Steam on windows 7 32 bit

Gaming 🎮
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So I’ve been trying to work on getting steam running on (one of) my old computers! And first I tried windows xp (with one core api) and unsurprisingly it didn’t work! So I decided to install windows 7 (also the reason I’m not using Linux is because the gpu driver isn’t supported on even new ish distros) and just installing steam straight from the website didn’t work (of course) so I tried a steam emulator just to see if any steam games (even just with steam works drm) and it worked fine! (As fine as possible) and now I’m trying to use the recently made back port of steam beta to windows 7, but unfortunately it goes to the “steam web helper is not responding” as we all know and love, so hopefully someone can help!

(And I hope the it’s foss forums is a good place to post this, since I know a lot of Linux users are probably better than me at messing with old steam stuff!)

My specs: 2.8 GHz p4 (32 bit) GeForce 6200 tc, 2gb ram

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Man that is old!!! Even if you managed to access the internet I doubt that old system would even render the web pages!!! I have a few old games laying around I install from a cd that still works for my XP machine!! All I can say is good luck!!!

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Given your computer is a 32 bit version, no surprise about linux not being available, there is now almost not version of 32 bit linux to downloadbor install. Also with only 2 gb memory you will struggle with any system.

Although I have not tried it for some time

And go for a 32 bit version mate or lmde.

At least you can get a working computer. Then try your games through that if windows 7 is a no go.

May just be the time to scrap it sadly.

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Yeah it would probably be faster with Linux, though the official graphics driver for the GeForce 6200 doesn’t work, so I’d be stuck with the open source driver, or software rendering

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Cannot answer that part.

If you created a boot usb then start up from it without installation you could at least test it.

Think I remember something about compatibility mode and graphics driver but it’s a while back so not sure. When you boot the usb that was one of the options available and I have run that at times of problems

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The reason that the geforce 6200 drivers do not work is that at around version 5.19 the linux kernel changed its driver interface, and nvidia refused to update all its old drivers to match the new interface.
You may get it to work if you can find and try an old kernel, … say about 5.14 or earlier.

The antiX distro provides old kernels, and it has 32 bit iso’s available for download.
antiX is designed for old hardware. antiX is Debian based… it uses the same apt package system as Debian.

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geforce 6200 drivers do not work is that at around version 5.19

……..

LMDE 5 (“Elsie”) 32-bit: Ships with the 5.10 LTS Linux kernel.

May be the answer, but that is a old version and you may run into difficulties with other things such as steam not installing or functioning.

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You could use as maybe as a paper weight or maybe an anchor weight or may give it to a museum!!

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Ohhh I didn’t know that! Thank you!

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Yeah I’ve used antix! And a little while ago I ran lubuntu 18.04 with the 5.14 kernel and that didn’t work with the official driver so I’ll try maybe antix 21 or something!

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Or maybe I’ll hang it on the wall as an art piece!

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In theory, a kernel that old should work with the nvidia drivers.
But I cant guarantee it and I cant test it.

I think antiX23 still has the older kernels as an option … I checked …antiX23 has 5.10.224 as well as 6.1.0-25 and 6.1.0-28. They are there in the 64 bit iso, so I presume they will be there in the 32bit iso too. You can choos ewhich kernel to boot in the grub menu.

Dont hang it on the wall just yet… you can learn lots and have fun with that old machine.

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