Change Windows 8.1 64 bit to 32 bit

MichaelR

Hello,

I just bought a cheap Toshiba laptop based on the AMD E1-6010 CPU. Windows 8.1 64 bit is preloaded and sometimes the machine gets slow, with the mouse cursor going all jerky. I did remove McAfee antivirus (replaced with Avast), making it better but not perfect.

A friend told me that cheap AMD processors may not have stellar 64 bit performance and I might be better off moving to a 32 bit version of Windows. But I would like to do it while keeping my licensed version. While I know where to get unlicensed ones (and Windows 7, which is better anyway), I would much rather stay legal.

I do know that I need to full reinstall of Windows to get a 32 bit version, possibly losing all data on the hard drive. It is fine with me. But where do I get a legitimate 32 bit Windows 8.1 image and how do I install it to keep the existing license key, which is probably in the UEFI but I can't be sure?

Nate--IRL--

You friend is wrong.

Nate

PropJoe10

A processor either has 64 bit support or it doesnt. Plus, 32-bit operating systems can only address up to 4GB RAM so I wouldnt change if I were you. How much RAM does the machine have?

MichaelR

The machine has 4GB anyway, so that would not be an issue.

MichaelR

And I've looked at the benchmarks and comparison here http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-E-Series-E1-6010-Notebook-Processor.115407.0.html

I did not find, in fact, a consistent difference between 32 and 64 bit performance when compared to Celeron N2820, apparently the closest competitor.

(The N2820 is apparently dated, so Celeron N2815 is on offer in cheap laptops now, and the N2815 beats the E1-6010 by 15-20% in most CPU benchmarks; the E1-6010 apparently compensates by having a significantly better GPU).

GarIT

Couple of points. Windows 8.1 is much more efficient with processing power than windows 7. 64-bit processes are in fact more intensive on the CPU. A large part of the time taken to compete CPU operations is data access/transfer, this is a more intensive job when using 64-bits. Although that shouldn't make too much of a difference to the slowness. Changing to 32-bit can limit you to anything from 2.5gb to 4gb, you may not be able to use the full 4GB not that ram would be your problem anyway(that processor couldn't handle anything that uses 4gb of ram).

The processor listed is extremely poor and will be slow running any OS, I've experience with it on every OS from XP to 8.1 both 32 and 64 bit (except vista and 64 bit XP) and it is terrible in all cases.

MichaelR

I know it's a weak CPU; I had reasons to strongly avoid spending and the old laptop broke. Any advice on how to make it more tolerable? Should I go for 32 bit, and is there a way to do this *legitimately*, as in using my existing Windows license?