lemans81

I am 85% sure I can't, here is the situation, I have a few discs of vista ultimate 64 sitting around doing nothing. So it might be fun to try out 64 bit on my laptop. Its specs:

1.8ghz C2D 800mhz fsb
2gb 667 ddr2
160gb hdd
8600M GT
17 in screen

I know it has XP drivers and vista 32 bit drivers available, but on the official site no 64 bit, nor is 64 bit an option on the laptop. My question is for the chipset and basic drivers could I use 32 bit, and then on certain programs that do run 64 bit use the 64 bit for them? I don't know if my os is 64 bit can I use 32 bit drivers for the chipset/audio/lan....?

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SZayat

64-bit drivers is a MUST for x64. What model is your laptop? and what chipset is it?

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ENTERPRISE

You have to run 64bit drivers in an X65 os.

Also you can get the X64 drivers from the part manufacturers website .

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Manyak

Most likely Vista will already have some included drivers that will work with your laptop's chipset and what not. You'll probably only have to download the drivers for the 8600M, which is easy.

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pioneerisloud

I'd have to agree. Vista 64 is really quite good at automatically finding stuff such as chipset and other motherboard related stuff. I'd bet that 64bit Vista would work just fine. And in my experience (others will vary of course), I think Vista 64bit is less buggy than the 32bit version. Just my $0.02 though. I say go for it. Worst case scenario is that it won't work, so you'll just have to reinstall the old OS back.

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lemans81

Its a Dell Vostro 1700, there are vista ultimate 32bit drivers on dells site but no 64bit.

Pioneer you have a good point, I could give it a shot, I just hate to waste a lot of time if someone else has tried it. I have so little time I love to hear someone else was first and it worked or failed miserably.

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ENTERPRISE

To be honest Vista has the largest database of inbuilt drivers and I would be very surprised if there is anything it wont support on that lappy. Everything will be up and running. The only driver you may want to update is your graphics driver.

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