Vista to XP

[Guest]

I bought a Compaq Presario SR2175X with Vista Basic, wasted money on Premium
upgrade, and now I want to go back to Good Ol' XP Home which I have a Disk
for. I am scared that they may fase out XP like I hear, can I put the XP on
the Recovery Image since I deleted it after making my recovery dics? If not
please tell me how to get ride of the Vista all together and load my XP home
edition (it is the SP1 so do I need to get the SP2 on disk somehow and what
else? Oh I hope, I hope someone will have good news for me!!!

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

The machine was loaded with Vista basic because the base hardware
specification was not suitable for the Media Center element of Home
Premium..

To make the upgrade worthwhile, you could obtain a better graphics card and
more memory, or you could use your Vista Basic recovery media..

The manufacturer website shows no driver support for any OS before Vista,
and there is a possibility that some of the hardware might not run as it
should. The only real way to find out is to do a clean install from your XP
SP1 CD. The SP2 update will be installed as you start the XP update
process..

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html

XP will be supported by MS for a good while yet, but hardware support is
courtesy of hardware manufacturers, and they may not be so amenable..

I bought a Compaq Presario SR2175X with Vista Basic, wasted money on
Premium
upgrade, and now I want to go back to Good Ol' XP Home which I have a Disk
for. I am scared that they may fase out XP like I hear, can I put the XP
on
the Recovery Image since I deleted it after making my recovery dics? If
not
please tell me how to get ride of the Vista all together and load my XP
home
edition (it is the SP1 so do I need to get the SP2 on disk somehow and
what
else? Oh I hope, I hope someone will have good news for me!!!

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Guest]

OK, at the risk of sounding "Computer Illiterate, what specifically do you
mean the hardware may not? I have another computer with XPSP2 and all the
disks, like the motherboard disc(VIAchipset Motherboard UtilitysCD) and BVRP
56kModem disc, but I use broadband internet, so would these be useful incase
the others are not supported? Or maybe you would just suggest I take it and
let a computer repair shop save mm the aggravation and tears?

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

All hardware requires drivers.. eg sound, LAN, video, USB..

Your older computer is happy with XP because all of the hardware was
produced at a time when XP was the newest/incumbent OS, and the
manufacturers wrote drivers for it..

Your new computer has been manufactured to run Vista, and has been supplied
with Vista drivers.. HP/Compaq do not supply XP hardware drivers for your
model, and there is a chance that nobody else will either..

What you do NOT want to do under ANY circumstances is use CDs that were
supplied with your old computer. If that is your source for XP, it would
only work if it was an MS original, and would not work if it is the
'recovery' type..

Even if you take your computer to a repairer, there is no guarantee that all
would work running XP, and the attempt would cost you money..

Your best option is to tell us what you do not like about Vista, what does
not work, and what you have tried to achieve so far.. we may be able to help
you enough such that you start to like it and can again get some practical
use out of your new computer..

OK, at the risk of sounding "Computer Illiterate, what specifically do you
mean the hardware may not? I have another computer with XPSP2 and all the
disks, like the motherboard disc(VIAchipset Motherboard UtilitysCD) and
BVRP
56kModem disc, but I use broadband internet, so would these be useful
incase
the others are not supported? Or maybe you would just suggest I take it
and
let a computer repair shop save mm the aggravation and tears?

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Paul Randall]

Here is how to find out what drivers are available for your SR2175X:
1) Go to www.hp.com.
2) In upper right corner, paste SR2175X into the search box and click the
right double arrow thing to start the search. You should get a page with
three columns; the middle column should be titled 'Product Quick Links'.
3) In the middle column, click the 'Software & driver downloads' link. The
page you get should have a section for 'Select your operating system'. It
has links for Vista and Vista (64-bit), but NOTHING for any older versions
of Windows. No drivers for XP means XP will try to install generic drivers
which typically do not give access to all the features of the hardware. For
example, video resolution might be fixed at 800x600.
If you muck about through all the documentation for the SR2175X, you might
find the name of the motherboard manufacturer and the motherboard model
number. You may even find a picture of the motherboard. The manufacturer
may not list that motherboard on its web site because HP had it made
'special' for HP/Compaq branding. So you may or may not be able to get
drivers from the motherboard manufacturer's site.
One more point of interest -- I bought one of these cheapo Compaq computers,
different model from yours. It runs well, so I have no complaints there. I
used the online chat support from HP and asked about running XP on my
computer. They said that the BIOS was made especially for Vista and would
not likely run WXP.

-Paul Randall

 

[John]

To answer your question, you need to get or make the Recovery CDs for the
installed Vista (Home). Once you have the recovery CDs you can install XP
(clean install) and if you choose to return to vista, you have the recovery
CD to do another clean install. I bet Xp has 99% of the drivers for your
computer already.

 

[John Rushton]

How can you change the graphics card on a laptop??????

 

[John Rushton]

Typical MS response!!!! Because HP do provide the drivers if you explain to
them that companies don't want new operating systems because their core
business systems will not run on it without serious modifications. Which
doesn't make it cost effective to change.

When will Bill gates get that into his brain?????

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

With great difficulty, but the Compaq Presario 2175X appears to be a desktop
machine

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...us&dlc=en&submit.y=8&submit.x=9&lang=en&cc=us

How can you change the graphics card on a laptop??????

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

It is NOT an MS response. On the HP web site, it clearly states that if no
drivers pertaining to an earlier OS are shown as being available, then no
drivers will be available for the particular model from the HP web site..

Perhaps you would like to explain to me where MS' involvement in that
statement starts and ends?

There are models available that are still supplied with XP, but they are
included in the 'business' section, and will not be widely available through
major stores.

Typical MS response!!!! Because HP do provide the drivers if you explain
to them that companies don't want new operating systems because their core
business systems will not run on it without serious modifications. Which
doesn't make it cost effective to change.

When will Bill gates get that into his brain?????

--


Mike Hall
MS MVP Windows Shell/User
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/