changing OS from windows vista to xp

kumaran kaliyannan

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Sep 30, 2013
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Hi friends

My laptop is compaq presario c700 which has windows vista home premium as operating system. It has too much of dll errors and its performance is very dull. So i decided to change/reinstall OS. As i dont have windows vista backup or original cd i opted to install windows xp pro.

I need little assistance here
Can i install xp on a vista laptop as it is downgrading, if i do so where can i get drivers.

Thanks.
 
Solution
To install XP you would first have to remove Vista to get around the downgrading restriction.
However, that's somewhat academic because XP is not supported on the Presario C700.
HP do not have XP drivers for it. Getting a set of XP drivers from elsewhere that actually work would involve many hours of searching and hair-pulling, and no guarantee that you would be able to find them all.

You should have checked the HP website to see what drivers they had before you installed XP.

HP may be able to supply you with a set of Vista recovery discs so contact them. There should be contact details on their website.
To install XP you would first have to remove Vista to get around the downgrading restriction.
However, that's somewhat academic because XP is not supported on the Presario C700.
HP do not have XP drivers for it. Getting a set of XP drivers from elsewhere that actually work would involve many hours of searching and hair-pulling, and no guarantee that you would be able to find them all.

You should have checked the HP website to see what drivers they had before you installed XP.

HP may be able to supply you with a set of Vista recovery discs so contact them. There should be contact details on their website.
 
Solution
That laptop only has Vista drivers for it from Compaq, I would not change it over to XP as you could have non-functioning software.
Just contact Compaq/HP to get a set of restore disks for the laptop and re-install Vista. Run all of the updates for it, install the latest drivers from Compaq/HP support site.
 


That's more or less what I posted, mate. Thanks for backing me up though. Perhaps some thread-starters don't believe us unless they hear the same from somebody else? Makes sense.
 
The correct answer is yes, you can install XP on this laptop. The chipset manufacturers always have reference drivers that the pc assembler doesn't post on its site. I found the XP reference drivers for the chipsets for this laptop in less than 10 minutes.

 


Then how about posting the link here for the benefit of the thread starter if you really want to help?
In any case, reference drivers are not necessarily going to work since most laptops need custom drivers to match the custom hardware, and only the laptop manufacture has those, not the board or chipset manufacturer.
 
I find reference drivers failing to function to be a rare problem. I have never run into it in my own experience. Computer manufacturers aren't in the business of making more work for for themselves and usually leave them as is, or something close to it. If it doesn't work, you just go back to vista. Not like its going to explode or trigger a nuclear launch, if it doesn't work.

I didn't post additional help for a reason. This particular task does require some skill. A person with those skills will not require the links to be spoon fed to him. If he does, then he should reconsider if he is really up to the task. Finding the drivers is the easy part.