Vista 64 to Vista 32

[AlexB]

Hi there.

I relative of mine has purchased two laptops with Vista Home Premium 64 bit
on 64 bit processors. He is facing usual problems of not being able to find
many drivers. It appears he is about to "downgrade" (is it the right word in
the context?) it to Home Premium 32 bit.

What is the procedure?

Can it be done without any additional charge?

Thanks.

 

[philo]

Hi there.

I relative of mine has purchased two laptops with Vista Home Premium 64 bit
on 64 bit processors. He is facing usual problems of not being able to find
many drivers. It appears he is about to "downgrade" (is it the right word in
the context?) it to Home Premium 32 bit.

What is the procedure?

Can it be done without any additional charge?

Thanks.

He'd need to format the drive and install the 32bit version

*However* if the machine is new and came with Vista-64 the manufacturer
*must* support it...

or were you talking about peripheral devices???

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

It would require contacting the PC manufacturer's technical
support department and requesting 32-bit Windows Vista
recovery discs. There is no "downgrade" as a complete
reformat of the current 64-bit installation partition would be required.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Shell/User

---------------------------------------------------------------

:

Hi there.

I relative of mine has purchased two laptops with Vista Home Premium 64 bit
on 64 bit processors. He is facing usual problems of not being able to find
many drivers. It appears he is about to "downgrade" (is it the right word in
the context?) it to Home Premium 32 bit.

What is the procedure?

Can it be done without any additional charge?

Thanks.

 

[David Sanders]

Hi there.

I relative of mine has purchased two laptops with Vista Home Premium 64
bit on 64 bit processors. He is facing usual problems of not being able
to find many drivers. It appears he is about to "downgrade" (is it the
right word in the context?) it to Home Premium 32 bit.

What is the procedure?

Can it be done without any additional charge?

Thanks.

drivers for what?

 

[AlexB]

Thank you.

I was talking about the laptops, the computers themselves.

 

[AlexB]

I do not know, he did not mention and for a number of reasons I did not want
to go into details. The brains behind the two computers is actually his wife
who is very busy with a newborn baby and the person in question is not that
informed. He is a heavy user of one of the machines but has a very
superficial understanding of what's going on on the system's level. He had
hard time even confirming that the systems were Vista Home Premium. He just
knew it was "Home." But he is certain, there are snags, they are drivers
related and they are leaning toward simplifying the system.

Many thanks.

 

[David Sanders]

I do not know, he did not mention and for a number of reasons I did not
want to go into details. The brains behind the two computers is actually
his wife who is very busy with a newborn baby and the person in question
is not that informed. He is a heavy user of one of the machines but has
a very superficial understanding of what's going on on the system's
level. He had hard time even confirming that the systems were Vista Home
Premium. He just knew it was "Home." But he is certain, there are snags,
they are drivers related and they are leaning toward simplifying the
system.

Many thanks.

If the laptops are not performing as advertised, send them back to the
manufacturer. If that is not an option perhaps have the local computer
store do the downgrade.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Hi there.

I relative of mine has purchased two laptops with Vista Home Premium 64 bit
on 64 bit processors. He is facing usual problems of not being able to find
many drivers.

A common issue.

It appears he is about to "downgrade" (is it the right word in
the context?) it to Home Premium 32 bit.

What is the procedure?

There is no procedure. If he wants the 32-bit version, he needs to buy
a copy and install it cleanly.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

Contact the manufacturer to find out about obtaining 32 bit media for Vista
Home Premium. You will then need to do a clean installation with it by
booting from the DVD and choosing to format the partition. Also, you will be
required to reactivate, but you will still be able to use the same product
key.

 

[Andre Da Costa[ActiveWin]]

There is no downgrade path from 64 bit Vista to 32 bit Vista, also, a PC
repair shop cannot simply do a clean install for him, since the OEM Product
Key is most likely hard coded that installation. So the best decision right
now would be to contact the OEM and let them provide the OP with 32 bit
Vista media so the owner of the system can do a 'clean install'.

 

[philo]

Thank you.

I was talking about the laptops, the computers themselves.

Although it's true that the 32bit version of Vista probably has better
driver support...
sicne the machines came with the 64bit version...then the manufacturer
really is at fault here...
if the hardware within the laptop is missing drivers or has problems.
I would contact the vendor before the warranty runs out...and if they cannot
fix it to the owners satisfaction...
I'd have them supply Vista 32bit and give that a try

 

[AlexB]

Thank you.

Although it's true that the 32bit version of Vista probably has better
driver support...
sicne the machines came with the 64bit version...then the manufacturer
really is at fault here...
if the hardware within the laptop is missing drivers or has problems.
I would contact the vendor before the warranty runs out...and if they
cannot
fix it to the owners satisfaction...
I'd have them supply Vista 32bit and give that a try

 

[David Sanders]

There is no downgrade path from 64 bit Vista to 32 bit Vista, also, a PC
repair shop cannot simply do a clean install for him, since the OEM Product
Key is most likely hard coded that installation. So the best decision right
now would be to contact the OEM and let them provide the OP with 32 bit
Vista media so the owner of the system can do a 'clean install'.

Roger that.