32 bits vs 64 bits

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Rikkitic

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#190653 7-Jan-2016 20:03

Okay, here is one for the experts. I have come into some older computers and am trying to upgrade them for various purposes. The one in question is a Pressario, Geforce 6150SE chipset, Athlon 64 X2 5600+ CPU.

It has 2gb of temporary RAM for testing, to be increased later. I did a fresh install of 32 bit Win 7 on it and it works like a dream, fast, smooth, no issues.

RAM is limited to 4 gb with 32 bits and I started wondering what would happen if I went to 64 bits so I downloaded the ISO and installed that. The difference is dramatic, in the wrong way. Immediately the computer has slowed to a crawl and the hard drive, which is noisy, now sounds like a machine gun. Constant, endless, rapid-fire disk access and reaction time of minutes or more when executing any command.

Yes, it still has only 2gb of RAM but should the difference be that great? It really is like going from a modern machine to Windows 95. What kind of performance should I expect in a scenario like this? Surely not this bad? Even if I increase the RAM, will it make that much difference? I’m curious what others think.

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#1465367 7-Jan-2016 20:10

It shouldn't do that. There should be zero noticable difference.

yitz

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#1465368 7-Jan-2016 20:20

Have you loaded the correct drivers on the x64 installation?

What applications are you testing with?

A 64-bit operating system will consume more resources as it has to load both 32-bit and 64-bit libraries into memory. Performance will also depend on the applications you run. But in your case it's more likely an issue with device drivers.

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#1465370 7-Jan-2016 20:21

I would look at drivers first - chipset, video, SATA, etc.

Rikkitic

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#1465423 7-Jan-2016 21:05

Good suggestions about the drivers. I will look into it tomorrow. When I installed 32-bit Windows, I was impressed at how everything just worked. Not a single hiccup or question and when I checked Device Manager afterwards, everything was correct. I just assumed Windows 7 was a big improvement over everything that had gone before. However, Vista was already installed, even though it was a mess and I did a clean install. Maybe some things got passed on. 64-bit Win 7 was another clean install, but I haven't checked Device Manager because everything reacts so slowly. I will look tomorrow when I feel up to it.

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gzt

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#1465425 7-Jan-2016 21:06

While you have x64 try the free upgrade to W10.. W7 goes out of support soon so if it is a gift probly better with win10 if the machine is happy with w10.

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#1465426 7-Jan-2016 21:07

Windows 7 "mainstream support" already finished but the extended support (big problems, security) doesn't end until 2020.

Information here.

Rikkitic

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#1465437 7-Jan-2016 21:36

I have W10 on my laptop and 8.1 elsewhere. I think I will stick with Win 7 for now.

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#1465442 7-Jan-2016 21:43

Rikkitic: I downloaded the ISO and installed that.

Possible that you've downloaded a virus server setup?

gzt

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#1465455 7-Jan-2016 22:15

Microsoft provide win7 ISO download no need to get it anywhere else.

Rikkitic

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#1465761 8-Jan-2016 11:49

joker97:
Rikkitic: I downloaded the ISO and installed that.

Possible that you've downloaded a virus server setup?

That's an intriguing possibility. If it is a virus, it's not a very good one since it shouldn't be revealing itself in this way. Anyway, the machine is only on while I'm working on it and I am investigating all possibilities. It seems to have settled down somewhat but is still noticeably laggy compared to how it was before.

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#1465765 8-Jan-2016 11:51

downloading a random ISO means someone could have programmed your (whoever installs the "Windows") computer to send out spam, coordinating spam, coordinating (globally with other infected computers) other unprintable things that you really don't want to know, really, hence it is always active and doing something.

Rikkitic

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#1465767 8-Jan-2016 11:51

Forgot to mention that I have not found any driver issues. This whole thing is temporary in any case. I am bidding on some SSD drives and will install whatever OS I end up using on that. As things stand it will probably be the 32-bit version.

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khull

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#1465835 8-Jan-2016 12:43

I am not quite sure if going to 64 bits would automatically mean a faster system. Microsoft have for a long time also recommended people stick with 32 bit office for plugin compatibility. The reason for 64 bits would allow more memory addressing and Intended for certain applications (you'll know if you need a 64 bit system for VMs, libraries/assets and media editing)

Rikkitic

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#1465882 8-Jan-2016 13:24

Re above post, I am just experimenting and learning. I may well return to 32 bits and 4 gb RAM. For the rest, I cannot find any driver issues and I have now installed Netspeed monitor and Malwarebytes. I also checked my data usage with my isp. Nothing unusual there and Malwarebytes came up clean and Netspeed shows no unusual Internet activity. Task Manager also shows nothing odd. I still get a lot of drive activity for no real purpose and it completely stops everything else so if I click on something and the drive is busy, nothing happens until it finishes and that can mean a lag of many seconds before I get any response. Not being an expert, the best conclusion I can come to is that the drive is very slow (certainly possible) and the limited RAM is causing a lot of page swaps to the drive in 64-bit mode. I am using the computer right now, by the way. It seems to be working a lot better than yesterday, though still slow.

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gzt

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#1465898 8-Jan-2016 13:34

ISO download is available direct from Microsoft:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows7

No need to risk any other source.

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