Upgrading my NV55S Gateway laptop to a SSD.

I have been working with computers mainly as a user since about 1976. I got my first 486 clone machine running Windows 98 back in 1999. Shortly after that I signed up with eBay and Paypal and quit sending out my radio correspondence by US mail and switched over to emails instead. 

I had learned Microsoft DOS and was good at using it at the time. I would not try myself to go into a computer's registry to make any changes there. I don't know enough about it to do that. I used to buy and install on my own computers so-called maintenance and repair software like System Mechanic that claimed to be able to make repairs in a computer's registry and so forth but later concluded these offerings were phony and don't really do anything worth while for your money except may be somewhat entertaining to watch as they "run". 

Cliff, sorry to hear that you had trouble with your new desktop. This past few days I did a lot of checking online to try to find a solution to the updating problem that showed up after I managed to get Windows 8.1 installed on the Gateway laptop. It turned out to be a common problem that many others were experiencing. I tried many of the suggestions but ultimately found they did not help or work. I just about gave up at one point intending to shelve the whole project but took one more try at it after reading that it was important to make sure and download the right type of update for one's machine. That is, in my case, an update written for a 64 bit computer and not one written for 32 bits. I must have been lucky on downloading a 64 bit version for the first update even though I had not specified that in my search for it. The second one I got must have been written for 32 bits as it would not install (not compatible) on my laptop. I was puzzled by this at the time. Later on, after I went back to try to download the second update file again, I specified in the search for it to be 64 bit compatible. This time this second update installed and shortly afterwards I found that updating on the laptop was working again (with the Windows 8.1 operating system).

I did read a brief mention of the fact that Solid State Drives do have a limited lifetime after which they may start to degrade. But Hard Disk Drives also can wear out and sometimes fail entirely. I wanted to try one of the new drives in the Gateway NV55S. 128GB is probably more than enough for my type of usage. Actually, like most types of memory, only 101GB out of the 128GB nominal rating is available for use. Right now, 72.4 GB out of the 101GB total is free.

73, Rod  WB6FBF

I decided a couple of years ago to get a Desktop, I saw an HP at wallmart for less than $500. It had installed two drives One a 1 terabyte and the other one was a SSD.

I ran into troubles when I decided to follow instructions from self clamed gurus on the internet. They said it was a simple fix. By changinging a specific Registry Key. Well you can guess the rest. Mailed it off to HP Warentee repair.

Got it back with just a stripped down version of windows, OK so no easy way but extensive upgrade of all drivers and features.

Works fine now. But once in a while I turn it off only to come back later and find that it is on. (Maybe that I click on hibernate or sleep instead of shut down.?)

Once in a while it takes forever to load, however that must be due to upfront updates. This is the fastest turn on computer I have ever had. It has an Intel Core I-5 # MHz.

from pushing the power button to opening screen is less than 10-15 seconds.

The only problem is an issue of not defragging the SSD by most recommendations. However Auslogics claim that their defragger will take care of SSD drives to. It has something to do with read-write cycles degradation. But I think the manufactures are or have overcome that obstacle.

I got the idea to replace the original 500GB HDD with a new 128GB SSD in my old Gateway laptop. Recently, I had done a reset (refresh) on it in an effort to improve its rather sluggish performance. It did improve somewhat but not nearly enough to make the reset process worth while. Shutting down was still a problem just as one example. I should mention that this laptop started out as a Windows 7 computer. Sometime ago (3 years?) I took Microsoft's offer for the free Windows 10 upgrade. No Windows 10 drivers were available from Gateway for my model (they are basically out of business now) so I had to depend on Microsoft to supply the various Windows 10 drivers required. They did a fairly good job supplying suitable drivers for it although a few minor devices on the motherboard no longer worked properly. As an example, the SD card reader was negatively affected after the upgrade. It could no longer read any SD card with a capacity greater than 2GB.

While waiting for the new SSD to come, I decided to order a copy of Windows 8 Home for $40 from an ebay seller. Originally I was going to order a copy of Windows 10 instead but changed my mind after seeing that Gateway was still offering Windows 8 drivers and some limited applications for it on their old website. Well, this past Monday I got going on it and after installing the SSD drive I proceeded to install the Windows 8 DVD into the new drive. That went fairly well. It was working on Windows 8. I had also previously downloaded all the necessary drivers from Gateway and had them ready to install which I proceeded to do although Microsoft managed to install mostly newer versions during and after the Windows 8 install. Then I started on doing the Windows updates and there were a lot of them to do. This process took hours. The Windows Update worked well here to get them downloaded and installed. After a necessary amount of various updates had been installed then it was time to tackle the major upgrade to Windows 8.1. This was necessary as Windows 8 was being phased out and no longer supported.

I managed to successfully install the Windows 8.1 upgrade. It was working but then a problem with it became apparent (not uncommon). The Windows Update feature had stopped working after the 8.1 upgrade. Also, Windows Defender malware definitions could not be updated as well. This wasn't good. Also, although Microsoft is still supporting Windows 8.1, the Internet Explorer 11 browser that comes with it is outdated and some functions will not be available on today's websites. Mostly it does work but I downloaded a copy of Mozzilla's Firefox for general use. Then I had to try and solve the updating problem. After a lot of checking around online I found a reference on the need to manually download and install a couple of necessary updates to get the automatic updating working again.

I managed to find and get these two updates downloaded and installed and magically updating was restored on the 8.1 installation. Now the system is working very well-not exactly like the newer Windows 10 but I like how it is performing. Startup and shutdown is very fast now-a good sign for a healthy computer. In addition, this old Gateway NV55S laptop has always worked better with the wifi here at home than the much newer HP laptop I also have. The HP works fine when I take it into town to use with the free wifi at the local library or at my second home: Raley's grocery store.

73, Rod  WB6FBF