I had a laptop PC in today, a Toshiba Tecra A8 running Windows XP with a Centrino Duo sticker on it. The customer wanted to upgrade to Windows 7 64 bit but wasn’t sure if it would be supported. Even running the Windows upgrade advisor made him none the wiser.
I explained that the Centrino Duo name doesn’t necessarily mean that the processor has a true dual core, only the core 2 duos would have this. Centrino is only a sticker branding, really only relating to usage of the Intel Wifi and WiMax brands. To run Win 7 64 Bit he would need a processor of this ilk:
- T5500
- T5600
- T7200
- T7400
- T7600
Luckily, on further investigation, his Tecra A8 shipped with a T5500 which is a true Core 2 Duo processor. Only the Core 2 Duos incorporate the 64 bit extensions that allow them to run 64 bit software, not the Core Duos. He had previously had an upgrade from us that upped his RAM to 4 GB so this laptop was a suitable candidate for the upgrade to Win 7.
An hour later he left the shop with a newly installed Windows 7 system on his Toshiba Tecra A8 which ran nice and smooth.