Getting rid of Vista

[hls]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of faithful
service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with Vista.
The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with Windows Vista Home
(32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz with Windows
2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old, and updated
drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this machine, or
will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the hard drive to
do this?

Any help appreciated.

 

[Mike Brannigan]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of faithful
service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with Vista.
The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with Windows Vista
Home (32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz with
Windows
2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old, and
updated
drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this machine, or
will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the hard drive
to
do this?

Any help appreciated.

Check the End User License Agreement on your Vista machine to ensure you
have downgrade rights (otherwise you would have to buy another license for
2000 Pro)
Once you check that you have downgrade rights you can just use your 2000 Pro
CD to boot the PC and install 2000 Pro.
As part of the 2000 Pro setup remove the partition on the hard drive and
create a new one and reformat etc.

Of course the problems you are creating by doing this is if this is a new PC
the are there actually 2000 Pro drivers for it?
Also you are running a now very old OS that is out of mainstream support.

 

[PvdG42]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of faithful
service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with Vista.
The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with Windows Vista
Home (32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz with
Windows
2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old, and
updated
drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this machine, or
will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the hard drive
to
do this?

Any help appreciated.

The biggest issue you face is finding Win 2000 drivers for the motherboard
chipset and all the other new hardware in your new Compaq.
I don't recall any more if the Win 2000 install media offers you the option
to format the target partition for the install, but you should, IMO, format
the target partition after saving all data you wish to preserve.

Another possible cause of the perceived sloth is all the "junkware" put on
your PC by Compaq. Have you gone through all the installed programs,
especially those that autostart when you boot, and removed the ones you
don't need?

 

[Dave Cox]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of
faithful service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with
Vista. The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with
Windows Vista Home (32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz
with Windows 2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old,
and updated drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this
machine, or will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the
hard drive to do this?

Any help appreciated.

You neglected to tell us how much RAM/TYPE the "rather cheap compaq"
came with.



Dave

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of faithful
service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with Vista.
The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with Windows Vista
Home (32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz with
Windows
2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old, and
updated
drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this machine, or
will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the hard drive
to
do this?

I assume that your homebrew PC had a Win2000 Retail licence which you are
planning to use, so that should be fine.

As others have said, you have to check if you have Win2000 motherboard
drivers for your new computer, particularly chipset and SATA controller
drivers.

You will most probably *have* to slipstream SP4 onto your Win2000 CD, if it
is not an SP4 disc. Otherwise Win2000 will be even more unlikely to
recognise whatever chipset you have, will not understand what SATA is, and
will not recognise large hard drives.

You are best off buying an XP Pro SP2 licence and using that instead, with
Windows Classic theme if you prefer that.

ss.

 

[hls]

You neglected to tell us how much RAM/TYPE the "rather cheap compaq"
came with.

RAM is minimal at 512 MB. I plan to expand this.

I do not use this unit for gaming, etc. Just word processing,
spreadsheets, and
email/internet.

There are a lot of junk bundled programs on the machine, and I also plan to
thin
them out.

I am hesitant to make a lot of changes until I feel my way through this
system
as it is.

I appreciate the another suggestion that I use XP instead of 2000. That
might
be a good way to straddle the driver issues and move up in operating
systems.
I was thinking of using 2000 because I have it, but it is probably better to
ditch it.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

I appreciate the another suggestion that I use XP instead of 2000. That
might
be a good way to straddle the driver issues and move up in operating
systems.
I was thinking of using 2000 because I have it, but it is probably better
to
ditch it.

If you have you have a Win2000 Retail licence, you can always get a XP Pro
Upgrade CD, which will probably be the cheapest way to do it.

ss.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

If you have you have a Win2000 Retail licence, you can always get a XP Pro
Upgrade CD, which will probably be the cheapest way to do it.

I forgot to remind you that you do not have to install Win2000 before using
the XP upgrade CD.

ss.

 

[Charlie Tame]

My printer is a Photosmart 1215 by HP. The digital camera is an HP 318.

Havent tried my Canon Scanner yet.

Since you mention homebrew you probably have no fear messing about
inside and so why not consider a drive tray for either SATA or IDE
drives, then with one spare drive you can try lots of things and never
be at real risk of losing the whole thing.

 

[James Matthews]

Move to Linux www.ubuntu.com

 

[Dave Cox]

RAM is minimal at 512 MB. I plan to expand this.

I do not use this unit for gaming, etc. Just word processing,
spreadsheets, and
email/internet.

There are a lot of junk bundled programs on the machine, and I
also plan to thin
them out.

I am hesitant to make a lot of changes until I feel my way through
this system
as it is.

I appreciate the another suggestion that I use XP instead of 2000.
That might
be a good way to straddle the driver issues and move up in
operating systems.
I was thinking of using 2000 because I have it, but it is probably
better to ditch it.

Upgrade your RAM first to 2 gigs (1 gig at least) If after you upgrade
your RAM and still aren't satisfied then swap out the OS.

Even XP and Win 2000 will breath better with more then 512mb RAM so
you wont be out if you decide to go back.

Some people can run Vista w/512 and be perfectly happy. There are a few
factors involved as hardware configurations and just plain personal
needs. (I know many people who could care less if a program can open up
in 1 second vrs 1 minute) But yes 512 is not near enough for the
majority of people.

 

[Ghostrider]

RAM is minimal at 512 MB. I plan to expand this.

I do not use this unit for gaming, etc. Just word processing,
spreadsheets, and
email/internet.

There are a lot of junk bundled programs on the machine, and I also plan
to thin
them out.

I am hesitant to make a lot of changes until I feel my way through this
system
as it is.

I appreciate the another suggestion that I use XP instead of 2000. That
might
be a good way to straddle the driver issues and move up in operating
systems.
I was thinking of using 2000 because I have it, but it is probably
better to
ditch it.

Increasing the RAM would definitely help matters. But since the
basic usage is relatively simple (i.e., word processing, spreadsheets,
etc.), a simple machine should suffice and no doubt Compaq would have
had this thought in mind. Just what are the peripherals that don't
work? Can they be replaced with stock Compaq items for which there
might be Vista drivers?

 

[hls]

work? Can they be replaced with stock Compaq items for which there
might be Vista drivers?

My printer is a Photosmart 1215 by HP. The digital camera is an HP 318.

Havent tried my Canon Scanner yet.

 

[Ghostrider]

My printer is a Photosmart 1215 by HP. The digital camera is an HP 318.

Havent tried my Canon Scanner yet.

You're right. But legacy equipment 7 years or older and even from the
era of Windows 98/ME should not really be expecting support from OS's
that are 3 generations newer than they. Such is progress. But there is
nothing wrong at keeping to the original equipment for which they were
designed.

 

[hls]

You're right. But legacy equipment 7 years or older and even from the
era of Windows 98/ME should not really be expecting support from OS's
that are 3 generations newer than they. Such is progress. But there is
nothing wrong at keeping to the original equipment for which they were
designed.

The Canon scanner is only 3-4 years old, IIRC, and the printer and camera
are a little over 5 years. Not new, but not old enough to throw away.

If I find the problems can be solved by installing XP, that is probably my
easiest
route.

Otherwise, I will probably resurrect the old AMD unit, reboard it, and keep
it
running just for the peripherals and emergencies.

Thanks, all, for the suggestions

 

[Bill Yanaire]

Maybe you should move to Mississippi

Move to Linux www.ubuntu.com

 

[Lang Murphy]

My old (homebrew clone) computer just crashed after 9 years of faithful
service
and I bought a rather cheap Compaq which came populated with Vista.
The new one is a Pentium 4 running at 3.2 gigahertz with Windows Vista
Home (32),
and is much slower than my old AMD K2 running at 550 megahertz with
Windows
2000 Pro.

Now most of my peripherals dont work because they 3-4 years old, and
updated
drivers apparently dont exist.

Can I solve this by just installing Windows 2000 Pro on this machine, or
will
that present another set of problems? Do I have to format the hard drive
to
do this?

Any help appreciated.

Some new PC's don't even have -XP- drivers for all their hw. You need to
check that out -prior- to blowing Vista away.

That said, delete the crapware, give Vista a few days (yes, days) to index
your disks, upgrade the RAM as you've said you would, and check how much RAM
is being allocated to video. (Meaning, if you're running Home Basic, which I
assume is the case... then you don't need to allocate a boatload of RAM to
video.)

Lang

 

[hls]

Some new PC's don't even have -XP- drivers for all their hw. You need to
check that out -prior- to blowing Vista away.

That said, delete the crapware, give Vista a few days (yes, days) to index
your disks, upgrade the RAM as you've said you would, and check how much
RAM is being allocated to video. (Meaning, if you're running Home Basic,
which I assume is the case... then you don't need to allocate a boatload
of RAM to video.)

Lang

Thanks very much

 

[Lang Murphy]

Thanks very much

You're welcome... and, if you decide that you still want to blow Vista
away... don't hesitate to return and ask.

Lang