively have special place in my heart. Especially Obelix," "who are you calling fat?" :lol:
 
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