HP Pavilion A1547C , can it run Win7?

Status
Not open for further replies.
You could install it but it's not worth buying it for that old of a computer. Looking online, it's a single-core and would struggle to do basic tasks. Sure, if you just listen to music or write documents on it, it could be ok but for anything online, especially videos, it will suffer. It'll even suffer with Windows XP. If you go with Windows 7, it will definitely need a memory upgrade which should be pretty cheap. Load it up with 4GB and you'll have a fighting chance at a decent computer.
 
don't bother if it's single core and/or over 5 yrs old. Chance are, the mobo and/or PSU will fail on you when you least expected, with all sorts of errors during loading/installation, and such.

A brand-spanking new, muliticore PC with 4GB RAM (for Win7, must be 3GB ram at least, 4 ideal), is around 300bux these days.

Q.
 
^^ Don't get a cheapie like that, chances are that it'll die before that old HP does. I've had quite a few people come to me with issues on their several month old $300 Staples/Walmart computers. Absolutely horrible. Bummer is, even if they do last, most of the time you can't upgrade them decently.

If you're going to jump into a new computer in a super tight budget, get an Android tablet, Samsung makes the Galaxy 4 Tab in 7 and 8 inch variants that are pretty affordable, under $200, good and reliable brand and will likely do everything a typical basic user would need.

Though, I do agree with Quest on the fact that the HP desktop COULD be on it's way out. Before bothering with it at all, open it up and check the capacitors on the motherboard. With that age, they're likely not "solid-state" capacitors and more prone to leaking/bulging. If they're at that stage, junk the whole thing. Not worth it.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: natenkiki2004
....solid-state" capacitors and more prone to leaking/bulging. If they're at that stage, junk the whole thing. Not worth it.


Unless they give you NipponChemi/Rubycon/Nichicon/Pana solid-state caps in the mobo to begin with, otherwise: don't buy into that so-called solid-capacitor fad/lie from china. Chance are: they will start popping like microwave popcorns in mere couple of thousands of hours...

Q.
 
I agree with others that I wouldn't buy a copy of Windows 7 to install on this computer, but if he's thinking of using a license of 7 that he already has, then there's little downside. How well it runs would depend on the hardware. I run Windows 7 on an HP laptop that's older than this Pavilion, and with less processor and less RAM than the Pavilion can hold, and it runs fine. An SSD really did help my laptop, and I run SQL server on it and run a few databases for work.

The Pavilion can take up to 4 GB of RAM, which is plenty for Windows 7, and the AMD 2.4 GHz processor should be plenty as well. If it's not junked up too bad, I'll bet this machine screams on XP.
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
Originally Posted By: natenkiki2004
....solid-state" capacitors and more prone to leaking/bulging. If they're at that stage, junk the whole thing. Not worth it.


Unless they give you NipponChemi/Rubycon/Nichicon/Pana solid-state caps in the mobo to begin with, otherwise: don't buy into that so-called solid-capacitor fad/lie from china. Chance are: they will start popping like microwave popcorns in mere couple of thousands of hours...

Q.


I agree. I've seen solid-state capacitors fail. My point was, if it ONLY has those, chances are it was made well after that whole Chinese knock-off capacitor plague. The older computers, especially HP, from the early to mid 2000's were horrible for that. Just about any one of them you can open up these days and find they're leaking out.

You CAN fix them but it's definitely not worth pulling the motherboard out, making a list, ordering capacitors, soldering them in and putting it back together for a mediocre computer that a $120 tablet would out-perform.
 
Originally Posted By: natenkiki2004

I agree. I've seen solid-state capacitors fail. My point was, if it ONLY has those, chances are it was made well after that whole Chinese knock-off capacitor plague. The older computers, especially HP, from the early to mid 2000's were horrible for that. Just about any one of them you can open up these days and find they're leaking out.

You CAN fix them but it's definitely not worth pulling the motherboard out, making a list, ordering capacitors, soldering them in and putting it back together for a mediocre computer that a $120 tablet would out-perform.


There are 2 views to this: (1) These are not knockoff capacitors but legitimate, but the formulation is in-question; (2) OE manufactuers of computer mobo resort to using these capacitors in large quantities (such as Foxconn --- Acer division, etc.) and are well aware of the potential shortfalls of these chinese-made capacitors; but resort to nickel and diming to death on their side.

Ever open up a high-end Dell rackmount server (assembled by Foxconn also)? They too, have Panasonic, Nichicon and/or Sanyo OSCon capacitors within, but proper operational margin to last considerably longer w/o catastrophic failures.

Lastly: I wouldn't commit to buying a cheep "hipstreet" tablet or whatever, for what you pay is really what you get, period.

Q.

I don't particularly like/enjoy replacing e-caps on multi-layered mobos, citing the additional tools required to do the work properly, with minimal damage. (so far I have damaged a couple of otherwise functional mobos because of the multilayered PCB heating challenges)
 
I saw him today and he just now told me that it was upgraded to Vista. I took a look inside and it still has 2 open slots for ram.
 
Windows 7 will probably run a heckuva lot better on it than Vista. The number of open slots doesn't say much, other than to know that there's room for more. Do you know how much RAM it currently has?
 
I was gonna suggest linux mint ldxe 32bit for that old machine. Its what I'm running on my single core AMD overclocked to 2.4g and 2g RAM. Works faster than XP ever did.
 
Originally Posted By: Hokiefyd
Windows 7 will probably run a heckuva lot better on it than Vista. The number of open slots doesn't say much, other than to know that there's room for more. Do you know how much RAM it currently has?
it can run 4 gb. I ended up cleaning it up, updating what I could and added 3gb total.Seems to run waaay better now.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top