[brettt777]

I have an old Dell XPS 710 that I have upgraded with a better CPU, VGA, RAM and larger HDD. It's for my wife and I got the new components for a great price, otherwise I wouldn't normally invest in an eight year old machine. It was running the 32 bit XP WMC edition. I was told I could install XP Pro to make it a 64 bit system so I could use 8GB of RAM. Once I got all the new components installed, I tried to boot it off my XP Pro disk. It will start up fine and I can go to the setup menu and change the boot order and all the new components are there, etc. So I let it boot from the CD and it starts out okay installing all the drivers, etc. But when it starts loading Windows, it crashed to BSoD every time. I even tried a different XP Pro disk and it does the same thing. I then tried installing the original XP WMC edition and it installed fine. So is there some reason I can't install a 64 bit OS onto this machine or is there more to making it 64 bit than just installing a 64 bit OS?

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Hi there, what RAM configuration do you have? 1x 8GB stick, 2x 4GB or something else?

32 bit OS can only use 4GB ram(useable is less) so an initial thought might be that the first 4GB is ok but it is struggling accessing anything above that.

 

 

When you get the blue screen there should be an error message, this will provide more detail.

 

If you can't see this, start the computer and keep pressing F8 until you get a boot menu.

Then select Disable automatic restart on system failure and the blue screen will stay visible.

[ruggie_uk]

Hi there, what RAM configuration do you have? 1x 8GB stick, 2x 4GB or something else?

32 bit OS can only use 4GB ram(useable is less) so an initial thought might be that the first 4GB is ok but it is struggling accessing anything above that.

 

 

When you get the blue screen there should be an error message, this will provide more detail.

 

If you can't see this, start the computer and keep pressing F8 until you get a boot menu.

Then select Disable automatic restart on system failure and the blue screen will stay visible.

[brettt777]

Hi there, what RAM configuration do you have? 1x 8GB stick, 2x 4GB or something else?

32 bit OS can only use 4GB ram(useable is less) so an initial thought might be that the first 4GB is ok but it is struggling accessing anything above that.

 

 

When you get the blue screen there should be an error message, this will provide more detail.

 

If you can't see this, start the computer and keep pressing F8 until you get a boot menu.

Then select Disable automatic restart on system failure and the blue screen will stay visible.

 

It has four 2GB sticks of DDR2. The BIOS sees this as well as the new CPU and VGA and shows a total of 8GB. When I had XP WMC up and running, oddly enough it said I had 3GB of RAM in device manager. The BSoD stays there until I power down the machine. I will get the exact error message when I get home from work tonight.

I took those XP Pro disks and tried them in my laptop (64 bit machine) and got the same exact thing, i.e. it crashes to BSoD when Windows starts to load so the disks were definitely an issue. I'll just have to come up with another XP Pro disk to try. Is there an upgrade disk that can be purchased to go from XP WMC to XP Pro or does it have to be a complete format and reinstall since it's going from 32 bit to 64 bit?

[ruggie_uk]

You cannot upgrade from 32bit to 64bit unfortunately.

 

The 3Gb in device manager is because windows cannot see all the ram(but your bios does), it will just see the first 2 sticks.

[brettt777]

You cannot upgrade from 32bit to 64bit unfortunately.

 

The 3Gb in device manager is because windows cannot see all the ram(but your bios does), it will just see the first 2 sticks.

So I can't upgrade but I can do a complete install of XP Pro and make it 64 bit, correct? This was a fresh install with a blank HDD to begin with so it's no big deal. I just need to find an XP Pro disk that works...

[ruggie_uk]

Yes that's right. A complete install is fine.

[Ztruker]

If you have to buy a XP disc I'd suggest getting a Windows 7 X64 or Widows 8 X64 instead. The support for 64 bit is much better in 7 and 8.

[brettt777]

If you have to buy a XP disc I'd suggest getting a Windows 7 X64 or Widows 8 X64 instead. The support for 64 bit is much better in 7 and 8.

Well normally I would but this machine is for my wife. She knows XP and she will NOT want to have to learn a new OS.

[brettt777]

I don't get it. This stupid machine will load XP WMC all day long. But I have tried three different XP Pro disks and all of them do the exact same thing; all the drivers load but about 10 seconds after windows starts to load, crash to BSoD. Is there something, anything at all in the BIOS that would prevent a 64 bit OS from being installed?

 

Edit: Forget it... Wife is just gonna have to learn how to use Windows 7. Loaded that up just fine...

Edited by brettt777, 25 June 2014 - 12:16 PM.