Acer Aspire 5810T laptop. Upgrade to Windows10 or stay with Windows7?

Neil49

My wife has an old Acer Aspire One which has an Intel Atom N270 single core processor. Despite the very poor specification it is running the very latest version of Windows 10 (20 H2) without any problems. Yes, it's not fast but it does everything she wants and she has refused offers of a better model.

As I mentioned above, if you can get Windows 10 free of charge then stick in the spare ssd and give it a go. If it doesn't work then just put the old drive back. 

getmore4less

I remember I got my HP mini netbook up and running on 10 (32bit) a few years back.
When update was not crippling it was usable then for single tab browsing
just fired it up been sitting there for months quite sluggish high CPU and lots of disk so it must be up to something.
 looks like defender

still loads MSE but very slow.
N455 1.66GHz
2GB
60GB HDD

will let it sit and see how it is later

Belenus

Thanks everyone.

I put my spare 250gb SSD in it, installed Windows7, upgraded to Windows10 (free of charge) and so far it is working ok. It isn't as fast as my own powerful laptop but it is fine and is a lot better than the old laptop my relative has.

I think I will buy 2 x 4gb memory and put that in. I should be able to get that for under £20 and I don't mind spending that as I am close to the relative and I owe him a favour for stuff he has done for us.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and comments.

HereToday

Belenus said:

Thanks everyone.

I put my spare 250gb SSD in it, installed Windows7, upgraded to Windows10 (free of charge) and so far it is working ok. It isn't as fast as my own powerful laptop but it is fine and is a lot better than the old laptop my relative has.

I think I will buy 2 x 4gb memory and put that in. I should be able to get that for under £20 and I don't mind spending that as I am close to the relative and I owe him a favour for stuff he has done for us.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and comments.

There was no need to install Windows 7 in the first instance. Just use Genuine Ticket method to install Windows 10 cleanly.
Of course now too late. But you should do it anyway; installing cleanly and making sure you chose the right privacy options during install. To include a local account as opposed to Microsoft account for logon and perhaps removing some unnecessary bloat in order to assist the CPU.

HereToday

getmore4less said:

I remember I got my HP mini netbook up and running on 10 (32bit) a few years back.
When update was not crippling it was usable then for single tab browsing
just fired it up been sitting there for months quite sluggish high CPU and lots of disk so it must be up to something.
 looks like defender

still loads MSE but very slow.
N455 1.66GHz
2GB
60GB HDD

will let it sit and see how it is later

Forget about it.

Fit an SSD to it or stop wasting your time with it. An SSD will make it actually usable for general browsing, low resolution YouTube and for playing music.
10 minute job.


Mini 110

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceHLXAm6N1M

Mini 210

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6edTs-vQ6Q

getmore4less

HereToday said:

getmore4less said:

I remember I got my HP mini netbook up and running on 10 (32bit) a few years back.
When update was not crippling it was usable then for single tab browsing
just fired it up been sitting there for months quite sluggish high CPU and lots of disk so it must be up to something.
 looks like defender

still loads MSE but very slow.
N455 1.66GHz
2GB
60GB HDD

will let it sit and see how it is later

Forget about it.

Fit an SSD to it or stop wasting your time with it. An SSD will make it actually usable for general browsing, low resolution YouTube and for playing music.
10 minute job.
................

It doesn't get used only fired it up to remind how slow it was, its been in pieces before to repair a hinge.

poppellerant

It's a shame you can't upgrade the CPU on these laptops, but it seems your particular model has it's CPU soldered onto the motherboard.

The best chance of eeking any more speed from that machine is using an SSD, trying to max out the RAM as economically as possible and trimming as much fat as you can from Windows 10.  One of example of how you might be able to reduce Windows 10's bloat, is by removing the useless apps that only serve to waste space and cause annoyance.

Belenus

HereToday said:

Belenus said:

Thanks everyone.

I put my spare 250gb SSD in it, installed Windows7, upgraded to Windows10 (free of charge) and so far it is working ok. It isn't as fast as my own powerful laptop but it is fine and is a lot better than the old laptop my relative has.

I think I will buy 2 x 4gb memory and put that in. I should be able to get that for under £20 and I don't mind spending that as I am close to the relative and I owe him a favour for stuff he has done for us.

Thanks again for all your suggestions and comments.

There was no need to install Windows 7 in the first instance. Just use Genuine Ticket method to install Windows 10 cleanly.
Of course now too late. But you should do it anyway; installing cleanly and making sure you chose the right privacy options during install. To include a local account as opposed to Microsoft account for logon and perhaps removing some unnecessary bloat in order to assist the CPU.

Thanks for that.

As the laptop motherboard is presumably now registered/activated for Windows10, can I remove the SSD, wipe it and then reinstall Windows10 fresh on it? I presume that is what you are suggesting.

Actually, I can remove the SSD and replace it with the original 500gb hard disk and try a clean Windows10 install on that. If that works then I can do the same with the SSD.

Am I correct that it is the motherboard and not the disk that Microsoft check to authenticate Windows10?

Thanks everyone for your help. I used to be reasonably knowledgable on PCs but I'm a bit behind these days.

J_B

Belenus said:

As the laptop motherboard is presumably now registered/activated for Windows10, can I remove the SSD, wipe it and then reinstall Windows10 fresh on it? I presume that is what you are suggesting.

Actually, I can remove the SSD and replace it with the original 500gb hard disk and try a clean Windows10 install on that. If that works then I can do the same with the SSD.

Am I correct that it is the motherboard and not the disk that Microsoft check to authenticate Windows10?

H/T will answer to confirm but I don't think there's any need to remove anything - just reinstall the W10 version of your choice from scratch and away to do

HereToday said:

 Just use Genuine Ticket method to install Windows 10 cleanly.
Of course now too late. But you should do it anyway; installing cleanly and making sure you chose the right privacy options during install. To include a local account as opposed to Microsoft account for logon and perhaps removing some unnecessary bloat in order to assist the CPU.

Belenus

Thanks, you are correct.

I downloaded Windows10 onto a USB stick and used that to reinstall Windows10 on the old laptop.

It gave me the option of deleting all the existing partitions on the SSD so I now have a clean install which appears to be running ok. A bit slower than I am used to but nothing too bad.

What are people's opinions on how much difference upgrading from 4gb to 8gb memory will make. I realise that the processor is a limiting factor.

I don't mind spending £20 if it will make a noticeable difference.

I suppose I could buy the 8gb, try it and, if it doesn't make a difference sell it on and revert to 4gb..