Compaq.....vista to xp....

Gf got herself a compaq presario SR5113WM . She hates vista so I wiped the drive and put on xp. Now comes the fun part of hunting drivers for it. I checked the website, they only offer drivers for vista. I know they are out there, question is where??

 

Well, google is your friend here. First hit, and it happens to be HP at that. For others considering installing XP, you could be voiding your warranty, at least dualboot until it is over. http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service...47626+1200188750676+28353475&threadId=1188924

 

I did google the heck out of it, and msn, and just for whatever reason missed it. Thank You Much. With so many hateing vista, you would think most major companies would offer drivers for thoes going back to xp.

 

Lucky you tym, sometimes there are no drivers at all written for XP. The basic reason companies don't this is money as the market isn't that big, but who knows as HP wrote new drivers for my bottom of the line printer and scanner.

 

Oh please dont let this come out wrong. I do apreciate your help, tons. Myself I have helped countless others in other forums for years. I just humbly suggest dont respond with the word "google". Most will google what they are looking for before asking. Sometimes they just miss it, sometimes the information is to geeky to understand. Again, not flaming, just one geek to another and a friendly suggestion. Myself, I would of just done a copy and paste of the link or links, told the user to try that and let me know how it worked out. Just makes it easier, and makes me look a bit smarter than I am.

Sorry if I upset or offended you. Not my intention, just a gripe of mine, "google it", ranks right up there with "thats a dumb question". No such thing as a dumb question, In fact I love the simple questions, they take no time to respond to, and hey, its how we all learn. Sorry if I upset ya.

 

Normally, I would agree with the google comment, although on a subject such as this, sometimes thats the only real answer that can be given.

 

Are you staying with XP or are you returning back to Vista? Vista is actually a really good OS. It needs to use more RAM than XP, so that should be a consideration. There are more helpful tools and utilities included and it is actually safer than XP.
It does take some getting used to. I wasn't sure about it when I first got my Vista machine but gave it a good trial and found that I really like it. What I considered odd and troublesome seems more streamlined and sensible, especially when I hop back on my wife's XP machine.

If you decide to stay with XP, let us know what drivers you are missing (Check in device manager. Those with yellow ? or ! are the ones that need to be dealt with)

To check to see exactly what hardware you have, use Everest. You should be able to track drivers down for XP, using search terms with the device, XP, and driver.
Everest: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

 

No her computer is forsure gonna stay with xp. I agree vista is not a bad os. Just takes a bit more computer than what she has.


Another question I hope you all can help with. I have it up and running. Drivers installed and thank you all tons for that. Now there is another small problem I wanna get rid of. Open up my computer and it shows 4 removiable devices. Want to get rid of thoes not sure how ?? I believe this cheep machine has a card reader and its showing as removable drives. Unsure.

 

1. Uninstall the media reader.
2. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/hide-drives-from-your-computer-in-windows-vista/

Not sure why someone would want to disable a media reader though. To each their own, of course.

 

Figured it out. Have to treat removable devices as hardware. So disable or stop the hardware with "safley remove hardware" in xp. Once thats done then you go to device manager and disable it. In this case, usb mass storage. Once disabled, reboot, icons and all that gone everything is fine. To get to device manager right click on your "my computer icon". Properties.....hardware....device manager......find it and disable only by right clicking on the name in the device manager. Do not uninstall or windows will just reinstall it for you.