Installing 32 bit OS on a 64 bit Comp?

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flboad

Limp Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
Messages
142
I just bought the M6811 laptop which is an A64. I want to take off XP home and put XP Pro on. Now my question is I know it needs drivers for the 64 bit processor but when do i install them and how. If i reformat and start installing Pro do i let it go all the way through and on first boot up install 64 bit drivers or do i specifiy them during install? I'm a bit confused on this and if anyone has any thoughts it would be appreicated
 
Dont have a AMD 64 but you should be able to install Win XP Pro and the processor will run at 32 bit. Once your in the OS, you can install the drivers. The AMD 64's can run at 32 or 64 bits. But I would recommend putting the 64 bit OS on you PC that microsoft has available to download. Your laptop will run much faster and better.
 
Speaking of which, how are the generic drivers doing on the 64bit? I noticed that tyan doesn't have 64bit drivers out yet.
 
haven't done much in terms of benchmarking. I was going to up grade to xp pro before i did any of that. but i guess i could try it out now before i do. I just got off a live chat with an emachine rep here was his reply to much question above

<quote> Contact Reason: I would like to install XP Pro but am wondering when to install the drivers for the 64 bit and how
MIRKO: Thank you for contacting eMachines Live Chat. My name is Mirko and my badge number is 67249. Please hold while I review your issue...
Keith: ok
MIRKO: You can upgrade your system up to XP pro, but we don’t support any consequences in the system. This system was design to run XP home; we not even have drivers XP pro for your devices. That’s why we don’t recommend update your operating system.
</quote>

Not much help they are
 
The guy that gave you that advice has got to be retarded. How in the hell people like that even get telephone support jobs is beyond me.

XP Pro is the exact same OS as is XP Home minus a few small applications (like backup). Any driver that runs on Home is going to run on Pro.
 
Yeah really, well i just finished the reformat from Home to Pro and it is absolutley fine. 64- bit Drivers working fine. Funny thing is it resolved all my Wirless issues. So that guy was pretty much a retard.

Oh and so_cal_forever how could you tell that job was outsourced ?!?!?! ;)

Even have the accent when they type to you.
 
Heh, what 64bit drivers. Unless you installed XP64 (which is beta) you're running 32bit drivers.
 
dargon said:
Heh, what 64bit drivers. Unless you installed XP64 (which is beta) you're running 32bit drivers.
Click to expand...


I used the ones that came loaded on XP home. There's a folder containing all the apps and drivers for the laptop in root. It said they were 64 bit. ?
 
flboad said:
I used the ones that came loaded on XP home. There's a folder containing all the apps and drivers for the laptop in root. It said they were 64 bit. ?
Click to expand...

If you installed a 32bit version of Windows XP, then it is unable to load or recognize 64bit drivers. By the same token, a 64bit version of Windows XP would be unable to load 32bit drivers. The drivers are bound to the type of OS and thus the type of hardware.

This is why people loading 64bit versions of windows often have driver issues right now, not all hardware vendors have 64bit drivers available for their hardware right now.

Anyway if the folder is labeled “64bit”, it was likely a naming convention that emachines has for managing the drivers that get copied to the different machines (or something of that nature). So while the drivers are 32bit, they go to the hardware that is inside your 64 bit system.

I guess the main take away here is that if you load a 32bit OS on an x64 system, it behaves as an x86 system in all respects, including what drivers it uses.
 
That's intersting and makes me question why i even bought an x64, other than price i can't see even haveing it. How long do you think till a majority of hardware vendors port their drivers to 64 bit. Also i just signed up for the WinXP beta 64-bit addition, which now i'm realising is going to more of a bitch than anything

edit- what about 32-bit programs? or does it back port or emulate 32-bit os to run them. and if it does what's the friggin point, won't it run just as slow?
 
XP64 has the WoW (Windows on Windows) emulator which allows it o run most 32bit apps. It may have issues installing certain items though that check for the correct version of windows and don't recognize xp64's response. XP64 is, according to microsoft, going to be released sometime next year. It's worth while having the CPU, it runs nicely and performs incredibly in games.
 
flboad said:
That's intersting and makes me question why i even bought an x64, other than price i can't see even haveing it. How long do you think till a majority of hardware vendors port their drivers to 64 bit. Also i just signed up for the WinXP beta 64-bit addition, which now i'm realising is going to more of a bitch than anything

edit- what about 32-bit programs? or does it back port or emulate 32-bit os to run them. and if it does what's the friggin point, won't it run just as slow?
Click to expand...

The only issues with installing the beta is that you might have to d\l network drivers from the vendor (or possibly some other components), and the video drivers aren't as fine tuned as the x86 versions. Thus I would dual boot if you plan on running games.

As more drivers are produced and make it through WHQL they'll be integrated into the builds.


As for 32bit apps, yes most 32bit apps will run on 64bit versions of Windows. The only ones that won't are those that install their own drivers (like Exchange) and some old software that use 16bit installers. Each app I've personally tried hns worked without issue.

[edit] about the performance:
For x64 versions of Windows, a 32 bit app should run about as fast as if it were running on a 32bit OS on that same hardware. So no worries for you.
For IA64 versions of Windows, a 32 bit app runs though emulation\translation so it will be slower.

So, for 64bit Windows, 32bit user apps should work, but drivers must be 64bit versions.
 
Well now i don't feel as shortchanged as i did before. I'm sure even after the 64 bit XP is released it's still going to be a mess even with all the drivers integreated. Hopefully the software vendors are getting a move on so it won't be a real long wait time for solid 64 bit programs and drivers.
 
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