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I've recently had some issues with my Dell Vostro laptop and Dell sent me out some OS discs to reinstall Windows 7 Ultimate SP1. I expected to get 64-bit discs in the mail, but instead received 32-bit.

So I called up Dell and asked what type of processor I have. The person on Dell's side said 32-bit. So I looked up my processor: Intel Core i3 CPU M370 @ 2.4GHz, and the documentation I found online says it's a 64-bit instruction set.

So I'm guessing it actually is 64-bit. Should I request new discs?

magicandre1981
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Drew Rush
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    They may not provide 64-bit drivers for that model, so it's "32-bit only" in their lists. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 May 05 '14 at 20:27
  • Go to Dell's support web site and look up your laptop service tag. Then check to see what drivers are available for Windows 7. If 64bit drivers are available then yes, you could request 64bit media and use that. If not, then you're stuck with 32bit. – joeqwerty May 05 '14 at 22:05

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If you look up the list of every processor that Intel has made, they do not have any 32 bit i3 processors.

That said, a 32 bit os will run just fine on a 64 bit processor.

You can safely restore the 32bit OS but keep in mind that you will only be able to run 32 bit programs and you will only be able to use the first ~4 GB of ram on your machine.

If you have more than 4GB of ram, or you want to run 64 bit applications, then you should request new disks.

spuder
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