RyanSpaulding

Hey guys,

So I'm an idiot and copped 6gb of RAM for my Quad-Core running Vista 32...not knowing the 32-bit 4GB ram limit...so I need to upgrade to Vista 64 now. Home Professional came on my machine with no os/backup/driver cd (which SUCKS...fu ACER...anyways)...so I'll need to gather drivers I think.

What should I expect to go wrong in this upgrade? Does anyone have an experience in this move and can give me a heads up?

lambros

I use vista 64 in most pcs, but before I switched to 64bit, my workstation came with vista32. Sadly, I had to buy a new copy of Vista to install 64 OS, I formatted a second HD and clean installed 64. So now the boot manager asks everytime which version to load (the new 64 bit installation is default). Drivers are no problem at all, neither is the clean installation, so don't worry about anything

carlangas

Hi Ryan,

I bought an acer a while back and had a similar problem, I did however managed to install xp64 but only after doing a lot of reading on my own and getting drivers from different websites because acer did not have any for XP 64bit. Acer customer service is the worst ive experienced. im no expert on this but it may help you install your 64 bit vista. you have to find the 64bit drivers for the SATA harddrive first so you can clean install your 64bit vista. I think acer does have those drivers on their website. not sure how it is with a vista install but in xp when you insert the install cd you press f10 at the install scereen and wait till it prompts you to provide new drivers via floppy in which case you would have to install yourself (my aspire came floppyless). after it takes your new SATA drivers it will hopefully go on with the rest of the install. you might want to consider getting xp64 rather than vista though.. im happy with my current setup, this pc is very very stable with xp64 and 6gb ram.

good luck

__________________
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

sasa3791

you can simply update sp1 for vista 32bit and have available support for 8gb of RAM.
that's a new in sp1 for vista 32bit.
i hope to help you

RyanSpaulding

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm actually wondering if the 'Windows Anytime Upgrade' would work for this...though I dont plan on upgrading out of Home Premium if I dont have to. The main issue I have is that IF something happens and I cant get Vista64 to work, I'll lose my Home Premium as there's no OS install, no driver install, no cd. I wonder if the 64/32 bit options can be done via Anytime Upgrade...

lambros: I'm hoping to find a way where I dont have to purchase a new full Vista OS...I wont be dual-booting, so maybe I can avoid that.

carlangas: I'll try to find those SATA drivers on the site. Thanks. Unfortunately, there is no cd to speak of right now that has a Vista install on it. I do want to stay Vista...as even tho it may not run as fast, M$oft will eventually stop support on XP64 and drivers could get even harder to find in the future.

sasa: Only partly true. SP1 allows it to display the amount of RAM on the machine correctly...however, it still doesn't use the memory for anything. Maxes out at around 3.2-3.5 GB.

carlangas

Ryan,

The upgrade anytime cd only has 34 bit upgrades so its useless for that purpose. my pc didnt come with any backup cds either, you have to back up to a dvd using the Acer factory backup utility. on your desktop there was or should be some acer floating icons, one of them lets you back up your system to a dvd so you can restore your system even if you reformat the hard drive. or look that utility up in the programs folder.

__________________
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

RyanSpaulding

Nice! I never saw that one. I'll check it out.

How did you get the SATA drivers on your fresh install w/o a floppy? I also do not have a floppy.

carlangas

oh I did use a floppy, I had to install one of those too.

__________________
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

RyanSpaulding

SONOFA....

Well, unbeknownst to me, the motherboard Acer put in there only supports memory module sizes of 1024mb and less...maxing my system out at 4GB...thus, I dont even think it's worth it to go to 64-bit now...unless I want to get a new motherboard, OS, AND the RAM now...just stick with 32-bit and the 3GB switch for Vista.

Sucky.

RyanSpaulding

Ok, new question...how hard do you think it'll be to switch out a motherboard on this thing? I've never taken a pre-build comp with no driver cds...and placed a new motherboard in it.

I'm so out of the hardware department of computers nowadays...