Can anyone tell me what the compatibility of drivers on 64bit vista are like on the Dell Inspiron 1525. Mine is just a year old now and I want to upgrade to 64bit vista. I wondered if there's known issues with drivers that I should be aware of before upgrading?
Tony PS: is the upgrade worth it? My machine has 3GB of RAM and runs a T5800 2.0GHz DuoCore Processor.
I use Visual Studio often and have loads of things open at the same time a lot. That's why I'm considering an upgrade.
You shouldn't have a problem running. I don't know about your laptop specifically, but looking at it's specs, nothing looks like it would be a problem. Part of the Microsoft's driver certification process (WHQL) for Vista and later requires 64 bit drivers, so most recent products by major manufacturers will have 64 bit drivers.
You won't see any performance increase though. If you had more than 3GB of RAM (approximately, it's more complex that that) then it would allow you to use all your RAM, but 32 bit Windows will handle 3 GB of RAM. So there isn't a compelling reason for you to upgrade, unless you will be adding RAM.
If you only have 4GB of memory, I personally would not upgrade to x64 as there will be very little benefit to you.
Also, after looking at the Dell support website, it seems as your computer only has support for Windows XP and Vista 32 bit.
You may be able to fish out x64 bit drivers from the manufacturer of each component, but personally, I wouldn't bother.
The Dell driver's download page for Inspiron 1525 is here.
Unfortunately, The list of supported operating systems does not include any 64-bits OS. It only includes Vista 32-bits and XP.
Therefore I would advice against installing any 64-bits OS on this laptop.
I have the Dell Inspiron 1420 Running Windows 7 64 bit. Windows 7 will have ALL the drivers nessisary to work PERFECTLY fine. Dell 1420 965 chipset i8ch memory controler. Plus Dell uses the SAME components for ALL their machines. so i search for and use another model with simular parts to use their 64 bit Drivers. if you do install a 64 bit system try with windows 7 64 which will have the best chance to install everything without needing to find the drivers
