Annoying - bought Win8.1 64-bit instead of 32-bit. Swap?

[theboss]

ZesPak said:

Watchman said:

Anyway, back to my OP.

I've approached Ebuyer to see if I can swap it but as I've opened it, I think I'll have trouble. It's annoying though because I'm a relatively educated user (work in IT although no longer a techie) then what hope do "normal" users have when they get the notifications from XP that it's no longer supported? I agree that it is potentially naughty of Ebuyer to sell OEM versions to the public - an argument I'll be leaning on over the next few days.

Hmmm, odd that that laptop can't swallow a x64 OS!

Maybe not the most helpful, but see if you can sell it on or use it elsewhere?

Win 8.1 is great btw, have Win 7 on my home computer and 8.1 on the laptop and don't really know which one I'd pick, both great OSses.

I thought all dual-core Intel CPUs were x86-64 compatible but it appears some of the early mobile Core family of CPUs of circa 2006-2008 were not. Seems odd but then 64-bit Windows was far from prevalent in those days. I'd bin it as well FWIW.

[Watchman]

theboss said:

I thought all dual-core Intel CPUs were x86-64 compatible but it appears some of the early mobile Core family of CPUs of circa 2006-2008 were not. Seems odd but then 64-bit Windows was far from prevalent in those days. I'd bin it as well FWIW.

Win 8.1, an SSD and some memory are considerably less than half the price of a new laptop, and it'll perform perfectly well enough.

[Sheepshanks]

Watchman said:

theboss said:

I thought all dual-core Intel CPUs were x86-64 compatible but it appears some of the early mobile Core family of CPUs of circa 2006-2008 were not. Seems odd but then 64-bit Windows was far from prevalent in those days. I'd bin it as well FWIW.

Win 8.1, an SSD and some memory are considerably less than half the price of a new laptop, and it'll perform perfectly well enough.

I think it's a bit bonkers to throw a couple of hundred quid at an old laptop - and I say that as someone typing this on a 7yr old ThinkPad. You can get new laptops for that much now and they'll perform perfectly adequately.

[ZesPak]

Sheepshanks said:

I think it's a bit bonkers to throw a couple of hundred quid at an old laptop - and I say that as someone typing this on a 7yr old ThinkPad. You can get new laptops for that much now and they'll perform perfectly adequately.

Not if it's an SSD:

1. put the SSD in, let it live it's life
2. if the laptop's truly done, get the SSD out
3. buy a new mid-spec laptop
4. slot in your "old" SSD
5. ...
6. PROFIT!

[Watchman]

Sheepshanks said:

I think it's a bit bonkers to throw a couple of hundred quid at an old laptop - and I say that as someone typing this on a 7yr old ThinkPad. You can get new laptops for that much now and they'll perform perfectly adequately.

I'll get better performance doing it this way, and considerably cheaper than a cheap laptop.

[Randomthoughts]

Got to love the plum further up this thread trying to have a dig, but ultimately failing miserably as I'm actually a supporter of 8.1 as an operating system. 7 feels really clumsy and restrictive now, but maybe that's just because I've given myself time to get used to it. I'm sure these haters had similar grumbles about Windows 95 when it came out (what, I have to shut this st down?!)

And for reference, I might be quite blunt about things but I also try to make a habit of not being wrong. Over 20 years of doing this st day in, day out across hundreds of thousands of end users serve me well.

Watchman said:

I'll get better performance doing it this way, and considerably cheaper than a cheap laptop.

Potentially, but if you're running an Intel 945GM chipset (early Core Duo) then you won't see any benefit from an SSD or additional memory in the hope of running a 64-bit OS. Most of that era of processor (all?) don't have the EM64T instruction set.

[MarkRSi]

skelters said:

Windows 8 is st! etc. etc.

Never had any problems myself. Just a bit different from Windows XP/7 really, quicker too. *shrug*

[buggalugs]

If the laptop works you'll get £100 quid for it on ebay, that plus what you would have spent on upgrades gets you a long way towards a new laptop - with a modern generation screen, fresh battery, hdmi port etc. An old machine with an SSD will boot up quick but might still struggle with things like full screen HD video, or complex web pages.

[Sheepshanks]

Watchman said:

Sheepshanks said:

I think it's a bit bonkers to throw a couple of hundred quid at an old laptop - and I say that as someone typing this on a 7yr old ThinkPad. You can get new laptops for that much now and they'll perform perfectly adequately.

I'll get better performance doing it this way, and considerably cheaper than a cheap laptop.

I'm using a Samsung 830 SSD in my old Thinkpad T61 running Windows 7. As redundancy, I've got an identical machine, but which still has a HDD. The SSD machine boots quicker, but once up and running there's not much in it. Obviously depends on the workload though.

[Watchman]

Look, I'm not about to post *my* CV up here but I *know* that for the money I've spent, it will be quicker than any other option.

Which isn't what I really want to talk about anyway...

... Ebuyer has declined my request to swap the software because I've opened it. It's in their Ts and Cs apparently. So I'm looking into a couple of alternatives which may involve calling MS at some point and moaning at them for having spent the money and got FA for it.

Edited by Watchman on Tuesday 19th August 08:33

[Mr E]

Apologies if this has been covered and I've missed it.

When I bought my last copy of windows, the license key was generic.
If windows 8.1 is the same, can you not just download the 32 bit version, dump it on a USB and install?

[Watchman]

Mr E said:

Apologies if this has been covered and I've missed it.

When I bought my last copy of windows, the license key was generic.
If windows 8.1 is the same, can you not just download the 32 bit version, dump it on a USB and install?

I believe I have a couple of options in regard of this now. I'll give it a go over the next few nights and report back.

Thanks.

[Sheepshanks]

Watchman said:

Look, I'm not about to post *my* CV up here but I *know* that for the money I've spent, it will be quicker than any other option.

Which isn't what I really want to talk about anyway...

... Ebuyer has declined my request to swap the software because I've opened it. It's in their Ts and Cs apparently. So I'm looking into a couple of alternatives which may involve calling MS at some point and moaning at them for having spent the money and got FA for it.

I'm amazed that you *know* so much yet can't sort something so simple. There's a really simple solution although it'll likely break the licence terms, although you!d have cheerfully done that anyway if the 64bit version had installed.

And MS are going to be thrilled when you call them and they type in the sku# and realise it's an OEM version.

[Watchman]

Do you just come here to criticise? So far you're less than helpful.

[Vaud]

Watchman said:

Do you just come here to criticise? So far you're less than helpful.

School holidays, at a guess. Shame as this is one of the more helpful forums.

[Sheepshanks]

Vaud said:

Shame as this is one of the more helpful forums.

I don't think there's a helpful post in the whole thread but the OP isn't helping himself by appearing to know better than anyone else. The original post probably breaks the posting rules on at least two counts.

An easy solution (one I've done several times) is to forget Windows 8 and buy the identical laptop off eBay with Win7 installed and validated. It should be possible to get one for less than the OEM Win8 cost and if you like you can chuck the laptop away and just use its HDD.

It might even be possible to get one with Win8 - I agree with the Win8 supporters, it's a good OS but it is very different and tough to pick up if you're only dipping into it now and again.

[Watchman]

Sheepshanks said:

I don't think there's a helpful post in the whole thread but the OP isn't helping himself by appearing to know better than anyone else. The original post probably breaks the posting rules on at least two counts.

An easy solution (one I've done several times) is to forget Windows 8 and buy the identical laptop off eBay with Win7 installed and validated. It should be possible to get one for less than the OEM Win8 cost and if you like you can chuck the laptop away and just use its HDD.

It might even be possible to get one with Win8 - I agree with the Win8 supporters, it's a good OS but it is very different and tough to pick up if you're only dipping into it now and again.

Because I don't want to change the laptop (your suggestion) I know better than *anyone* else?.. particularly as I've taken several other VERY helpful suggestions on-board and I'm actively running with them. Oh please.

Oh, and which posting rules are you concerned about?