Installing Windows 10 on old notebook that runs XP?  

Hi,
Yeah there is a linux light or is it lite

Caledon Ken said:

No try Ubuntu.
You have a desktop, click on Firefox, browse.

You can try Ubuntu, they make it easy. Just be sure to "Try" so it does not change boot menu.


Try Ubuntu before you install it | Ubuntu tutorials

I am all for trying new things. Thank you.

Bree said:

I have an Acer Aspire One D270 currently running 32-bit 1909 with 2GB RAM. It's hardly fast, but works well enough for general browsing and LibreOffice. It's the machine I take on my holidays.

Youtube will be a problem though. There are no W10 display drivers available for these systems. This means that the Microsoft Basic Display driver will be used. For most purposes that is good enough, but for video the frame rate will be low, about 5-10 fps. Youtube videos are only watchable in a window, no larger than about half the screen size. At full screen it will be unacceptably slow and jerky.

You will need a licence to activate W10, I didn't because mine came with Windows 7 Starter, which upgraded to 10 for free.

The drivers available from the Microsoft Update Catalog don't help? http://www.catalog.update.microsoft....ator%203150%20 They are for the Intel GMA 3150 GPU, which is supposed to be what's in the D260.

I have no way to test them.

Berton said:

For Linux check out DistroWatch.com: Put the fun back into computing. Use Linux, BSD., many 'flavors' will be listed. I like to keep a Linux LiveDVD on hand, its bootable and programs can be run, just don't click the DVD icon on the desktop that will install the OS until deciding if wanting to go that way. And it probably will wipe everything off the drive as it uses a different formatting than Windows. I use Linux Mint but may be taking an extra machine off Windows and do more testing with various distros of Linux like Ubuntu. Most are free.

Good link. Thanks. I know absolutely nothing about Linux so every bit of info helps. Based on what I watched on Youtube just this evening, I couldn't use Utuntu unless I had 4GB RAM. I may try Mint when I finally gather enough courage to give it a go.

althetrainer said:

Good link. Thanks. I know absolutely nothing about Linux so every bit of info helps. Based on what I watched on Youtube just this evening, I couldn't use Utuntu unless I had 4GB RAM. I may try Mint when I finally gather enough courage to give it a go.

Hi there
IMPORTANT if you are new to Linux -- LEARN THE CLI, DON'T RUN AS ROOT UNLESS YOU REALLY HAVE TO -- USE SUDO and remember commands will do what you ask them to do -- so if you want to wipe out the OS's directory (everything under the '/' folder) it will do just that -- there's no "Nag prompts etc". It's a PROPER OS !!!!! - but you'll learn more about computers in about 30 mins of using it than years with using Windows --- just don't give up if things don't work at first.

Also I'd install as a VM then if you break it --doesn't matter just create another Virtual Machine !!!

@Berton

I only have 1 laptop now for "native Windows" which is a work laptop so I can't fiddle too much with that one -- I run arch linux on my other machines with various versions of Windows as Virtual machines -- I used to use VMWare for the VM's --hated Virtual Box and tried HYPER-V. For best and almost "Bare metal speed" I've now switched entirely to running VM's under QEMU/KVM on a Linux Host.

I have only 2 minor points with KVM so far -- The Windows VM's are MBR -- not sure how to get UEFI to work --not an issue though as these are VM's that don't need a huge amount of Disk space, and you can't (yet) bridge a wifi connection so you have to use NAT for the VM's which imposes a minor restriction.

Since I use ethernet connections to a wifi extender via a switch that's not an issue either as the computer sees an ethernet connection which works properly for a bridge. Incidently unlike HYPER-V USB redirection works properly so you can HOTPLUG usb drives into the VM and with passthru and VIRTIO you can get almost bare metal performance.

Here's the bridge br0 linked to the ethernet adapter --the one ending ---f1. Now the VM's have real IP addresses on the LAN and are accessible to everything else which is what I want. If they were NAT they'd have a "Virtual IP address" which means that although they have Internet they have limited connectivity within the LAN -- equivalent in HYPER-V to the default switch (NAT) and the external switch (Bridged).




Cheers
jimbo

There are no W10 display drivers available for these systems.

Not true.
Let's run Win10 on really really old hardware

Drivers work fine with Win10 & N450 proc & NM10 chipset but intel removed them from its web. Use the following links to download them.

Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 - Win7.exe driver for Windows 7/XP/Vista - Summary
Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 3150 - Win7_64.exe driver for Windows 7/XP/Vista - Summary

https://www.helpjet.net/dl/93589027-...87484/Win7.exe
https://www.helpjet.net/dl/93589027-...09/Win7_64.exe

He doesn't need the notebook for games, just Youtube, Google and maybe OpenOffice for making notes etc. Do you think it will work?

The main and unremovable drawback is processor used - N450 is weak and only singlecore with hyperthreading. Be prepared to suboptimal performance.

I couldn't use Ubuntu unless I had 4GB RAM

You can. My very similar Asus EEE 1005: N450, 2GB RAM. Dualboot Win10 and Mint Cinnamon (Ubuntu fork), both 64bit.

muchomurka said:

The main and unremovable drawback is processor used - N450 is weak and only singlecore with hyperthreading. Be prepared to suboptimal performance.

I believe you're correct. Out of curiosity I popped the SSD in and clean installed Windows 10 32-bit. The bugger was running like a turtle. Web browsing was slow but tolerable. Youtube, on the other hand, was definitely a nightmare. I could barely play a 360p video in a small window and that too took forever to buffer. By the way, when I installed Windows 10, the graphic media accelerator 3150 was installed correctly. It's not missing, just couldn't handle the load. I tested out the links you posted, they're all older than the one came with Windows installation, seems like a dead end. I put the original HDD back in the notebook. With the 2G module, it now run a bit faster than before, that's pretty much the story of the Acer Aspire One.

I wiped the SSD and put it in my Dell Latitude D630, everything worked well except the crummy keyboard. Will have to replace some keys or the entire keyboard one of these days. I bought the D630 to digitize my old media, that's another project at my doorsteps.

You can. My very similar Asus EEE 1005: N450, 2GB RAM. Dualboot Win10 and Mint Cinnamon (Ubuntu fork), both 64bit.

If that's the case I will give it a go. I got that info from a guy on Youtube, never tested it myself. Now i am busy digitizing old movies, once it done Ubuntu will be next.

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jimbo45 said:

Hi there
IMPORTANT if you are new to Linux -- LEARN THE CLI, DON'T RUN AS ROOT UNLESS YOU REALLY HAVE TO -- USE SUDO and remember commands will do what you ask them to do -- so if you want to wipe out the OS's directory (everything under the '/' folder) it will do just that -- there's no "Nag prompts etc". It's a PROPER OS !!!!! - but you'll learn more about computers in about 30 mins of using it than years with using Windows --- just don't give up if things don't work at first.

Also I'd install as a VM then if you break it --doesn't matter just create another Virtual Machine !!!

jimbo

Thank you for the tips. To be honest, I have no ideas what all that means but I am sure everything will make more sense as I begin to learn. Just need to jump on the the bandwagon and roll along.