HP Selling 384mb System Memory Machines as Vista Capable

[Guest]

HP is selling machines, notably the Compaq Presario V5000 series with 384mb
system and 128mb shared graphics memory as Vista Capable (complete with
logo.) My understanding is that the 512mb requirement was for operating
system memory and if memory is taken by the graphics processor, it would fall
below the 512mb minimum and not be Vista Capable. XP can barely run on one of
these machines, I can't imagine Vista having a prayer.

If I'm right, HP is in violation of the Vista Capable logo program and
someone at MS needs to have a word with them.

 

[Ted Ruoff]

They seem to cover themselves with the following statement under the specs-
"All the PCs in this series will be able to run Windows Vista Basic when
properly configured." I am sure though that they will tell the customers
that don't configure it properly that it won't work

Ted

 

[William]

The thing about the shared memory is something that scares me. I would
avoid that one.

William

 

[John Jay Smith]

why? If the chip is capable of crunching the numbers why do you
care where the memory comes from?

Here is news for you. All memory will be shared at some point,
and ram with be fused with permanent storage into a new universal memory
that will be far faster than todays ram yet permanent, meaning that it wont
need to be powered up to retain data.

 

[John Jay Smith]

it will work, but it will crawl....

I have run XP with 64 mb RAM on a pentium 133....
as an experiment. I could go even lower...with some tricks...

it loads and you can open a few windows.. but you cant do much with it....

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

As long as there is enough of it, yes , of course it will work. But in the
context of this thread, dubious...

 

[Guest]

They have to comply with the logo program. Microsoft defines "Windows Vista
Capable" as A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
512 MB of system memory.
A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

A shared memory graphics system with 128mb allocated to the gpu has only
384mb of system memory available.

Of course, the 384mb is totally inadequate for even XP and I just tossed in
a 1g stick to fix that problem. When I try Vista, I'll bump up to 2gb. That's
reality.

The real issue is there is a major manufacturer of computers selling laptops
as compliant with Microsofts "Vista Capable" standards, but they fail to meet
the standard as established by Microsoft. I hope someone from the Microsoft
is monitoring this and has a talk with HP.

 

[AJR]

Note "...able to run Windows Vista Basic ..." - Vista will have two "Home"
versions - the basic version will not have many of the features of the
"Ultimate (Beta 2)" version and will requires less stringent requirements -
and will be capable of running in place of current XP systems.

 

[Franklin]

HP is selling machines, notably the Compaq Presario V5000 series with
384mb
system and 128mb shared graphics memory as Vista Capable (complete with
logo.) My understanding is that the 512mb requirement was for operating
system memory and if memory is taken by the graphics processor, it would
fall
below the 512mb minimum and not be Vista Capable. XP can barely run on one
of
these machines, I can't imagine Vista having a prayer.

If I'm right, HP is in violation of the Vista Capable logo program and
someone at MS needs to have a word with them.

Thanks for the heads up. I was going to buy and hp.

 

[William R. Mosher]

My second computer is a Dell P3-500 with 384 megabytes and it runs Windows XP quite nicely. I would not want to stress it out with heavy duty stuff, but for average computing it does a reasonable job.

William
They have to comply with the logo program. Microsoft defines "Windows Vista
Capable" as A Windows Vista Capable PC includes at least:

A modern processor (at least 800MHz1).
512 MB of system memory.
A graphics processor that is DirectX 9 capable.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx

A shared memory graphics system with 128mb allocated to the gpu has only
384mb of system memory available.

Of course, the 384mb is totally inadequate for even XP and I just tossed in
a 1g stick to fix that problem. When I try Vista, I'll bump up to 2gb. That's
reality.

The real issue is there is a major manufacturer of computers selling laptops
as compliant with Microsofts "Vista Capable" standards, but they fail to meet
the standard as established by Microsoft. I hope someone from the Microsoft
is monitoring this and has a talk with HP.

 

[Guest]

Actually, it's really not a bad machine. I knew I was going to have to drop
in at least a gig of memory anyway and it was cheap (the extra memory and the
laptop.) The only issue I have is that they effectivly say 512mb of system
memory having the Vista Capable logo and that isn't what the system has.
They need to be more honest. Even the specs on the box have issues. The box
it comes in says 512mb of memory, but says nothing about the GPU stealing 64
to 128mb of memory. The average consumer isn't getting what they're
expecting.

A quick check of some other manufacturers leads me to beleive some of them
have the same issue. The Gateway NX560X may have the same isssue. Any 512 mb
machine with a GPU that takes away from the main memory that claims to be
Vista Capable is suspect. Microsoft needs to get out there and police the
logo problem.

 

[Mark D. VandenBerg]

Advertising being sly and ever so close to that magical line of truth to
sell a product? This comes as a shock to anyone here?

 

[Dennis Pack x64, v64B2 \(5384\), OPP2007B2]

Phil:
One thing about any company like HP, they offer a minimum system then have
an extensive list of upgrades, at times some of the upgrades are offered
free to enable the system to function. The thing that's realy poor is that
if you check the components that are used. I've been building XP machines
for 5 years and have never used a power supply less than 300w, usually
400-6oow. My son purchased a HP tower with upgraded RAM, video, sound, DVD
player and DVD burner. A month after the warranty expired the tower quit,
luckily the problem was only the power supply, I was shocked when I found
the the power supply was only 170w. I modified the case opening and
installed a used 450w power supply, now the tower is running better than
ever.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

XP has two Home versions also. XP Home and MCE. They are equivalent to
Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium.