Upgrade from Me to XP Pro?

[angler2229]

My son has a GateWay Solo 9500. He wants to upgrade to XP Pro. Is this a good idea? It runs ME, and I am going to guess it is two and a half years old. I have heard this may be too old for XP and all the drivers to run well.

He is wanting to run programs that will run on 98 and XP but refuse to run on ME.

Thanks, for your help.

Daniel

 

[Xaqte]

Gateway Solo 9500 laptop? I found a manufacturer link that relates this laptop with XP Pro. Here is the link:

http://support.gateway.com/support/manlib/Notebooks/Solo9500/8508147/8508147.htm

If I've found the wrong Type of PC, let me know. With this scenario, you should do a clean install & start fresh (no upgrade). Not to go into many details, but ME is pretty unreliable when it comes to upgrading to XP. Let me know what you decide!
Good Luck!
X

 

[Kiwica]

I just upgraded an HP Presario 6500 series, about the same age, 750 MHZ CPU, 320MB RAM, from ME to XP PRO... (for my boss's daughter)

it seemed to handle it ok, boots a little slower, but once its up and running seems to handle applications ok. Also running office xp on it and that seems to run fine as well.

Hope this helps....

btw... I didnt use an upgrade version, I did a new install

 

[Kiwica]

Sorry..my mistake it was a Pavilion, not a Presario...

 

[Xaqte]

I know this is not a easy decision to make. However, you need to really research this one for yourself before you do so. This is a great example:
Google search for: upgrade me "to xp"
Within the first few links, these were discovered.

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/xpupgdissues.html

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winme/1069185699

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sg_9xupgrade.asp

Quote from the third link:
I recommend going the clean install route.

I wish you the best of luck in this choice. With my own personal experience I advise not to upgrade. This is your son's computer, please choose wisely.

X

 

[tokenjo]

Yes, by all means UPGRADE to Win XP PRO OEM. It will save you about 100.00, from the full version, where all your receiving is a 100 dollar book, with the OS.

Go to a bookstore and buy a Windows XP Pro book for a fraction of the price.

Upgrade your system RAM before you install.

You can get the OEM at smaller computer stores locally.

 

[Kiwica]

General rule of thumb (depending on your thinking)is wherever possible do a clean install instead of an upgrade.

If you do an upgrade you are essentially creating a hybrid, and my personal experience is that most upgrades end up having issues somewhere down the road. I agree with Xaqte, do some research, you may find it more cost effective/less stressful to even consider a new comp with XP already installed......

Good luck.....

 

[angler2229]

Thanks to all who answered. I will pass along this info to my son. We already knew that a clean install was the way to go. We really questioned whether the move to XP Pro would be OK on this older machine.

Thanks again to all who responded.

Daniel

 

[bcastner]

You should be fine. Bump the RAM to 256 minimum.