Can I install 32-bit Windows7?

vince3

vince3

vince3

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My new PC has a
2.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon II X4 630
256 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Not hyper-threaded

I have retail Windows 7 and installed the 64-bit version. But I've run into compatibility problems with a scanner and a laser printer which the Windows Advisor didn't pick up.
I've spent almost a week trying to fix the problems without success and I'm not sure I'll notice much difference with the 32-bit version. I'm aware I won't get th full benefit of the 4GB.
So I've decided to switch to 32-bit Windows 7 as I have the disk.
Now I'm sure this is a really stupid question, but can I do this on the processor I have?

I'm OK with software but useless with hardware!

Help much appreciated

Thanks
 
yea that will work without any problems, well the 64bit compatibility problems will be gone

just check that the lazer printer and scanner have windows 7 32bit drivers as there would be no point switching to 32bit if there are no drivers anyway
 
groen said:
yea that will work without any problems, well the 64bit compatibility problems will be gone

just check that the lazer printer and scanner have windows 7 32bit drivers as there would be no point switching to 32bit if there are no drivers anyway
Click to expand...

I installed the 32-bit W7 on my old PC and the printer and scanner ore OK
 
A 64-bit CPU will run a 32-bit OS just fine.

Using a 32bit OS will mean you limit the amount of RAM you can access, but if this isn't an issue [you have less than 4GB] then go for it. You do have to ask yourself if you are likely to upgrade the scanner/printer any time soon? If so it may be worth sticking with 64bit.

As an aside, Windows 7 is wonderful with hardware. It only has a problem with older and/or crappy hardware whose vendors haven't written proper drivers yet. :)
 
SiriusB said:
A 64-bit CPU will run a 32-bit OS just fine.

As an aside, Windows 7 is wonderful with hardware. It only has a problem with older and/or crappy hardware whose vendors haven't written proper drivers yet. :)
Click to expand...

The main prob is an Epson scanner (old but not crappy!) which would cost almost as much as the PC to replace. It also does great OCR which I use, and I'd have to pay for add-on s/w to get that. There's no reason to replace the printer which is used for day to day text.

Thanks for the help. Now it's just back to repeating the backup and reinstall. But as I partitioned the disk as soon as W7 was running, my data should be OK. I know I'll have to reinstall my programs.
 
Meatball said:
What scanner and laser printer are you trying to use? :)
Click to expand...

It's an Epson Perfection Photo scanner and Epson have told me there are no plans for 64-bit drivers, so it's stuck with basic TWAIN. I've tried Vuescan and it's not really for me.

It's a Brother printer and I think there's a compatible driver in the MS 'Add printer' list, but the scanner's the decider.
 
Actually, when I bought the PC I could have had an OEM W7, but that would have meant committing to 32 or 64 bit. So I splurged the extra £30 for the retail package. Glad I did now!

Thank again for the replies. Guess I'll be out of touch for a day or so!
Good thing I hadn't registered the OS.
 
Last edited:
Is it an old Printer/Scanner? Personally I would show Epson the finger and invest in a company that supports their hardware with decent drivers. It's the expensive option I know but by using 32Bit you'll be limiting your system.
 
vince said:
It's an Epson Perfection Photo scanner and Epson have told me there are no plans for 64-bit drivers, so it's stuck with basic TWAIN. I've tried Vuescan and it's not really for me.

It's a Brother printer and I think there's a compatible driver in the MS 'Add printer' list, but the scanner's the decider.
Click to expand...

My son has an Epson Perfection 2480 Photo running with the Vista 32 bit drivers on Windows 7 x64. Again Epson insisted that the 2480 wouldn't work.

With a 1GB video card you will only be able to use 2.8-3GB of your 4GB RAM.
 
Ive spent a bit more time looking at compatibility and possible scanner replacement. On balance I'm going for the Windows 7 32-bit option. It seems the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor is a bit lacking! W7 didn't like my Nero 7 either -"Compatibility issues".
So I've just got one more question...
When W7 64-bit installed it created a recovery partition which is nowbetween my C: drive and the two new partitions I created using Disk manager.
Am I right in assuming that installing W7 32-bit (Custom option) will overwrite and rebuild the C: and recovery partitions and leave the new ones alone?
I can rebuild them if necessary - I hadn't done much anyway, but I'd appreciate reassurance that the new 32-bit W7 will be 'clean' and bits of the 64-bit won't be lying around.
Really appreciate the help here
 
You do realise that you have in fact got 5gb of ram with that gpu don't you? You're going to loose more than a bit of ram. I'd like to say you'll be limiting yourself in the long run but truthfully that will come much sooner rather than later.

Have you tried simply adding the printer rather than searching for drivers?
 
The printer isn't a big problem. It'll only cost about £50 to replace. It's the Epson scanner that's the difficulty. A comparable replacement is almost £400 and still wouldn't have automatic OCR. I'm going to have a good look around for an affordable alternative in due course. I tried Vuescan but it's massively complicated compared with Epsonscan.
 
How often do you use the scanner? If not very often then how about a dual boot between 32 and 64 bit or VM as Burnsy suggested?
 
I do a lot of 35mm slide scanning and the scanner has as 8-slide carrier. This only works with the correct Epsonscan s/w.
I then switch to Photoshop editor so typically I'll them running concurrently - possibly with Faststone too. even with my XP 1GB this works OK. So if I dual booted I'd have to install quite a lot in the 32 bit version, and as these are my most CPU intensive apps, the 64-bit version would probably end up doing email and a bit of word processing.
Hence my dilemma :(
 
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