So I am thinking about upgrading my vista 32 bit to Windows 7 64bit. I am using a:

Dell Inspiron 1545 Pentium Dual-Core 2.16 GHz
General Features:
Blue exterior color, glossy piano black interior
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium pre-installed w/CoA
Intel Pentium Dual-Core T3400 2.16 GHz CPU
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM
160 GB hard drive
DVD±RW drive
No floppy drive
Integrated Intel Cantiga (X4500) graphics
Integrated High-Defintion audio with built-in speakers
Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
Integrated 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
Built-in digital media card reader
Keyboard with TouchPad
15.6-inch High-Definition True Life LCD display (1366 x 768

I can go to Bestbuy and buy Windows 7 and have them do the install for me. But I have been reading that some people are runing Windows 7 without problems and others not able to run Serato at all. Why is this?

Should I see a difference using 64 bit vs 32 bit?

I read that 2.0 final will have the Windows 7 drivers. Is this something I should do. I can't buy a Mac yet but I will get one in about a yr from now. Till then, I want the most stable OS out their. Is upgrading a good idea? And please let me know about the 32/64 bit thing... as far as what one is better. And would you guys recommend making this change???

Thank you,

Jason

The issue I see with people running Windows 7 recently is more to do with the fact they are new machines with the new i series of Intel chips (i5 for example). Your DualCore should not be effected (make sure it's supported by Windows 7 however, I'm not 100% on that).

Currently running Vista 32bit you're most likely running into a couple issues.

1- That you're not using 100% of your available RAM for running applications (32bit Windows allows a maximum of 3Gb to be allocated for applications, not a big deal as Windows itself still uses the 4Gb, which it needs as it's a memory hog, but you'll definitely see an improvement with a 64bit OS and 4Gb of RAM).

2- Vista has a serious USB driver issue that causes dropouts when setting the USB latency in Serato to it's lowest setting.

Currently I'm trying out Windows 7 64bit on my machine (Inter C2D T7500 @ 2.2Ghz w/ 4Gb RAM & 200Gb 7200RPM HDD for reference) and everything works fine EXCEPT for the USB latency issue.

I've spent countless hours over the last year+ trying to resolve this USB latency issue with no success. The response from Serato is that there is nothing they can do as it's an issue with Microsoft's drivers. I haven't seen any indication that this has been resolved or not with the new Windows 7 drivers that are on the horizon so currently I am waiting patiently.

Thanks Anonymo, So you would say go for it?? I should see a nice improvemen? And... I won't see any improvement with dropouts? I have my buffer at 3 now and really only get dropouts within the first 5 min of using it. I would love to set it @ zero.... Also, when I bought this laptop it said max ram is 4gb. Is that because of the 32bit os that was installed or do you think it's the max for the motherboard?

I just want to make sure that when I do this it will be a clean install without all the bloated useless software and I'm able to install all the updated drivers.

Ah! Okay, yeah some manufacturers will put "Max RAM 4Gb" on the box as that is the max for the motherboard as you assumed, not not actually how much RAM you have.

Go to the Start menu and right click "Computer" and select "Properties"

That should show you how much RAM is installed although the problem is if you actually have 4GB it's still going to show only 3Gb.

Personally, I love Windows 7 over Vista or XP. The biggest decision for you I think would be is it worth dropping $150 on Windows 7 now or wait to upgrade your laptop.

Well I can buy it for $110. So thats not a big deal. Trying to talk my wife into dropping $1700 on a Mac is a different story. The only thing for me is doing a clean install. I have no clue what to do and Bestbuy wants $150 just to do the clean install. I just want the os and Serato and that's it. I only use this laptop for Serato. I dont know how to do a clean install and don't know how to get all the drivers. All I know is... I am known for running into EVERY problem possible... always!!! I just want to do it myself but I'm a little afraid to. I'm pretty good with computers though... just never did a clean install.

I put an extra 1gb in it my self. It had (1) 1gb and (1) 2gb. So I bought (1) 2gb and took out the (1) 1gb.= 4gb's now.

Well...as long as you're all backed up to an external HD the clean install is a breeze with Windows 7. I can't say for sure but I feel pretty good about 7 having all your drivers right off the bat. $150 is highway robbery from BB so I urge you not to encourage them into thinking they can charge that! Maybe check with Dell about it before spending the money.

This might help

www.microsoft.com

If I remember correctly Vista has a complete backup tool, which will save an image of you HD. Do that so if anything goes wrong you can just throw it back onto the HD and it will be like nothing ever happened.

On a side note, I did an upgrade to Windows 7 without any issues, even Serato 1.9.2 worked fine (though I reinstalled it anyways).

Anonymo, thanks for all your input... another question though... what serato files do I need to back up so once it is installed I can be right back to where I left off?

I also would like to see what others have to say about this... not that I don't trust what you have said, I am just always open to hear stories about what I'm about to do. My biggest fear is to go through all of this to find out Serato has more problems with Windows 7 then vista. Also, I did the vista tweeks that were on the tips page like getting rid of all the eye candy and optimised for audio stuff. I did everything It said. Right now my vista looks like windows 2000. Is it recommended to do the same with Windows 7?

I definitely agree, never do anything off the advice of only a few people. Also, hopefully a Serato representative can provide more insight into the driver/latency issue before you spend any money or time.

In "My Documents>My Music" there should be a file folder named "ScratchLive". As far as I remember that's all you need to backup, but as the entire Serato folder in "Program Files" isn't too large itself I recommend saving it somewhere as well.

Hey thanks for all your help. Really!!!!

I have been reading what alot of others on here have said about W7. Seems most people like Windows 7 better then Vista.... That says alot. Most of them said Windows 7 finds/has their drivers. so it's really easy to do a clean install. Thats music to my ears...lol

I am no computer guy at all. But i can tell you i have been using win7 64bit since November. I have had problems too.

I would suggest you hold on buyin the upgrade. Serato still hasnt developed any drivers for win7.. and they still wont support it either. So if you do have problems all you will be is another story in the forums of someone else that has problems.

I had to buy another pc and thats the only reason im using win7 for serato now.

Good luck!!

Can you tell me what problems you have had?

Hi there, iv got the same laptop but it came with win7 got it 2days ago, seems to work fine so far...

what you need todo is goto you laptop and look for the SERVICE TAG when you find that goto here -----> support.euro.dell.com then type your service tag in. it will give you all the most upto date drivers, software and bios for your laptop. if you click the drop down box for operating system look to see if it has win7. if it does then yes you can get win7 no problem and use them new win7 drivers.

if there isnt any drivers for 64bit you will have to just use the most upto date vista drivers and buy win7 32bit and just hope it all works.

just download all those driver,software and bios to a usb pen drive then install win7 clean install then after thats done just install all these. and job done.

hope that helps chap.

Thanks LJ,

I just talked to a friend of mine. I set him up with his laptop. He was unable to connect his sl1. I did the driver update thats in his Serato folder and he was up and running. So I called him today to see how it's been running. He had nothing to complain about... said everything works well. He has a dell as too. If I decide to do this I will wait to do it on a Sunday... so I have all week to test it out before the weekend.

He is using Windows 7

Can anyone else please give me you input on this? I know Serato does not support windows 7 yet. But... Everyone keeps saying that Vista is one of the worst OS in a wile...Vista has bugs... Vista is tike the beta for windows 7... So I'm stuck here with a crappy OS and I have the option to upgrade to a better OS. I would like to hear from the guys who have upgraded from Vista to Windows or anyone who is using W7 with or without problems.

And like I said I am really freaked to do this but I have been having some issues lately with vista... I crashed twice in a row last Sat for the first time in one year. And now I have been testing it all week It sometimes crashes at the startup when it's loading my crates. I'm starting to get a little nervous with Vista. I rebuilt my data base files, I have no corrupted files... I need to do something soon, cus last sat night was not fun and I never want that to happen again. This laptop is only for Serato... I don't go online with it and I have done all the tweeks to it. It work perfect for a year...