replacing Vista with XP on Toshiba Laptop?

[aaronep]

I am interested in purchasing the Toshiba A205-S5804 Laptop Computer
on sale for $449 at Best Buy.
It comes with Windows Vista Home Edition with only 1 gig ram, which
experts say is insufficient for Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.

As I have heard continuous problems of Vista being slow, and in-
compatible with exisiting software & hardware, I am writing asking if
it is possible to uninstall Vista on this machine and replacing the OS
with a legitimate copy of
Windows XP with SP2.

best, Aaron

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Only if you can obtain XP drivers for everything on the laptop. You will
have to check the Toshiba site for these. I would first try Vista Home
Premium because I think the info you are hearing is not accurate. Vista is
slow on a lot of machines that originally came with XP installed and were
upgraded to Vista but should be fine on a machine that shipped with Vista in
the first place. 1 GB is sufficient for VHP though not for Vista Ultimate.

 

[Malke]

I am interested in purchasing the Toshiba A205-S5804 Laptop Computer
on sale for $449 at Best Buy.
It comes with Windows Vista Home Edition with only 1 gig ram, which
experts say is insufficient for Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.

As I have heard continuous problems of Vista being slow, and in-
compatible with exisiting software & hardware, I am writing asking if
it is possible to uninstall Vista on this machine and replacing the OS
with a legitimate copy of
Windows XP with SP2.

Mr. Barnhorst has given you excellent advice. Here are a few more
details to add to it:

General information about replacing Vista with XP:

A. On an OEM (HP, Sony, etc.) computer:

1. Go to the OEM's website and look for XP drivers for your specific
model computer. If there are no XP drivers, then you can't install XP.
End of story. If there are drivers, download them and store on a CD-R or
USB thumbdrive; you'll need them after you install XP.

2. Check with the OEM - either from their tech support website or by
calling them - to see if you will void your warranty if you do this. If
you will void the warranty, you make the decision.

3. If the OEM does support XP on the machine, call them and see if you
can have downgrade rights and have them send you an XP restore disk.
This will be far the easiest and best way of getting XP on the machine.

4. If XP is supported on the machine but the OEM doesn't have an XP
restore disk for you, understand that you'll need to purchase a retail
copy of XP from your favorite online or brick/mortar store.

5. Also understand that you will need to do a clean install of XP so if
you have any data you want, back it up first.

6. If none of the above is applicable to you because you can't run XP on
that machine (see Item #1 above), return the computer and purchase one
running XP instead.

B. On a generic/home-built computer (from non-OEM company) - You will
need drivers for all your hardware. See the second link below for more
details:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html - Clean Install How-To
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Reinstalling_Windows -
What you will need on-hand


Malke

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I am interested in purchasing the Toshiba A205-S5804 Laptop Computer
on sale for $449 at Best Buy.
It comes with Windows Vista Home Edition with only 1 gig ram, which
experts say is insufficient for Windows Vista Home Premium Edition.

As I have heard continuous problems of Vista being slow, and in-
compatible with exisiting software & hardware, I am writing asking if
it is possible to uninstall Vista on this machine and replacing the OS
with a legitimate copy of
Windows XP with SP2.

best, Aaron

The short answer is almost certainly "no, you can't".

That's likely the answer because many systems that ship with Vista do not
have XP drivers available. And if you can't get the drivers, the system
won't work, either properly or at all.

Before you even consider this approach, search the support site for the
manufacturer and see if *that model* comes with XP as an option. If it
doesn't, move on.

As a quick tip, systems that come with Vista Business usually *do* have XP
as an option, because that is the market segment most likely to have
serious compatibility or testing issues that require downgrading.

HTH
-pk

 

[R. McCarty]

I'd be very cautious about a downgrade to XP. In December I got a
customer a Presario notebook that shipped with Vista. They needed
to use XP and I was able to get drivers for it. However, just this past
week I was called in to work on a later Presario (C751NR) that has
Vista factory installed. After many frustrating hours it became clear it
would not run with XP drivers found on the vendor's website. Go to
any major OEM and do a search for "Vista downgrade to XP" and
note how many postings there are concerning this issue. There are lots
of people purchasing Vista computers and trying to install XP only to
find that certain drivers are unavailable or have issues after loading
such as an inability of the device to start ( Code 10 ).

I'm afraid we've reached the flip-side of the Vista drivers coin. When
it was first released, Vista had a lack of drivers. Now that vendors
have started providing Vista drivers there aren't XP drivers available
for many sub-system components on PCs ( especially notebooks ).

You have to be extra cautious about drivers for Wireless chips and a
number of the newer High Definition Audio components.

 

[Synapse Syndrome]

The short answer is almost certainly "no, you can't".

That's likely the answer because many systems that ship with Vista do not
have XP drivers available. And if you can't get the drivers, the system
won't work, either properly or at all.

Loads of XP drivers on the Toshiba site. I could not find the particular
model, but maybe that is because it is a US model, and I was using the
European site.

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_drivers_bios.jsp?service=EU

Before you even consider this approach, search the support site for the
manufacturer and see if *that model* comes with XP as an option. If it
doesn't, move on.

As a quick tip, systems that come with Vista Business usually *do* have XP
as an option, because that is the market segment most likely to have
serious compatibility or testing issues that require downgrading.

Yeah. There is absolutely no problem with getting XP drivers with any
Thinkpads. I love Thinkpads.

ss.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Loads of XP drivers on the Toshiba site. I could not find the particular
model, but maybe that is because it is a US model, and I was using the
European site.

http://eu.computers.toshiba-europe.com/cgi-bin/ToshibaCSG/download_drivers_bios.jsp?service=EU

Well, in fact, there are eight XP drivers for that model on the US Toshiba
site - it is a US model and that's where the drivers are.

HTH
-pk