Windows 10: Upgrading an extremely old laptop (Samsung X10) from XP to win10

Hi there

I still use XP a lot - some legacy hardware I have will only run on XP -- I still cut some VINYL stuff and my studio cutting hardware will only work on XP -- to get new hardware would cost me thousands of USD's -- (approx. 12,000 USD) when my original stuff works just fine and loads of life left in it.

The main problem though with XP is that any sort of Internet access will be fraught with disaster -- IE for example is much too old to work with a lot of websites and security is about ZERO.

Running XP as a VM though works fine -- and you might find that for Internet access even a 32 bit version of W7 might work decently on the older hardware. W7 has End of Life around 2020 and loads of corporations are still using it (It's actually become the "New XP" !!!) so you are more likely to find compatible drivers etc than with W8 or W8.1 - neither of which penetrated the business market to any significant degree and even Ms admits that these OS'es were a bit of a mistake.

Otherwise running versions of Linux (Mint / Ubuntu probably good for beginners) will be fine -and you can easily run Windows VM's on Linux using VBOX or VMWARE Player --both free and easy to install on Linux even for complete noobies.

@sn00ker

If your userid is anything like the incredibly fascinating game that's taking place in England (Sheffied Cruciable Threatre) at the moment -- great stuff -- god knows how many hours I've wasted over the last few days watching the World championship Snooker on various BBC / Eurosport / Albanian / Qatari Live TV Sport streams (Thanks Kodi box !!!) -- incredibly addictive !!!!! --Maybe I'll even get to like Cricket !!!!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

Hey Jimbo .... In my younger years I played the game for a living but stop once my eyes kinda went from age. I'm more of a player than a watcher when it comes to sports... Your username is familiar, might you have the same user name in a lightning rod site ?

 

@sn00ker

*chuckle*chuckle

My Dad always said "If you were good at that game --sure sign of a Mis-spent Youth" -- looking at what some of the pros are now earning it's one of the few times he's been WRONG !!!! (also supporting Liverpool !!!!! -- 99% here support Manchester Utd - even though probably only around 2% have ever trudged through its Wet rainy streets and certainly never been to Old Trafford -- a really great Stadium though whoever you support)

Snooker World championship final Sheffield GB 2017. Easy to get BBC feed through any one of a zillion VPN feeds / foreign journalist sites.





Cheers
jimbo

 

Yes the intention is that once the install is successful, I'll purchase additional license for this laptop such that at least, it'll be used with full support and proper licensing.

 

I made sure I was looking at the 32bit installer... Tx for the reminder though.

 

Ok Gents, armed w/ an win10 install USB created as per this link AND an win7 clean-install DVD, I tried my luck again this past weekend:

1st off, this machine is SO old that it doesn't even seem to support booting from USB as i can't seem to locate the USB boot option with the BIOS. The best I can manage is selecting 'removable devices' as the 1st in the boot sequence, ahead of CD rom and internal HDD. Needless to say, it doesn't see the USB at all and went to CD/DVD drive.

Subsequently I tried my luck in terms of booting straight from the win7 install DVD. This time I ran into BSOD, complaining that the BIOS in my x10 is NOT fully ACPI compliant! I'm trying to research into this error but not looking good at the moment! :-(

 

Hi there

sometimes old hardware is just SO OLD that unless you have the time and inclination to get it running it really becomes time to say "Goodbye" and junk it - especially if you intend to give it away to people without good computer knowledge who will really have serious problems with it.

These days often people are tossing out much newer machines -- a trip down to your local tip (re-cycling centre I think they are called in some places) might pay dividends for redundant machines or you perhaps could simply ask any local businesses in your area if they have any old machines they would be willing to give to a charity.

I think that is by far the best route -- otherwise if you insist then a linux distro like Mint will be the best bet as it will probably run straight out of the box and can be set up with a GUI very similar to Windows.

XP while good for some things is not much good now for SAFE Internet access - and IE8 which I believe is the latest browser that is supported on XP won't even work on a load of websites. I'm not sure about Chrome or Firefox - those *might* still work but security will be almost non existent on the XP machine.

A 32 bit version of W7 should in theory run on it if you still insist on "having a go". You'll have to boot from a DVD ISO and probably disable ACPI in BIOS -- I think there should be a BIOS setting for that.

W7 and W10 also have I think "Hardware compatibility tests" so you can run these to see if the machine is upgradeable -- a negative result doesn't always mean it's impossible - but it will involve a lot of work - probably IMO not worth it.

W7 has support until 2020 so if you can get that to work - a far better idea.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...m-requirements

Is Your PC Ready for Windows 7? This Tool Lets You Know | PCWorld

There are similar for W10 -- but if it won't pass W7 tests then my advice is not even to THINK about installing W10.

Cheers
jimbo

 

Often the USB is seen as a Hard Disk - it needs to be moved to the first boot above the HDD.

But:

Even if the machine does not support booting from USB, a bootmanager such as Plop boot manager (also available from the EasyBCD program - add new entry, portable/external, BIOS Extender) can give you a boot entry that does!

 

Well, I managed to figure out the BSOD, by turning off the Speed Step in the BIOS and got win7 to install without a glitch. When I tried to go further by upgrading to win10, I got stopped out cold by the install program stating that my CPU does not support PAE/NX. Upon further checking, it does seem that my CPU is a bit too old for the PAE/NX BUT somehow it does support SSE2. In any case, I think win7 is good enough for the purposes now I just need to figure out whereI can get the win7 driver as even the ethernet driver is missing!

 

Bios update 09YE (VRAM 64mb)

http://downloadcenter.samsung.com/co...08265_09YE.EXE

Bios update 08EE
Íóæí ïðîøèâê BIOS äëÿ notebook Samsung X10

http://monitor.net.ru/forum/files/micom_ver_08ee__vram_is_32mb__945.rar

 

One quick question: Do I have to do anything special to make the USB bootable? I did the media creation on a normal USB then tried to boot off it but no luck... Not sure if I have to do it the old fashion way, like formatting the USB prior and specifying it being bootable...

 

No. If you used the Media Creation Tool to make USB install media it will make a bootable USB.

You may need to change the boot priority in your Samsung X10's bios in order to boot from a USB.
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/65...s.html?page=88

 

You're right. I managed to find the USB disc within the HDD and changed the boot sequence such that it's booting form the USB PRIOR to HDD. Tx for the tips.

 

Just a quick update FWIW: I managed to identify the wifi adaptor: Intel PRO/Wireless LAN 2100 3B PCI and found the driver directly from intel:

Downloads for Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 Network Connection

Once I got the wifi working, I was able to get online, update of windows 7 eventually got drivers updated for the remaining devices so all good now. Thanks to all for your kind suggestions & pointers.

 

Sometimes too old is just too old!