Not everyone has easy access to Microsoft's official pages 🙂 You’re probably one of those students who can snag an account through school and download Windows whenever you want for free—I get it. As for torrenting, hey, you have every right to do that, as long as you aren't just grabbing any random file. You've got to stick to reliable uploaders who don't bundle a bunch of junk software into the installation, right?
Grab a Windows 8 ISO from a torrent site and run a repair—you could use Rufus to whip up a bootable USB drive, or just burn the ISO onto a blank DVD if you're feeling old school, then fire up the repair process.
I’d suggest letting the upgrade run its full course—otherwise, they might just end up making a mess of things and finding themselves completely stuck later on. When you're upgrading to Windows 10, the prompts clearly state that your files aren't going to be deleted, so once the Windows 10 installation wraps up, I’m pretty confident all their files will still be right where they left them.
Christian Miller48 said:Hey guys, I'm running into some trouble—I just finished reinstalling Windows 7 64, which is what I had before, but this time everything feels... off. Certain programs just refuse to launch? Like, the AMD driver utility won't start, and TeamSpeak was being stubborn too—I actually had to download the x32 version just to get it working. On top of that, I couldn't even get certain games to run until I tried reinstalling the exact same drivers three different times. I've been trying to update my system by installing SP1, but it's just not happening. I tried through Windows Update and got an error, then I grabbed the Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 installer directly from their site, but it just freezes halfway through. I even tried booting from the USB drive I used for the initial install to run an upgrade, but I kept getting a compatibility error that said:
You can’t upgrade 64-bit Windows to a 32-bit version of Windows. To upgrade, obtain a 64-bit version of the installation disc, or go online to see how to install Windows 7 and keep your files and settings.
It also showed something similar but reversed—saying I couldn't go from 32-bit to 64-bit, etc.
So, to reiterate: I definitely have the 64-bit version installed—I've double-checked multiple times—but some apps won't open at all, and my whole system keeps lagging or just slowing down significantly... any advice? If I don't get this sorted soon, I might just toss this computer out the window.
Yeah, you can't perform an upgrade between x32 and x64 versions—not one way or the other. You're going to have to format the drive and do a fresh installation. If I were you, I'd just find a Windows 7 Ultimate sp1 ISO that includes all the recent updates from this year. That way, once you install it, you won't waste forever fighting with Windows updates; you can just jump straight to your drivers and software. Honestly, if you still keep hitting errors after a clean install, you might want to look into whether there's an actual hardware issue with your PC.
What if you just tried running a Windows repair? If that doesn't do the trick, I'm thinking you might be looking at a full drive format and a fresh installation of Windows.
Go into your control panel and head over to the default programs section—once you're there, just look for Microsoft in the list and click "set this program as default."
When you're running Chrome and Excel at the same time, try opening up your Task Manager to see how much RAM is actually being used—it’s no secret that Google Chrome can be a bit of a resource hog. If you're sitting on just 2GB of RAM, I'd honestly suggest looking into an upgrade to at least 4GB. It makes such a difference, doesn't it?
That website is being a bit of a pain—I'm running Windows 10 with IE 11.306, but it just won't let me in. I keep getting the same error over and over. Even when I try opening it in Edge, it tells me I have to use IE instead. 🤔
EDIT: It works! Turns out you just have to clear out your history, the cache, and all that other junk. 🙂
Kenneth Green2 said:Would you say the Intel Core i3-6100 is a better choice than the Intel Core i5-4460? Both are brand new and come with a 3-year warranty
Well, the i3 is on a newer socket—meaning a more recent processor generation—but that i5 is technically "older." It really just depends on what you're planning to do with it. If you're looking to get into gaming, you're going to want as many cores as possible, and in that case, the Intel Core i5-4460 takes the win.
That sounds like a solid plan. If I were you, I’d definitely look into grabbing one with a passive heatsink—it'll keep your rig much quieter since you won't have to deal with a spinning fan 🙂 .
If you really want to be 110% sure that the graphics card is the culprit—assuming you can—try popping that AMD Radeon HD 6850 into another PC. If the exact same issue pops up there, then you’ve got your answer. By the way, have you tried doing a clean reinstall of the drivers yet?
You should probably grab CrystalDiskInfo to check on how that hard drive is holding up—it’s pretty straightforward once you get it running. Once it's installed, it’ll give you a color-coded status—blue, yellow, or red—to show you if things are looking good or if you're heading for trouble. Let me know what it says when you get a chance, okay?
Wait, what do you mean it isn't Taylor Swift? Maybe try adjusting your software settings to see if that fixes the display—or maybe I'm just totally tripping here..
What kind of power supply are we talking about here? Honestly, your best bet would be checking Craigslist—you can find some really solid graphics cards there for $233—but just make sure you mention your location so people know if a local pickup makes sense.
mellowfalcon3 said:Man, I don't know... I'm planning to sell off a few things to save up some cash. The card I'm looking at is an NVIDIA GeForce GTX series... It's used, so it isn't too pricey, and I can't even find a new one in stock locally right now.
I'm not quite sure why you're focusing strictly on that one specific card, though? You could honestly plug in just about any other card—as long as it fits the PCIe slot, your heart can be your guide. Honestly, don't even bother looking for a new one in a retail store; that particular model is pretty old by now, so it's no surprise stores aren't stocking it anymore. Why don't you list out your full system specs? If you aren't sure what you have, just download Speccy https://www.piriform.com/speccy. Once you install it, just copy over your hardware details. You might even have integrated graphics you can use to get by until you've saved enough for a dedicated upgrade.
Saving up for a new GPU—I honestly don't know what else you want someone to tell you at this point. 🙂 Unfortunately, it isn't some software glitch or driver issue; it’s just a straight-up hardware failure.