Installing Windows 10 on a old pc

ILoveZed · January 4, 2019

Hi, my parents have a old computer that is really slow. They dont use it this much, because of that. Every time my dad tries doing something on it he gets really frustrated. So I decided to buy a SSD and try speed the computer a bit. The sa6d got delivered, I backed up all the files in the system memory that my parents had and started installing windows. It took like 40 minutes for it to finish and after that it was time for the setup. It asked me for region, keyboard language ect. Also, the router is in my room, because I needed cabled internet. The providers told us that we cant have more than 3 devices per network. And I had a external WIFI antenna which we hook up to the old pc, so they have internet. During the setup the antenna didnt work, because of the missing drivers. So I cant get internet connection on it. I tried to skip everything and then I will deal with Microsoft account and all of that stuff. What I didnt mention is that the time between every step is reaaaaallly big. I had to wait 10 minutes and watch a circle spinning between every step. Anyway, somehow I got to the end and right before the end, when the circle was spinning an error appeared. I don't remember what it was for, but I can remember it said something for keyboard. There was a retry button, but no matter how much times I will retry I will always get to the same end. I tried reinstalling windows many times too and its always the same. I tried searching for this bug, but I dont think any of the solutions I found were going to work. Can someone give me advice about what to do?

samcool55 · January 4, 2019

What exactly is old? Do you maybe have specs of it?

It's possible it's just so old there is no point in even trying windows 10, i have a few systems that are either stuck with XP (they are offline, don't worry no need to get your pitchforks out) or they run Linux mint so they can still be used as normal.

Gung Pow Chicken · January 4, 2019

This can definitely be done but I wouldn't recommend on any system with less than 4gb ram and a dual core. The SSD will definitely help with performance so long as you at least have those minimum specs.

One of my Media PC's has a Core 2 Duo, and 4gb DDR2 RAM, also with an 860Evo SSD. I get decent performance and that's outputting to a 1080p TV in my guest bedroom.

Once 10 is installed why not just download the drivers on a different PC? If the manufacturer doesn't support it, maybe see if the WUS can get generic drivers for you by plugging it into a W10 PC with internet, if it can get the drivers and have the device operation just take the drivers folder location and copy it to the other PC. You can find the driver files through File Manager (C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore) just to be sure you could always copy these 2 locations (C:\Windows\System32\drivers) (C:\Windows\System32\DriverState) but typically they will be located in the DriverStore location. You can just place all of these folders on a flash drive and plug the flash drive into the old PC. Plug the WiFi card in, and proceed to Device Manager, from there just find the wireless card. Right click and select Update Driver, then click browse my computer for driver software, just be sure to select the USB as the location. From there it will search all of the files contained in the USB and install any relevant drivers.