Windows XP Pro 32 bit to Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit Upgrade

Thanks Ron. I just did what you recommended. Today was the last day for the $15 Off Promo Code for the Intel Core i5 that I ordered.

Motherboard (Ordered Today):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131993

CPU (Ordered Today):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116942

Memory (Ordered Two Days Ago):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231428

I also ordered a WD 1 TB Blue HD as a backup for one of my other PC's. Today was the last day of a $10 Off Promo Code. It never hurts to have more backup.

 

This is true, in the last few years the price of new computers has dropped dramatically (tablets and smart phones being so popular), as a result the price of second hand computers followed suit, and one can buy powerful machines (even notebooks) for amazing prices.

 

Oh come on, you really replaced the old trusty CRT for an LCD!!!
Hahahaha

 

PC #3 has been upgraded now. I installed the hardware yesterday, installed the OS and installed/configured most of the software. I used a 1+ year old Crucial 128 GB SSD drive as my Windows 7 System Partition drive.

Problems Encountered & Comments:

1. I almost missed checking a very critical item: The CPU fan (Intel Core i5). The CPU Heatsink/Fan assembly was properly installed on the CPU. However, I almost did not check to make sure that the Fan rotated freely. It turns out that the Foxconn factory had tightened the wiring too tight as it wraps around the top of the fan (3 retainer clips). The wiring was jammed against the fan blade. I had to take the wiring out of the last two retainer clips in order to be able to pull some slack where the wiring was jammed against the fan blade.

2. On first boot when I entered the BIOS, I saw that the BIOS version was the 1st release. I successfully flashed the BIOS to the latest version before doing anything more since several versions (since the 1st release) mentioned stability and compatibility fixes.

3. Backup Hard Drive Failure: A near 5 year old 'backup' hard drive failed during the upgrade. This really got me confused and caused significant delay.

4. I turned off UEFI boot in the BIOS. Turning of the UEFI boot makes it easier to make and restore backup Images of the Windows System Partition.

5. I installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit with NO System Reserved Partition. Everything is on C:

6. My TV Tuner card would not 'start' on one PCI slot, but it would 'start' after I moved it to another PCI slot it would 'start' (Windows 7 Device Manager).