Downgrading Vista to XP

[dood gone krazee]

I just got a new laptop for Christmas. Really nice keyboard awesome RAM, but ohey look it's Vista.

I have the XP installation disks and want to downgrade my laptop to XP. Anyone have tips/advice/how to/don'ts?

[EnR]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

I don't have any tips but it should be called "upgrading" instead of downgrading. Hehe.

[dood gone krazee]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

I don't have any tips but it should be called "upgrading" instead of downgrading. Hehe.

Yeah haha. Well it has 1Gb of RAM and I still have yet to test it on FFR since for some reason it won't connect to the WiFi at my house, but since most people with Vista have problems unless they have like 2Gb of RAM, I'm assuming I need to go to XP.

[OrganisM]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Your assumption is incorrect. Take it from a hardware pro.

Also, this. Unless you really need another tirade. Unlike most who dislike Vista, I actually have a clue what I'm talking about.

[ninjaKIWI]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

I suggest you don't, a lot of the newer laptops don't support drivers for XP.
And organism's post.

[MalDON]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Don't upgrade. All the hate towards vista comes right from the Apple marketing department. They put out tons of "reports" of bad driver support so they could then make tv ads referencing these claims.

Vista is loads more stable than XP even when running 1gb of ram. Fact is, you want more than 1gb of ram no matter what OS you have.

Biggest suggest would be to stick with vista and NOT upgrade to flash 10. Flash 10 causes FFR to lag on my desktop. My desktop doesn't lag with anything. Adobe just has some really bad code writers.

[OrganisM]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Adobe just has some really bad code writers.

Ain't that the truth? 4srs, Adobe Bridge makes a friend's Q9450-based desktop crash. Nothing else really does, just browsing with that turd.

[dood gone krazee]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Alright I'll stick with Vista.

Now if I could only figure out how to make it connect to my WiFi.

[OrganisM]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

As for your RAM, it's often times very easy to just unscrew a back panel and slap an extra stick of RAM in.

Now in terms of your wireless configuration, that could take more than a few questions to figure out.

[MalDON]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Make sure your wifi is turned on. A lot of laptops have a switch or button to disable it quickly to save battery life.

[fido123]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

I ****ing love you Organism. And I think I mention this in almost every computer thread, but more RAM does not always mean faster speeds. If you're running an IM service and lets say COD5, you're probably using ~1.7G of RAM. Now if you have 8G of RAM, you're still only using 1.7G. If you have 1G and you need to run the 1.7G, you're computer is going to start using your hardrive like RAM...which is slow like hell because it has to do a lot of physical moving, and sort though a lot of data. So when saying "My computer is gud", please also tell us the parts of the computer that actually make it go fast:

- CPU, include how many cores, cache, and clock speed (GHz)

- GPU [Video Card], Model, Brand (ATI or NVIDEA most likely), Cache, Cache Speed (DDR1,2,3)

- RAM, Model (DDR1,DDR2,DDR3), Speed (MHz)


Just please keep those basic things in mind, if we see you have a lot of RAM...it just tells us you have no shortage of it therefore you're computer isn't going to work like a terrible piece of crap. CPU, and GPU are more important. (GPU for games more-so)

[MalDON]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

I ****ing love you Organism. And I think I mention this in almost every computer thread, but more RAM does not always mean faster speeds. If you're running an IM service and lets say COD5, you're probably using ~1.7G of RAM. Now if you have 8G of RAM, you're still only using 1.7G. If you have 1G and you need to run the 1.7G, you're computer is going to start using your hardrive like RAM...which is slow like hell because it has to do a lot of physical moving, and sort though a lot of data. So when saying "My computer is gud", please also tell us the parts of the computer that actually make it go fast:

- CPU, include how many cores, cache, and clock speed (GHz)

- GPU [Video Card], Model, Brand (ATI or NVIDEA most likely), Cache, Cache Speed (DDR1,2,3)

- RAM, Model (DDR1,DDR2,DDR3), Speed (MHz)


Just please keep those basic things in mind, if we see you have a lot of RAM...it just tells us you have no shortage of it therefore you're computer isn't going to work like a terrible piece of crap. CPU, and GPU are more important. (GPU for games more-so)

Actually your computer will still use your HDD no matter how much ram you have. It all depends on necessity of the memory. If the OS decides that a block of ram hasn't been used in so long, it will move it to the HDD.

Things to keep in mind:
1. Clock timings on ram: They make marginal differences and are not worth the extra money.
2. Overclocking: Don't do it. It's not worth the increase of a few hundred MHz.
3. More ram is better. Sure you might only use up to 2 gigs, BUT, there's also shared video ram which isn't always correctly computed in Windows. The task manager may show 1.7 gigs of the ram being used, but 1 gig of that might be dedicated for video. The rest of the ram could quite possibly be cached on teh HDD. This is especially important on laptops. My computer has 1.5 gigs of shared video memory. Windows shows I am using 1.18 gigs of physical memory. My computer has 3 gigs of ram. However, because of my shared video ram and other windows components NOT computed in the memory bar, I only have 23 megs of ram free. So yes, having as much ram as you can is best. PS. 32bit OS's can go up to a max of 4 gigs well, 3.75ish).

CPU isn't always everything either, but it helps. Anything over 2.5GHz dual core should be fine.

Now, in terms of FFR. Flash has hardware support now which means you want to invest in a nice video card. Nothing fancy, just something better than the build on video. You can pick up a nice card for under 100 bucks from various online retailers. But make sure you do your homework, some online stores like to sell the lower end version of the card as if it was the higher end one. For example, you can get an 8800GTS for 89 bucks, BUT it only has 320 megs of ram. That kinda ruins the point of an 8800.

If you need help picking out parts or whatnot, feel free to ask me. I've built every computer in my house, so it's not like I'm a noob at this

[Adamaja456]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

since there are a few references to RAM here, id like to throw our a question. my macbook has 1GB of ram. the only games i play are ffr and sm so would it be beneficial to buy another GB or two of RAM or just stick with the 1GB that came with the laptop?

[EnR]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Adam: Misewell get another 1 gig stick, just for the hell of it, it's not like it's gonna make your comp worse.

[Tr44nc33]

Re: Downgrading Vista to XP

Stay with the 1GB RAM