can a Compaq Presario V5000 laptop run Windows Vista?

Hi Everyone,

            I had an opportunity to look closer at the RAM and CPU specs of this laptop.  It does have 1GB of RAM with some of it shadowed or reserved for system memory.  I believe the BIOS indicated 250MB being reserved for video which explains the 896MB of RAM indicated within Windows.  With respect to the processor, the actual speed of it is 1.8GHz.  Interestingly, when the laptop was wiped and Windows XP reinstalled for troubleshooting reasons, the processor speed then was accurately reported.  I am not sure why the previous version of XP inaccurately reported the processor speed.  If someone has some followup thoughts regarding this discrepancy, I am certainly interested in learning more regarding that matter.  

               Given the limited system resources such as amount of RAM and slow processor speed, I must agree that Vista can probably be installed, but, would run apps and games very slowly.  As such, it probably would not be a good idea to make such an upgrade given the hardware specs of this laptop.

                 Thanks again everyone for the shared input.  All of the information given was well put together and certainly thought provoking.

                 George

Hi Everyone,

           Thanks so much for the shared insights given to this question.  After reviewing each of the thought provoking responses, I decided to simply wipe and reload XP back onto this laptop.  Due to the limited system resources, such as slow processor speed and low RAM, I decided to give up on the idea of installing Vista or even Windows 7.  As pointed out, even if the upgrade took, the response time for opening and closing apps and games would likely be very slow.  

              Thanks again for the help.

              George

             

The reason XP reported the "wrong" speed was because there are drivers and tools installed that reduce the speed of the CPU when the full power isn't required. On laptops that is an important feature that decreases battery charging periods, and also reduces heat produced. When you re-installed XP you probably didn't include all drivers and utilities, or didn't configure those features.

1.8 GHz should be fast enough to run Vista well and Windows 7 even better, and if you can max the RAM it should be fast enough for most apps. Whether games run properly depends mainly on the game and the GPU. I have no idea of what GPU this PC uses. But in my opinion if you get Windows 7 for this laptop you'll have a good system that runs better than with XP.

Hi There,

             Thank you so much for the followup explanation and advice.  Everything you said certainly made sense.  With regards to the RAM, I will most likely need to buy 2, 1GB RAM sticks since it already has 2, 512MB sticks.  With that in mind, what would the cost likely be for 2, 1GB RAM sticks for this particular laptop?

              Thank you

              George

That will probably depend on your location. Here in switzerland a 1GB DDR-1 memory Module for notebooks costs around 40 Swiss Francs.