I have an HP nc6320 notebook with the following graphics driver: Intel 945GM Video Driver for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP.
I ran the Windows 7 Advisor application and was told my graphics adapter will not support the Aero feature in Windows 7. From what I've read, many of the Windows 7 features require Aero.
Is there a way to configure/upgrade my graphics adapter to support the Aero feature?
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>> I ran the Windows 7 Advisor application and was told my graphics adapter will not support the Aero feature in Windows 7.
That tells you all, you can only replace video card and this is NOT easy with your laptop. This may not please you but you probably have to live with this, saving money for next machine.
This is not exactly germane to your specific situation, but I was able to run all the features of Windows 7 including the Aero effects on an nc8000 laptop as well as Windows Media Center. This has the ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB video card and it also can use shared memory. The PC also has a 1.6/400/1MB cache P4 centrino processor and 2GB of RAM.
The Windows upgrade advisor said that laptop could run all the features of Windows 7, which shocked me, since it is an older model than yours. After some experimenting with a few drivers, it works great! Since we have 30 days to activate the W7 key, I figured I'd run this thing thru all the paces before I activated it. If it didn't work, then I could uninstall it from this PC and install it on a Windows 7 capable PC without going thru the hassles of contacting Microsoft and having to activate over the phone after explaining that I had it on another PC and took it off.
The nc6000 would probably run it too since it has either a ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 64MB or 32 MB video card. Now, I can vouch for the 64MB card but I can't for the 32MB card.
I posted the same question regarding an nc6400 (a fairly modern computer) with the Intel GMA 950 onboard graphics which uses shared memory. When I read the details of the graphics adapter on Intel's website, it appears to meet the minumum qualifications for running Windows Aero. If you look at your adapter's specs on the website it also appears to meet the minimum specs. Even the GMA 900 appears to. The windows 7 upgrade advisor also reported it could not run the aero interface. I was equally shocked by that. I don't get it unless it has to do the shared memory.
My nc8000 doesn't have 128 mb of dedicated graphics memory, only 64mb and I am very surpised how well it runs! When W7 first loaded it installed a standard vga adapter which did not let me use Aero or graphics acceleration. However, I went to the ATI website and downloaded the 32 bit Windows 7 Radeon (not Mobility Radeon, as there aren't any drivers for it) 9600 WDM Integrated (not the ATI catalist driver) graphics driver just for kicks and it worked! Every device works just fine on that old laptop except the SD card reader. I installed the XP drivers for it to make the unknown hardware go away but it won't read a SD card. No big deal. If i need to I would just plug my digital camera into it via the USB port.
So as far as the nc6320, if it won't run Aero, it has to be due to having a video card with no onboard memory.
Indeed sometimes the XP-drivers work better than what comes with Win7. So f.e. with my good old d530 USDT desktop: It was unable to use the "Stand-by" mode. After checking with POWERCFG it turned out that the video driver would not support stand-by. So I checked on Intel's download-site and downloaded the latest XP-drivers. Installed that and now stand-by works fine ;-) ;-)
Sometimes one has to face a number of challenges ;-) ;-)
Still I'm pretty sure that the model in question in this thread will not be able to run Aero.
Yes I had the same issue, Rainald. In XP the laptop would go into standby mode. In W7, the sleep option was grayed out. I installed the latest Intel chipset driver for XP for the nc8000 chipset and voila the sleep option worked! What good is a laptop that can't go into standy mode?
Brian: if you have access to a Windows 7 Release candidate, disk you can load that and see what happens. That is of course, if you can spare your nc6320 for experimentation.
I think one has to be creative when installing Windows 7 on a legacy computer. I have a d530 CMT that I put a 128MB XFX Nvidea 6200 AGP graphics card in and Windows 7 worked perfectly right from the get-go. Just did an auto update for the sound card.
Personally, I would have uninstalled W7 from my nc8000 if it couldn't run the aero graphics features. It just would be no fun. The graphics acceleration doesn't work, I don't think windows media center works right if at all, the games don't play right. Nope, I wouldn't do it if it couldn't run the aero.
XP is fine. Your pc has much more horsepower than my nc8000, and I can tell you this old box runs great with Windows 7 on it. If yours could run the aero effects with the faster processor and 3GB of RAM, it would be nice!
Upgrade advisor says no. I wish I had an nc 6320 laying around to experiment with! I downloaded the release candidate disk and experimented before I bought my 3 copies of W7 at the reduced price.
According to Intel, the 945 Express chipsets support Aero and here is the link to the Windows 7 Home Premium 32 Bit Driver for this chipset/graphics adapter.
I would still try and test the W7 release candidate before I went out and bought a retail version of W7. But it sure looks to me that your laptop can run all the features of Windows 7.
Paul, thanks for the great info. This is my work laptop and we have access to Windows 7 via the MS partner program. I may give it a shot. Worst case I can go back to XP!
You're welcome, Brian. If you are able to experiment with your work laptop, please post your results. I would be personally interested becasue I would like to get an nc6400 used in the near future and some of them have the same chipset and GMA 950 graphics. Some have an ATI graphics card which would definitely run Aero, but the comparatively equipped notebooks with the GMA 950 graphics are less expensive.
My work laptop is an nc6400 (has the onboard Intel GMA 950 graphics) and the W7 upgrade advisor says it won't run aero and it is also my work laptop, which I like very much--why I want to get one of my own. However, I won't be able to trifle with it.
Just wanted to let you know that I successfully installed Windows 7 on my nc6320. The installation went great and I'm pleased to report that the Aero feature works well. Windows automatically updated my graphics driver so I can use all the Aero functionality.
I really like Windows 7 and decided to install it on my Dell laptop at home. Again, the Windows Advisor said the Aero feature won't work; however, after completing the install the Aero feature works perfect.
Thanks for letting us know of your successful results. I was pretty sure you would be able to.
Microsoft should update their Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor accordingly. They may lose sales by excluding a bunch of PC's that can run the aero feature but report as cannot. I wouldn't upgrade unless I could run all the features of the new OS.
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