Upgrading an old Dell Dimension 2400 to Windows 7.....is it possible?

[Master Rudy]

I have an old DD 2400 series computer sitting around the house collecting dust. Right now my parents are in need of a PC that they can personally use anytime they want. I had plans to upgrade this PC to Windows 7 but I need to know if it's possible. Here's what I do know about the system:

-The current OS is Windows XP Professional so a clean install will be needed.
-There is currently no DVD drive hooked up to the PC. The CD drive will need to be replaced in order to install Seven.
-The hard drive is about 40 GB.
-The computer currently carries an extremely low amount of RAM. I myself am not sure of what the maximum the motherboard can handle is. Bottom line: will I be able to get this thing up to about 2 GB of RAM?
-The processor is an old Intel Pentium 4 and is rated as having a speed of 2 GHz. Needless to say I assume this is a single core processor and is nowhere near my AMD 64 bit dual core inside of my Pavilion a1600n (which is also rated at 2 GHz)
-Intergrated graphics chipset......don't need to say much more past that. I do however have an old Radeon 9250 series graphics card floating around. While it's far from top of the line or current I'm sure it'll help.

The whole point of this is trying to get them a somewhat up to date PC without taking a horrible bite in my budget AKA flat out buying them a computer. As a result I'm trying to see what I can possibly do with what I have on hand. Between the RAM and the DVD drive I can't see myself spending more than $150 to get this thing going. I'm not looking to upgrade everything since by that point I may as well go the route of getting another PC. In all honesty even if I did upgrade everything that needs to be upgraded I highly doubt this thing could run 64 bit Win7. That being said I doubt my parents would have a clue how to use the advanced features anyway so no big deal. The bottom line and main question is would it possibly run 32 bit Seven? Also what other potential upgrades would I have to look into that I may have missed?

[Telume]

Well, windows 7 runs on a virtual machine

1 GB of RAM
Integrated chipset
Intel Celeron 900 2.2GHz

Albeit kinda slow.... so if I can run it on 1 Gig of RAM you should be able to run it on 2.

[kainashi]

it'll run windows 7 fine. i've seen it run on far worse. the radeon should be better than the onboard, depending on what the onboard is. according to the specification documents, the max ram for the dimension 2400 is 2gb so max that out and get the dvd drive and you should be fine. no point in getting 64 bit windows when the cpu isn't 64 bit so stick with the 32 bit version.

[Master Rudy]

it'll run windows 7 fine. i've seen it run on far worse. the radeon should be better than the onboard, depending on what the onboard is. according to the specification documents, the max ram for the dimension 2400 is 2gb so max that out and get the dvd drive and you should be fine. no point in getting 64 bit windows when the cpu isn't 64 bit so stick with the 32 bit version.

Yeah as I said before I didn't think it'd run 64 bit at all. Now it's just a matter of getting the RAM and the DVD drive. Thanks Kai ^_~

[Telume]

64bit won't run on a 32bit processor and it'll actually tell you that from the moment you try to install it.

[Blademaster]

64-bit is pretty useless anyway. I haven't found a single use for it in any program, game, project, anything I've had to do on this laptop.

[Telume]

64-bit is pretty useless anyway. I haven't found a single use for it in any program, game, project, anything I've had to do on this laptop.

Blademaster think of it this way:

Imagine 2 trucks on a highway

Both going at the same speed (2.2GHz).

The both get the data transferred at the same speed, the difference? One carries more data than the other. So while the speed might be the same the 64-bit processor will win out hands down, why? Because it's carrying more data to the destination. So in a sense the 64-bit is "faster" than the 32-bit.

It's not a question of usage, it's a question of speed.

[Blademaster]

Alright, but even so I find that 64-bit is ironically not compatible with a lot of the stuff on my computer.

Then again, what do I know? I can barely turn this thing on.

[ChobiChibi]

I've got 64 bit and find there are quite a lot of things I can't run.

Like Theme Hospital and Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. The new editions that are supposed to run with anything over Vista.

And Sibelius (music writing software). I had to upgrade it in order for it to run.

That and I've suffered numerous random Blue Screen of Death situations.

Rudy, if your parents aren't gonna be using this PC much, wouldn't it be worth buying them an okay computer for a little over $150 dollars than getting an external CD drive and stuff? Running Windows XP or something? My dad used to do these kinda upgrades, he started recommending buying brand new machines rather than paying more for parts to upgrade a machine that will probably die faster...

[Telume]

You gotta run them in compatibility mode, you right click and hit Properties and it tells you what to set the compatibility for.

[Master Rudy]

Rudy, if your parents aren't gonna be using this PC much, wouldn't it be worth buying them an okay computer for a little over $150 dollars than getting an external CD drive and stuff? Running Windows XP or something? My dad used to do these kinda upgrades, he started recommending buying brand new machines rather than paying more for parts to upgrade a machine that will probably die faster...

Well for it's age the PC is in extremely good condition. My parents are both computer dumb so while I personally hate the UAC on Vista and Seven it'll help them out big time. Finally I've already done the research. For a new PC I'm not going to get away cheaper than $300 for a crappy office system. With the parts I have on hand and with what's already inside all I really need is the DVD drive which I can get for about $80 and the RAM upgrade which should be about the same give or take.

Overall for their purposes an upgrade is the better option. Beside I know them. I'll lay $50 on the fucker getting a nasty virus in about two months. Without the upgrades I'm dead in the water and in the worst case situation will not be able to do a clean install. Plus I'm not going to be sinking the money into it myself. It's my parents computer so it'll be their money. I figure if one of them is going to destroy a system it may as well be something disposible as opposed to something brand new and more expensive. At worst I've gotten pretty decent at salvaging basic components and parts such as sound cards, RAM sticks, CD/DVD drives, ect ^_~

[Telume]

Man, if you want something for around 300 get one of those eMachines with the Duo Core. 350~ on eBAY, no Joke and Brand spankin' new too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-eMACHINES-eM...item414d6fd579

I'm tempted as hell to buy it right now too but, I'm strapped for cash and my current laptop is new too.

[Master Rudy]

Man, if you want something for around 300 get one of those eMachines with the Duo Core. 350~ on eBAY, no Joke and Brand spankin' new too.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-eMACHINES-eM...item414d6fd579

Thanks Tel....however I don't need a system for $300. All I need is a simple system. Upgrading that spare computer I have that's collecting dust is really the best option. If I leave it to my parents they'll no doubt get robbed. That shitty 10+ year old office system with an 8 GB HD, 128 MB of RAM, dial up and a copy of XP with no auth key was what they bought used two years ago.

They paid $500 for that fucker.......

[Telume]

I could've sold them my system for 150

40 GB HD
Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz (iirc)
NVidia ME 400 GFX Card (or something like that, I know THIS needs replacing 'cause it's basically messed up)

Oh and yes it's running Windows XP. Oh and yeah it's a tower. REALLY OLD tower (it still has a windows 98 sticker on it lolol) but, a tower.

[internalog]

Hey Master Rudy,

I just did the exact same thing. Did a clean install of Windows 7 onto my mom's Dell Dimension 2400. Some aspects of it were a pain in the butt but I've gotten it done. I was just browsing on the Internet for any useful information about compatibility issues and I found your post. I actually don't even know what this discussion forum is for, but I joined up just in case I could help you to avoid any of the hassle I went through.

There were two main gripes:

1) Lack of a DVD drive in the Dell Dimension 2400. The work around for this one is to create a bootable USB drive. This turns out to be pretty easy. You need a newer computer with Windows 7 (or Vista), a 4 GB USB, and either the Windows 7 installation DVD or some ISO files that you can download from Microsoft. If you want, I can post the instructions here.

2) the Dimension uses a video graphics interface (called 845G Chipset) that was apparently invented by Friedrich von Flintstone (i.e., out-of-date). When you first install Windows 7, the monitor display will be stuck in 640x480, and it's a real pain.

The fix for that is to download a driver. You can google this: "win2k_xp14103". That's a self-extracting driver installer. You have to right-click on the file and tell it to open in Windows XP (special pack 3) compatibiilty mode and 'Run as adminstrator'. Then it will install the driver. (You also have to turn off automatic driver updates, so Windows 7 doesn't install a more current but incompatible driver). Once you reboot the system, then the resolution issue is fixed.

Some of the cooler graphic effects and functions just won't work on the Dell Dimension, but now that my annoyance has worn off, it's actually looking pretty decent. And I have to admit, everything about this operating system seems to be faster than Vista. So that's great.

Let me know if I can be of any assistance with any of the above-mentioned points. I don't know that I'll be back to this forum. But sending a personal message ought to notify my e-mail, I think. Otherwise, use google and good luck!

[internalog]

Oh, one more thing is that when you get everything installed and set-up, you may find as I did that Internet Explorer does not show up on your desktop.

I'm not sure why this happens, but it's actually there. You can find it by looking in the C drive in the 'Programs' folder.