WinXP vs. Win 7 issue

[pikavaai]

Hi,

so a bit of strange error.

When I start up my pc with Win7 it takes long (5-6 min), but eventually loads everything, the pci-e graphics card is seen, and the network connects and browses internet (Firefox) and everything is good. ( The long startup time seems so since the machine is too old for win7.)

Now, when i swap the HDD with a WinXP installation, it starts up much quicker, but i cannot seem to detect the graphics card, and i get the 'this page cannot be displayed' error in windows explorer. I can see the initial google search results, but links dont open. Also, i can share files on my home network to my laptop, no issue there.

I have flushed dns, installed network protocols, changed tls settings, nothing so far helped.

I also installed the graphics card software from a usb stick, nothing happens, it's like the card is not there. (The current driver is that VGA basic, default, but no description in the properties block)


I have not checked services.msc or messed around with the registery, nothing overclocked or modded.

This PC always worked as I had it for many years, just recently need a pc for old games and movies.

Thanks a million!

Let me know if you would need other settings, specs.

Specs:

Win XP SP2
Biostar P43-A7 ver 6.0
CPU Intel 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo
2x 2GB DDR2 800 DIMS Transcend
HDD 500 GB, Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA cable
Graphics GV- N710 D3
BIOS IP43A- A7S (non original bios,i flashed this long ago)

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Windows XP connected to the internet? hold my beer Cleetus..... this is going to be a wild ride

 

[auntjemima]

Hi,

so a bit of strange error.

When I start up my pc with Win7 it takes long (5-6 min), but eventually loads everything, the pci-e graphics card is seen, and the network connects and browses internet (Firefox) and everything is good. ( The long startup time seems so since the machine is too old for win7.)

Now, when i swap the HDD with a WinXP installation, it starts up much quicker, but i cannot seem to detect the graphics card, and i get the 'this page cannot be displayed' error in windows explorer. I can see the initial google search results, but links dont open. Also, i can share files on my home network to my laptop, no issue there.

I have flushed dns, installed network protocols, changed tls settings, nothing so far helped.

I also installed the graphics card software from a usb stick, nothing happens, it's like the card is not there. (The current driver is that VGA basic, default, but no description in the properties block)


I have not checked services.msc or messed around with the registery, nothing overclocked or modded.

This PC always worked as I had it for many years, just recently need a pc for old games and movies.

Thanks a million!

Let me know if you would need other settings, specs.

Specs:

Win XP SP2
Biostar P43-A7 ver 6.0
CPU Intel 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo
2x 2GB DDR2 800 DIMS Transcend
HDD 500 GB, Seagate Barracuda 7200 SATA cable
Graphics GV- N710 D3
BIOS IP43A- A7S (non original bios,i flashed this long ago)

I would hazard a guess that most pages are not using the same standard as they once did for that version of IE.

You could download an XP version of chrome elsewhere and try and installing that OR if you can copy files across the network, download XP drivers for the video card on another PC and copy it over and install.

 

[GotNoRice]

When I start up my pc with Win7 it takes long (5-6 min), but eventually loads everything, the pci-e graphics card is seen, and the network connects and browses internet (Firefox) and everything is good. ( The long startup time seems so since the machine is too old for win7.)

I've installed Windows 11 on computers with specs older than what you listed, and it was usable. The only reason that a Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM would take 5-6 minutes to load Windows 7 is because of the really really slow mechanical hard drive; a Seagate even. I wouldn't be surprised if the drive is full of bad sectors at this point. The Seagate drives from that era are not exactly known for their longevity, and are a big part of what gave them their bad reputation which still persists (although their newer drives are somewhat better).

Toss the Seagate in the trash where it belongs, and put an SSD in there instead. You can get a 256GB Samsung SATA SSD for $15-20 on eBay, or a 512GB for $25-30. There is no reason to be running a mechanical drive as a boot drive anymore in any system that you will actually use, even an old system.

Now, when i swap the HDD with a WinXP installation, it starts up much quicker, but i cannot seem to detect the graphics card, and i get the 'this page cannot be displayed' error in windows explorer. I can see the initial google search results, but links dont open.

The version of Internet Explorer on Windows XP is too old to really browse the web anymore. Few pages are still compatible. I believe the version that comes with it is IE6, with IE8 being the newest that it supports. Both are too old. Firefox has an ESR version that still works pretty well (version 52 I believe), even though it's also showing it's age at this point.

just recently need a pc for old games and movies.

I wouldn't even bother with trying to put an old version of Windows on there. There aren't any old games that require Windows 7. Windows has been a constant evolution from Vista to 11, so everything on the software side is pretty much still compatible. So just put 10 or 11 on there. It would be very rare to find a game that didn't work. Even XP era games should work in the vast majority of cases except for things like hardware EAX. If you are talking about 16-bit Windows 9x or DOS era games, those can be run in a VM at this point.

Movies should be fine. A Core 2 Duo is a bit slow for software decoding but even old cards will be able to do H.264/AVC in hardware. H.265/HEVC would not run well unless you have a fairly new card that can do that in hardware also. In both cases, the movies wouldn't run any worse on Windows 10 or 11 than they would on 7 or XP. I don't believe that those older operating systems even support the latest version of VLC anymore.

 

[pikavaai]

Thanks GotNoRice, very applicable to my feelings on the setup. The HDD passes all chkdsk and scans, no bad sectors, i have also partitioned it to 350 gb to install, but same things happened. (Although win7 on that drive runs a charm, but it's my laptop's copy, so not legal.)

I installed winxp on a second hdd, Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8, 40GB, runs fine, but again no internet,no graphics on pci-e slot is detected.

Then i tried to install the extended support release Firefox last night, it gives some error.

Gaming wise, it's all early-mid 2000 games, that work on my laptop (win7) but had to replace the keyboard; - non gaming laptop

The reason for movies on this machine is purely for security, i won't do any banking, insta, email things, there is also no webcam, so i won't care if there is trojan,keyligger virus really. (happened on my laptop and my credit card was used)

I will leave it there and focus on getting a later windows version.

Thanks for the useful information! very much appreciated!