Upgrade laptop to windows 7?

[mr-scarface]

My laptop is the following:

HP Compaq CQ50 106CA
AMD Turion Dual Core RM70- 2.0GHZ
3GB RAM
Nvidia 8200m G (Dxva capable)
250GBB HDD
32-bit Windows Home premium

I use this laptop mostly as a media player connected to my HDTV, streaming videos that are stored on a desktop computer. It's not the fastest laptop for HD playback but it is dxva capable. However, I often have playback issues with HD videos, even though I have all the correct codecs, Media player classic, etc. I've fiddled around a lot, and don't feel like fiddling around more. Even with upgrading video drivers, the issues don't go away 100%, and I have a hunch if I upgrade to win7 it might help.

Is this a good idea?

[aedipuss]

probably not. it won't help programs run any faster. win7 would make it boot and shut down faster but as far as i've seen that's about it.

[redwudz]

If the laptop has the original install of Vista in it, and lots of changes, modifications, additions, etc., have been made to the laptop, you might get some performance improvement. But you could probably also get that by wiping the HDD and doing a clean install of Vista. (Or a backup install from the LTs backup discs.)

But I would agree W7 likely won't make much difference in performance of installed programs over Vista. If you do contemplate installing W7, make sure all the system drivers are available. W7 is mostly like Vista, but there are some differences, especially with audio drivers. I'd also advise sticking with the 32bit W7, no use adding new problems, IMO. (I would have been a lot happier with W7 32bit on my new LT. I have about ten game programs that refuse to run on W7 64bit, but run fine on Vista 32bit and W7 32bit.)

[mr-scarface]

If the laptop has the original install of Vista in it, and lots of changes, modifications, additions, etc., have been made to the laptop, you might get some performance improvement. But you could probably also get that by wiping the HDD and doing a clean install of Vista. (Or a backup install from the LTs backup discs.)

But I would agree W7 likely won't make much difference in performance of installed programs over Vista. If you do contemplate installing W7, make sure all the system drivers are available. W7 is mostly like Vista, but there are some differences, especially with audio drivers. I'd also advise sticking with the 32bit W7, no use adding new problems, IMO. (I would have been a lot happier with W7 32bit on my new LT. I have about ten game programs that refuse to run on W7 64bit, but run fine on Vista 32bit and W7 32bit.)

I just want to get more stability and performance out of it, given that it's always connected to an HDTV. If I'm gonna format and re-install windows, may as well get win7 no?

I use a similar but slower laptop at work and it runs win7 flawlessly on it. That's why I got the idea.

[mr-scarface]

Who Shouldn't Go 64-Bit?
If you're not planning on going to 4GB of RAM anytime soon, you might wanna hold back, since you need 4GB of RAM to take full advantage of 64-bit's memory management. That said, RAM is so disgustingly cheap right now, and has such an intense bang-to-buck ratio, you should definitely upgrade to 4GB if you haven't already. Anyone who runs specialized or older gear (see below) should probably not jump into 64-bit.

http://gizmodo.com/5133771/why-you-should-go-64+bit-with-windows-7

[johns0]

I have about ten game programs that refuse to run on W7 64bit, but run fine on Vista 32bit and W7 32bit.)

I'm on win7 64 and haven't found any games that won't play on it,what games did you have problems with?

[edDV]

Make sure HP/Compaq has all the Win7 drivers and recommends Win7 upgrade on the support site for your model. HP doesn't support a Win7 upgrade on most of its laptop models.

HD file playback is mostly about the video chipset (and driver) and your CPU.

Even though the Nvidia 8200m G has PureVideo HD and DXVA, they only claim support for Blu-Ray bit rates not supercompressed downloads. Your Turon CPU isn't strong enough to take up the slack.

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/geforce_8200m_g_mgpu_uk.html

[Noahtuck]

I have about ten game programs that refuse to run on W7 64bit, but run fine on Vista 32bit and W7 32bit.)

I'm on win7 64 and haven't found any games that won't play on it,what games did you have problems with?

Yeah i'm kind of curious also as i have not found a game yet that won't play on Vista Ultimate 64bit or W7 Ultimate 64bit, but i have not tried any older games, just newer in the last 5 years or so games.

[mr-scarface]

Make sure HP/Compaq has all the Win7 drivers and recommends Win7 upgrade on the support site for your model. HP doesn't support a Win7 upgrade on most of its laptop models.

It supports win 7, both 32 and 64 bit.

HD file playback is mostly about the video chipset (and driver) and your CPU.

Yeah well that's the thing, it plays HD perfectly sometimes, and other times not - leading me to believe that it could be some other inconsistency within the system or OS. The link above even says it supports 1080p.

The cpu is definitely slow, and this obviously doesn't help, but I just figured it would be a good idea to try windows 7 if I'm gonna re-format anyway.

[redwudz]

I have problems with games from Big Fish. (http://www.bigfishgames.com/) Mostly adventure and hidden object games. Some new, some older. The problem seems to be with DRM and the games installer. The same game that will get a app crash with W7 64 installs on W7 32 and Vista 32 and even XP with no problem. I've disabled all Malware programs, firewalls, UAC, and DEP. Using compatibility settings doesn't work either. Maybe something I haven't tried, but I can't find the cause.

I may be a bit biased against 64bit OSs, but I've had problems before with Visa 64 and XP 64 enough that I will just pass on using a 64bit OS whenever possible.

Sorry, just very frustrated at present.

[AlanHK]

I use this laptop mostly as a media player connected to my HDTV, streaming videos that are stored on a desktop computer. It's not the fastest laptop for HD playback but it is dxva capable. However, I often have playback issues with HD video

There are several media players that use their own codecs rather than Windows, eg VLC.
Try that and others listed here

[mr-scarface]

I use media player classic and coreAVC codec. Without those it wouldn't playback HD at all as the cpu is pretty slow.