Problems upgrading Dell Dimension 5000 from Win 10 32 bit to 64 bit

I'm a newcomer to TF and have joined hoping that I can get some useful advice on an upgrade problem I have.

My PC is a Dell Dimension 5000 running Win10 V1703 in 32 bit mode. CPU is Intel 4 524 Prescott (3.06GHz) in Socket 775A. The mainboard is a Dell OW5363 with version A07 BIOS (the latest version). I have 4.0 GB of RAM installed of which 3 GB is reported as usable.

The PC has been running OK with Windows 10 for some time, but I wish to upgrade to 64 bit as the latest version of Photoshop Elements will only run on a 64 bit system.

I downloaded the Win 10 Pro version 1073 64 bit ISO file and burned it to a DVD. I then took an image file of my c:\ drive so that I could restore everything if any problems arose.

With the DVD in the reader I rebooted the PC selecting the DVD as the start-up source. The DVD whirs happily and a blue Windows logo appears on the display. After about two minutes the DVD stops and the PC reboots and then starts up in the current 32 bit mode.

As an experiment I replaced the c:\ drive with a formatted blank hard drive and tried again. This time the PC boots from the DVD and after a while reboots from the DVD and the process is repeated until I get tired of watching the blue logo.

'Settings, 'System', 'About' confirms that my system type is 32 bit operating system, x64-based processor, so I am hoping that my PC is capable of supporting a 64 bit OS.

Does anyone have any guidance on how I should proceed? All suggestions will be welcomed!

I don't know whether the P4 524 can support Win10 X64.

There are some obscure requirements for X64. Here's one that was introduced with Win 8.1:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/20586...windows-8.html

I'm unconvinced that this is your problem, though. I doubt that would prevent you from booting from an installation DVD.

I suggest preparing a USB thumb drive as an installer, if you can.

Create Bootable USB Flash Drive to Install Windows 10

That may not fix your problem, but if it fails, it'll fail much more quickly than the DVD.

To add for Adobe, I'd look at SPECCY and the RAM modules, see if you have 2 x 2GB modules or 1 x 4GB module. If at all possible I'd get 6GB or 8GB, check Crucial US | DRAM, Solid State Drive (SSD) Memory Upgrades for what can be done. Where Adobe specifies 4GB for the latest version it may mean 4GB available, onboard graphics/display takes part of the RAM when lessens the amount required for programs. I haven't needed Photoshop for a few years but always had better success when having more free RAM than specified.

For installing Adobe, when having issues with an Optical drive [ODD] it may be possible to Copy the entire contents of the disc to a suitable USB Thumb drive and run setup.exe from that.

Bobkn - thanks for the thought about using a flash drive for the installation. The largest flash drive I have in my collection is 4 GB which is smaller than needed for the install. I'll order a larger one (they are always useful things to have) and give it a try.

Berton - thanks for your thoughts. The RAM in my PC consists of two banks of 2GB each and is the maximum that the Dell Dimension 5000 architecture supports. Until I get the 64 bit version of Win 10 running I won't know whether i will have a memory limitation running Photoshop Elements.

What I find on the Dell site, this will only support a max of 4GB of RAM. I don't think it will boot from USB, that wasn't even thought of back in the XP days when this was sold.

If you need 64 bit, best to consider a new or at least newer PC that is 64 bit.

Firebird - I had forgotten that the Dimension 5000 series doesn't support USB booting, so moving the boot source to a flash drive won't actually help.

In the end a new PC may be the only answer, but I would like to exhaust all other possibilities first - not because I am too mean to go out and buy a new PC, but mainly because I have a stubborn streak!

I saw a reference, in the Dell documentation that I found, about 32 bit, not 64 bit. I had a Dell Dimension E510 (identical to a 5150) a later model than the 5100 and don't believe it had 64 bit capability.

I did a search for the Intel 845G chipset (that is in the 5100) and didn't find if it supported 64 bit. I did find a discussion on the Win 7 forum and all that were having issues with their Win 7 PC's and this chipset appear to only have 32 bit OS.

Fireberd - it looks like I will be having to swallow my pride and buy a PC that is 64 bit capable.

I'll wait on marking this problem 'solved' in case any other suggestions come in (ever hopeful!).

Incidentally, I did run SecurAble and for the processor it reported:

Maximum bit length: 64 bits
Hardware DEP: Yes
Hardware Virtualization: No

This report has perhaps given me false hope.

It will be sad to retire the old Dimension 5000. It has given me many years of faithful service and has become something of a family friend.

The 5100 has more than served you well. Dell only "Officially" supports WinXP (and DOS) with this model. I upgraded my E510/5150 from XP to Vista but had to change the sound card as the original SoundBlaster that came with the PC did not have Vista drivers.

Although the program you used shows its capable, its not always so as Dell used custom motherboards and custom implementation of the Intel chipsets. My E510/5150, according to Intel could take up to a D960 CPU but with the Dell custom implementation we found, on the Dell forum, that a D945 was the limit in the E510/5150. We had users trying different D8.. or D9.. CPU's and they found that limitation.

I used to work the Dell user forums and remember the sound card issue affected many models for users that were able to upgrade from XP to Vista.